Saison Brewday

I brewed the Saison recipe from Brewing Classic Styles last summer. It turned out very well. One of my best brews and closely resembling Saison DuPont, at least to my palette. The beer also tasted to me very similar to a hefeweissen but without so much of the banana overtones and sweet bready body. In any case I hope to duplicate my success, although I suspect the results of this one will be different, especially considering my temperature control issues.

Saison
3.25 gallon batch
6# 2oz Belgian Pils
0# 8oz Munich Malt
0# 8oz Wheat Malt
0# 8oz Cane Sugar
0# 1oz Caramunich 60L
--------
7# 11oz fermentables
(Only 6# 3oz in mash, add sugar during boil). 

1oz Hallertau, 4.3% AA, 60 mins
.5oz Hallertau, 4.3% AA, flameout

Brookline, MA water, with 1/2 tsp gypsum
1/2 tsp Irish moss @ 15 min

90 minute mash at 147F
90 minute boil to drive off DMS
Target pre-boil volume is 4.25 gallons

27 IBUs
Expected OG / FG: 1.065 / 1.004 at 70% efficiency

WLP56 - Belgian Saison I, start fermentation at 68F and allow to free rise over the course of 3-4 week primary to 80F or more.

7/28/12, 11:40am
Dough in with 2.25 gal at 158F. Ten minutes later the mash was right where I wanted it, at 147F. Aiming for a dry beer here.

1:10pm, added .96 gal boiling mash-out water.

2:20pm, boil started. Pre-boil OG was 1.049 at 4.25 gallons. (Including the sugar.) Approximately 70% efficiency, as I was hoping. If the final volume is 3.25 gal this will hit my target OG right on.

4:15pm, wort was around 100F. Placed in 70F basement to cool before transferring to fermenter and pitching, which I will probably do later this evening. My wort chiller still leaks at a few places. Extremely annoying.

7:00pm, transferred wort to plastic bucket and aerated. The wort was like 80F or so but I put the bucket into a bin filled with 65F water and some ice blocks. Pitched yeast. Got very slightly less than 3 gallons.

7/29/12, 6:45pm
No bubbling in the airlock yet, but clearly the pressure in the bucket is building up because the airlock is looking like bubbles will soon start coming. Also the wort is sitting in 68F water.

7/30/12, 4pm
I was getting really worried that something was wrong because there were no bubbles in the airlock. I opened the top of the bucket to see a thick krausen with lots of yeast on top. After I replaced the bucket and airlock there were lots of bubbles. There was probably an air leak somewhere. Anyway. the bucket is in a pool of 70F water. In a couple of days I will take the beer to a warmer place, like the attic or garage, for it to ferment at the warm temps necessary for it to completely finish with the right fruity / spicy mix.

7/31/12, 4pm
Active fermentation appears to have stopped or dramatically slowed. Moved fermenter and bin of water to the garage, where ambient temps are currently 75F. During the days the temps will likely go to the mid-80s and at night will be in the high-60s. At any rate I hope that the high temps will encourage the fussy saison yeast to complete fermentation. Last time I brewed this beer, for the first few days of fermentation I kept the fermenter in cool water and then took it out. The bucket sat in my apartment, which probably never went below 75F and during the afternoons probably went up to the 85F - 90F range as the sun came through the windows. The beer turned out well that time. I hope to repeat that success.

8/18/12
After three weeks of fermenting the gravity was down to 1.005. Great! The beer had a good estery smell but I detected a slightly sulfury quality which I hope will go away. Bottled with 2.6oz sugar. Got slightly less that 3 gallons. Collected some of the leftover yeast for use in an upcoming funky table saison, which I plan to ferment with WLP565 and Brettanomyces.