Pleuvoir Saison

I wanted to re-use yeast.  This is something we've never done, we've talked about doing this, but always figured it posed too big a risk to the beer.  Contamination, extra storage, extra time ... always seemed too much trouble.  I caught a old spaghetti's jar worth of yeast from Random Ass Wit brewed back in April.  I was a bit chicken to re-use the yeast on Beleaguered Wit so I decided to use fresh yeast (we now have a plethora of Wit Yeast if anyone in the Houston Area needs some).  Brewing another wit seemed like overkill and I was reading on the net where wit yeasts could be used as a substitute in the saison style ... opportunity strikes!

I read around the net for saison recipes, inspiration mainly from here and here.  Brewday morning we (Von and I) went to the Sugar Land farmer market and came across a pint of very ripe figs which looked perfect for a brew.  That along with a couple of ripe pears given to us by Von's mom made for a good fruit addition.  This set the recipe:



I began the yeast starter the day before brewday:  ideally this would be a few days longer.  The re-used yeasts looked good, smelled o.k... what the heck.  1/2 cup DME to 1 L of water, boil, add re-used yeast (careful not to add the very bottom portion which had a bits of something, probably hop pellets).  It took off well:

 Brew day went awesome.  Jeff and Tim came down to help as well as a friend from Canada, Alyaz who had landed that day in Houston for some training.  We finished the Random Ass Wit and started the Beleagured Wit.  We also had some good fun an a suprisingly cool and not supprsingly rainy July Houston Day.

 

Mashed at 130F for 20 min Protein Rest, 90 min for the Sacc Rest, and 15 min at 164 F for mash-out.  Used propane flame to increase temperature with a slow stir around the side to keep the heat uniform (false bottom at the base.)

Sparged 7 gallons of wort with sparge water at 180 F.  Sparged 7 gallons over 40 min.  Had some trouble maintaining liquid level in the mash-tun but not too bad.

Measured hops a bit more carefully in than in previous batches.  These hop additions should get within target BTU's.

I did say cool Houston day right?  We flowed wort at a mass rate just enough to get flow so that ~ 84 F was the best we could get.  We also had our typical geeky heat exchanger argument (Jeff's right, moving of on).  We were close enough for r the yeast pitch (honorary international yeast pitch done by Alyaz):

One cool thing we did was use the final runnings of the sparge (about a gallon) to boil the cubbed figs and pears.  After cooling in ice the mixture was purreed and added to wort with about 20 min left in the boil.  Inspiration for the idea here:

 The figs oozed sugars and perhaps 0.9 lbs were charged instead of the 1 lb :)

 The puree somewhat thick and smelled awesome.

Put the fermentor in the fermentation chamber at 68 F to cool to 72 F for two days then raised to 75 F.  FG was 1058 very close to the 1060 predicted.  Von also cooked and awesome dinner and we watched some awesome netflix.  Great time.

7/15/12:
Checked the IG (intermediate gravity, after primary).  Came in at 1012 which has been better attenuation than any of the recent batches.  I will not brew without a starter again hands down.  Its worth it, and the yeast recycle went well.  The beer tastes good, good flavor.  Still a bit hazy ... some yeasts settled in the hydrometer tube (sample taken from side port).  Harvested two jars of yeasts!  Stay tuned.

Beleagured Belgian Wit

Big Ass Beer Bash 2012 inspired the style selection for this beer:  Belgian Wit, the style for the 2013 competition.  Belgian Wit beers are good right?  I mean, who have you met that doesn't love Blue Moon (deep down we all know its good ... in moderation).  Seriously though, there are some great examples of this style.  The coriander in the beer can reduce anxiety (beer alone ain't bad either) and there is something almost memorizing about the hazy white color.  Also being from Kansas I appreciate all things wheat, and these brews use up to 50% unmalted wheat which is convenient (I actually obtained a fair bit of wheat on a recent Kansas trip Memorial Day weekend and will make use of some of the grains in an upcoming batch.)

The recipe is based on a cobbled together Boulevard Zon clone recipes on the net.  I should have been able to nail the hops as Boulevard provides their additions but the LHBS was out of Bravo so I used some Amarillo on hand (it's just bittering hops anyway).  I also put in some torrified wheat just to mix things up but mainly because of how cool that name is ... "torrified."  WPL410 Belgian Wit II was used for the yeast since I used  WPL400 in the previous batch. 



Also put in a undocumented but typical amount of coriander and lemon zest and about 10-15 basil leaves freshly picked at about 15 min left in the boil.

Brew Day went ok.  Had issues getting the mash temperatures with strike water and had to adjust with "flame on" the pot and ice.  The OG was 1048 which was ballpark close to the target 1052.  I went on the high-end of the style because of the unmalted grains just in case the mash didn't completely take.  The main issue on brew day was clogging the exchanger with some hop pellets and not being able to cool quickly.  Out of frustration and perhaps inspired by one-too-many homebrews - as well as a blind beer tasting on the side to determine which keg to order for a vacation for some whole-hoggers ... PBR won the lager selection - the wort was pored into the conical fermentor.  The fermentor was placed in the lagering fridge and filled with water to cool:  I do not recommend doing this in anyway shape or form.  The fridge was unplugged when (as) I did this.  This worked in a pinch and really hope to avoid doing this again.

Tasting...

Fast-forward thru racking to secondary and keg conditioning and we tasted the wit this Sunday. 

Aroma:
Good citrus and spice.  Not overwhelming but not sutle.  A hint of basil comes out too but would be hard to spot it if I didn't know it was in there.
 
Apperance:
More of a straw color than white but pretty close to what one would expect.  This extra strawy may be due to the torrified wheat, not sure.  Had a good unmalted wheat haze typical of these beers.  Good white lace head, fairly thin.  Some bubbles but haze masks most of those.

Taste:
Good citrus, lemon, organge spice, some basil if you think about it.  Good flavor at the start but first pints were a bit harsh at the end:  harsh as in "is that hop bitterness or astringent tannin I don't likey."  This mellowed out upon the 2nd pint (I'm told there was at least a 3rd).  I should have calculated the IBU to see this was out of style (~50 instead of 10-20).  I often overhop with pellets because something is lost (I read that in a Nice Armenian man's book, you may have read it too) and also because some hops can entrain and cake up on the top portion of the fermentor (same book).  May not have happened that way this time.  Hopefully, the hop bitterness might meld a bit upon aging.  This is not a compliant.  Hoppy wheat beers are what the cool kids are doing (here, here, also here ...) and this beer is totally drinkable and enjoyable, just not to style.  I'm starting to ramble now:  morale of the story, calculate IBUs and don't rush the recipe.

Mouthfeel:
A bit thin but not obviously thin.  This may be due to the higher alcohol beers that came before this one. 

Overall:
Very drinkable, very refreshing.  Sessionable but not the first choice to do so:  could mellow out with time.  Will probably enter in the Dixie Cup contest later this year for more feedback.  Pretty happy with the results.