Monday, April 30, 2012

Recipe: Antiquated Ambush (Sour Saison)

I originally brewed this recipe 2 months ago.  It turned out really well, very tasty, but it is going so quick.  I diverted a gallon of the first batch to a glass jug that I hit with Brett to bulk age for awhile, and then bottled in mostly 750ml champagne bottles, which gives me 3 tulip fills per bottle.  Needless to say, we are flying through the first batch with those large bottles.  I took a bottle into the home brew shop and had them try it out, and got really good feedback on it.  I have been wanting more of it, so I set out to brew another batch of it with some twists.  Seeing as I still have the yeast, the bittering hops, and the left over .5 oz of Hallertauer and Saphir from the first brew, it will only cost me around $13 for the three malts and an oz of Bobek.  Not bad for 5.5 gallons of wonderfully tasty beer.


On this iteration I did change a few things.  First, I did a step mash instead of a single infusion; on the first edition, I did 147*F, for this one I am doing 70 minutes at 144*F and 20 mins at 157*F (which I missed) to target a very fermentable wort that still has some body to it.  This will also up the efficiency some (I assume), so I accounted for that as well.  Second, I pushed the flavor hops back from 15 minutes to 25 to get more flavor from them.  Lastly, I upped the fermentation temp 2*F to 77 this go round, and fermented for 4 weeks opposed to the 75*F for 7 days on the last one (yes, only one week from boil to bottle).  I also ended up diverting 3/4 gallon on day one that I hit with Lacto, Pedio, and Brett, and added this back at bottling time for a sour Saison.  My hope is for this beer to be slightly dryer, sour and funky with a little more hop flavor, and a little more head retention.
________________________________________
Saison
5.75 gallons
18 IBUs
4 SRM
5.3 ABV
________________________________________
3.5# GW Pale Malt
3.5# Weyermann Pilsner Malt
1.5# German Dark Wheat
Batch Sparge
45 minute rest @ 144*F (infuse w/ 13q 155*F water)
20 minute rest @ 148*F (infuse w/ 4q boiling water)
80% Efficiency (hit 86%)
________________________________________
90 minute boil
40 mins    0.4oz    Nugget                       15.0%AA
25 mins    0.6oz    Styrian Bobek             3.8%AA
0   mins    0.4oz    Styrian Bobek             3.8%AA
0   mins    0.5oz    German Saphir           3.8%AA
0   mins    0.5oz    Hallertauer Mittelfruh   4.6%AA
________________________________________
3/8 tsp   Gypsum - Mash
3/8 tsp   Calcium Chloride - Mash
3/8 tsp   Gypsum - Boil
3/8 tsp   Calcium Chloride - Boil
1 tab      Whirfloc 12 minutes
1/4 tsp   Yeast Nutrient 12 minutes
________________________________________
Chill to 68*F
1.5L Starter WY 3726 Farmhouse Ale (kept from previous batch)
77*F for 14 days
Ambient for 7 days
Bottle with 5.5 oz Dextrose for 2.8 vols CO2 @ 72*F for 14 days
________________________________________ 
OG  1.043
FG   1.003


Brewday went well; my attempt at a step mash failed though, my 144 mash temp hit perfect, but I lost 5*F over 45 minutes, and when I added the boiling water to bring it up to 158*F, I got 148*F, so this should be quite fermentable, but hopefully not thin.  Had my second stuck sparge which helped to boost the efficiency up to 86% giving me a final gravity of 1.049.  I diverted half a gallon off into 3 750ml bottles for Brett and Sour starters, and filled the carboy to 5.0 gallons.  I then topped off with 0.7 gallons of preboiled water and took it to 1.043 OG.  After aerating for 15 minutes I added the yeast slurry from the starter.  The wort and yeast were churning up a storm after 2.5 hours.  That night I took 3/4 gallons off with the auto-siphon during ferment to avoid a blow off and added sour dregs to the gallon jug I transferred to for a little fun funk.  Krausen was good by next morning.  By Monday morning fermentation appears to be complete and the Krausen seems to be falling back in.


3 weeks:  A pellicle has formed atop the beer in primary confirming my sneaking suspicions that the yeast had gotten infected with the same wild strain that infected my previous batches.


4 weeks:  Bottled the beer up by lowering the carbonation to 2.1 vols, and adding back in the 3/4 gallon of beer I had drawn off on day 1 and added the bug/Brett blend to.  Bug/Brett blend shows nice acidity and slight funk, both finished at 1.003 so I am not too worried about bottle bombs.  Set ferm chamber to 74*F for priming (1 week), then will move out to garage to sit ambient to finish carbing and to sour and funk up more.

No comments:

Post a Comment