Amarillo Rye Saison

I've mentioned before that I have a messy history brewing saisons; I've often tried to use the style as a forum for weirdness before really figuring out the base beer. This summer's straightforward iteration was much more successful, though it may have suffered from some oxidation in the bottle. For my second batch of Reno-based homebrew, I continued my exploration of this fascinating, rustic beer.

The biggest influences on wort production were 1) the significant amount of Weyermann rye malt in my stores right now, and 2) an astonishingly good deal on Amarillo pellets at Reno Homebrewer, one of the local supply shops, right after we moved here. I've stuck with Wyeast's French Saison yeast over one of the Dupont strains. Dupont isn't my favourite example of the style and I really like how WY3711 tears right through a wort without fuss.

As an added bonus, it was on this batch that I finally checked the efficacy of my water bath method for stabilizing fermentation temperature. I've never been sure of the temperature differential between the water bath and what's going on in the fermenter during active fermentation. Thus, I didn't really know how much I

needed to drop the water bath temp to maintain my target fermentation temp. With the saison wort actively fermenting (just about high krauesen) in a glass carboy sitting in a ice chest water bath that only came halfway up the batch, the fermentation only ran a half a degree higher than the water bath itself. I'll definitely do more testing, but that's an informative first result.

The beer finished nice and dry--as expected with this yeast--and has been in the bottle for a few weeks now. As beer tends to do, it's evolved a bit over that time. Early on, the leading aromatic and flavour character was somewhat phenol-plastic; it wasn't terrible, but it definitely wasn't the best. That's begun to mellow a little, leaving room for a fruitier character to come through. My initial impression is that the Amarillo and rye (even at 30% of the grist) are not playing dominant roles; it's the yeast that still comes to the fore (see update below). If anything, some of the unpleasantness may have come from the interaction of these ingredients. It may be on the bright side for the cooling fall temperatures, but it helps me remember summer. Complete tasting notes coming soon.

My next saison will be a rebrew of my petit saison noir from a few winters ago, hopefully with the WLP566 I originally used. I don't really have any "house" yeast strains, especially for saisons, though I've really been pulling to get what I want out of WY3711. Based on this current batch, though, I may start to mess around with others to find my preferred mix of fermentation characters. Of course, if this beer continues to mature into something along the lines of my last saison, I may just stay put.

Update: It's hard to keep everything in mind all the time. As I'm sure many of you have, I now recall reading a pile of anecdotal information on the plastic-phenol bombs that can arise when combining Belgian yeasts with American hops. I'd forgotten all about that until yesterday, when I watched Nate Smith's 2014 NHC presentation on using new hop varieties, courtesy of the intrepid Chip Walton of Chop & Brew. I'm considering rebrewing this beer soon with more traditional continental hops--either Styrian Goldings or something noble--to contrast with the current batch and possibly restore my faith in WY3711.

On another note, I really like the concept Nate presented in his talk for doing split batches to compare hops. He produces a large batch (15 gallons) of base wort, then splits it post-boil, running 5 gallons at a time through a hop back with a different hop variety, then through a plate chiller to each fermenter. He then usually follows up with a dry hop that matches the hop back charge for each split. It's a great idea that easily scales for smaller test batches, but requires a couple pieces of equipment I lack. Worth ruminating on for the future...

Update 2: After some time in the bottle, this beer has really turned around for me. While the combination of Amarillo and spicy yeast still throws me a little, the plastic character is gone. Much more drinkable, thankfully! Notes on this beer and the rebrew coming soon.

Autumn Denial - Amarillo Rye Saison

Batch size: 4.5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.063
Projected SRM: 7.3
Projected IBU: 30.1
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 79%

Grains/Fermentables
60.0% - 6 lb Weyermann Organic Vienna
30.0% - 3 lb Weyermann Rye
10.0% - 1 lb Turbinado (10 min)

Hops
.5 oz Millennium (13.5%) (60 min)
.5 oz Amarillo (8.2%) (10 min)
1.5 oz Amarillo (dry hop - 5 days)

Yeast
WY3711 French Saison - 1.5L stirplate starter

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (10 min)

Water
Profile: Reno
1 g Gypsum
1 g CaCl
1 mL Lactic acid (88%)

Brewday: 27 September 2014
Mash: 12 qts @ 147F for 3 hours - dropped to 116F
Pre-boil volume: 6 gallons
Pre-boil SG (w/o turbinado): 11P (1.044)

Chilled to 74F. Yeast pitched a little over 24 hours after knockout, once starter flocc’d out. Aerated for 30 minutes before pitching.
Fermented in swamp cooler at 70F for 2 days, then raised 3F/day to 80F.

Dry hops: 14 October 2014
Added loose to primary.

Bottled: 20 October 2014
FG: 1.003
ABV: 7.9%
Bottled with 4.8 oz brown sugar.

Blonde Ale

Properly situated in our new digs, it was a happy day when the brewing kit finally came out. The first beer on the docket was a style that hadn't held much interest for me until recently. I've often passed over blonde ales for bolder, hoppier options like pale ales and IPAs. As I've cultivated an appreciation for the uncluttered flavours of pilsener and kolsch over the past year, though, blondes have found a place in my glass, prized for their bready notes and extreme drinkability. I'd hoped to brew this before the official change in season--this would definitely count as a lawnmower beer--but with the weather here still more summery than autumnal on brewday, it worked out just fine.

A blend of domestic 2-row and Vienna keep the colour light. I haven't used Palisade hops before, but the descriptors--floral, subtle apricot, grassy--are in line with the unobtrusive role they're set to play here. I've wanted to see how a single yeast strain behaves over successive batches for a while now, so the neutral Chico yeast seemed like it would serve the purposes of that experiment and this beer.

For the first product of the brewhouse's new location, this was definitely a success. It might actually be too restrained, but it has a long bready tail and is still pretty damned quaffable. It's a fast, easy, sessionable beer that's kept the fridge well stocked and helped us make new friends; it'd make a great house ale that would easily lend itself to experimentation. I imagine I might see this one again (or a variation of it) come next spring.

Summer Farewell

Batch size: 6 gallons
Projected OG: 1.044
Projected SRM: 3.5
Projected IBU: 16.9
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 91%

Grains
62.5% - 5 lb Malteurop 2-row
37.5% - 3 lb Weyermann Organic Vienna

Hops
.5 oz Palisade (7.8%) (60 min)
.5 oz Palisade (10 min)

Yeast
11.5 g US-05 (rehydrated)

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (0 min)

Water
Profile: Reno
1 g Epsom salts
1 g CaCl
1 mL Lactic acid (88%)

Brewday: 27 September 2014
Mash: 10 qts @ 154F for 105 minutes - dropped to 144F
1st sparge: 11 qts @ 212F (w/ .75 mL Lactic acid)
2nd sparge: 11 qts @ 190F (w/ .75 mL Lactic acid)
Pre-boil volume: 6.7 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 9.2P (1.037)

Chilled to 68F.
Fermented in swamp cooler at 62F.

4 October 2014: Activity slowed. Removed from swamp cooler & swirled a few times a day.

Bottled: 7 October 2014
FG: 1.008
ABV: 4.7%
Bottled with 5.1 oz table sugar.

Tasting: Three and a half months after brewing, it showed its age a bit...or perhaps just my poor handling later in the process. The good bottles were still crisp, crackery, and very drinkable.