RECIPE: #65 Enygma (Mystery Saison)

Stepping up yeast from plate

If you haven't caught on yet, I love to play with odd yeasts.  I have dabbled with culturing my own wild yeasts with great results.  I pulled together 6 different Brett strains to add to a Saison.  I cultured Cascade's Lacto.  I will be culturing and isolating more wild yeast come the end of summer as the local fruits will be ready to go.  For this batch I used a yeast that another brewer had cultured from the local air in Ashburn, VA.  His name is Jasper, and he just recently started selling his yeasts.  If you don't recognize his name, he is the man behind the Lost Rhino Brewing and Paleo Quest Bone Duster collaboration Pale Ale fermented with wild yeast that Jasper isolated from fossilized whale bones.  He sent me an agar plate containing his Saison strain and 2 Brett strains.  He stated via email that "JY43 is a tart Saison yeast from the air in ashburn. Can be sulfury, and dries stuff out pretty hard core."

The yeast isn't the only mystery in this beer.  The hops I used are multiple unknown varieties grown semi-wild that I picked last year.  A brewer used to live at the house.  It was purchased by another person who lets them grow on the corner of the lot on the fence where they all intertwine into one another.  No one knows what the individual varieties are, but I do know there are more than 2 different varietals in that cluster of bines.  I picked a pound (dried) of cones, and decided to use them in this Saison.  Could be spicy, could be fruity, could be dank, could be pithy, could be floral, could be a blend of all of these.  We shall see.  I split this batch with a German Hefe and Berlinerweisse, so the grist is wheat heavy.

Due to the mysterious nature of the yeast and hops in this beer, I named it Enygma, a name I have wanted to use for awhile now.  Part of the mystery... the yeast that is supposed to finish super dry bottomed out at 1.012 but the same mash and wort made a Hefe that terminated at 1.006.  Still fairly dry though.

___________________________

Lots of Lupulin left post-boil

Stats:      

Gallons:  5.50

OG:  1.047

FG:  1.012         

ABV:  4.6%

IBUs:  ?

SRM:  4.0

Efficiency: 87.5%

__________________________

Fermentables:

3.0# White Wheat Malt (37.4%)

3.0# Weyermann Pilsner (37.4%)

2.0# Wheat Malt, Dark (25.2%)

Mash 10 hours @ 150

___________________________

Boil:  75 mins

60 mins 0.50 oz  Magnum  16.40%AA
25 mins 1.50 oz  Mystery Hop  ?%AA
10 mins 1.50 oz  Mystery Hop  ?%AA
 WP 35  2.00 oz  Mystery Hop  ?%AA
Dry Hop 2.00 oz  Mystery Hop ?%AA

___________________________

OG 1.047

Kettle Additions:

Gypsum - Mash 1/8 tsp; Sparge 7/8 tsp
Epsom Salts - Mash 1/8 tsp; Sparge 1/4 tsp

Calcium Chloride - Mash 1/2 tsp; Sparge 5/8 tsp

Pickling Lime - Mash 1/8 tsp

Lactic Acid - Mash 0.9 ml; Sparge 0.6 ml

Yeast Nutrient 4 taps
Whirfloc 1 tab

___________________________

Fermentation:

Cooled to: 70*F

JY43 Jasper Yeast Saison (plate to 10ml, 150ml, 1000ml)

70*F 2 days

72*F 2 days

74*F 2 days

78*F 2 days

68*F 11 days
Ambient Garage 3 days on Dry hops

___________________________

Notes:

Lots of Mystery hops in this batch

6/20-21 Brewed alone.  Mashed all the grains for this beer along with the Hefe and Berliner altogether; doughed in around 9:30pm, wrapped in heated blanket and sleeping bag for the night.  Second burner broke so I had to scramble, borrowed in-law's camp stove.  By 8am the temp had dropped to 138*F.  Took a long time to get 11 gallons of sparge water to 165*F on the camp stove.  Sparged and collected 17.5 gallons of wort into one kettle.  Split off 7 gallons via pump for this beer to my secondary kettle, then commenced with single boil at same time as others.  Added hops for a 35 minute hops stand at flame out.  Chilled to 70*F.  Racked via pump into a Better Bottle.  Decanted week old starter wort and pitched yeast.


Fermentation started within a matter of hours (2), full active fermentation by bed time.

Mere hours after pitching

6/22  2:24 am woke up and wondered what was going on with the beer.  Lots of krausen, rocking away, this yeast is a beast.  6am and starting to creep up to the neck, added Fermcap-S to control the krausen.  

6/23 Bumped up to 72*F.

6/25 Bumped to 74*F.

6/27 Bumped to 78*F to finish strong.

6/28 Gravity at 1.013, tart, light spice, light fruit, funk, sulfur.

6/29 Dropped temps down to 68*F (for Kolsch yeast on Berlinerweisse).

7/9 Kegged with dry hops at ambient temp.

7/10 Washed out yeast from Better Bottle and it smells like straight-up Orange Julius, OJ & Banana.

7/12 Moved to fridge to cool and carbonate.