Two brews for this weekend, first up a Saison using 3726 (Farmhouse ale). My first dabble with Belgian Funk.
5kg marris otter
0.5kg munich
0.5kg wheat
0.75kg sugar
Hallertauer hops @ 60 min
Styrian Goldings @ 1min
hoping to come in at 1.062 finishing at 1.008 if I can, high fermentation temp and lowish mash temp sound like the key.
Secondly a summer ale
5.5kg Marris Otter
Sauvin @ 60min
Motueka @ 20, 5, 0min
US 05
That Saison sounds a lot like Jamil Zainasheff's recipe which I tried recently. It's in the bottle now and tasted absolutely amazing at bottling time. I can't wait to try it in a couple of weeks' time. I started the fermentation off at 20 degrees then racked it up to 28 after about 4 days. FG came out at somewhere between 1.008 and 1.009.
Yeah, I had a listen to Jamil's recipe, sounds like good advice. The grain bill is roughly the same but I can't remember what hops he suggested. Did you use the farmhouse ale yeast as well for your saison.
To be honest I don't really know what a Saison is but I do like the look of that recipe. How important is the farmhouse yeast in this? I've got a packet of Wyeast 3787 which is the Westmalle Trappist strain. Would it be suitable?
I'm no expert on the matter but I think you'd be able to make something very drinkable with that yeast. From what I understand you want it to be really attenuative to make a nice dry crisp finish with not too much hop or malt flavour dominating. A bit like Orval maybe, which is a trappist beer but quite dry, so the styles aren't a million miles apart I would guess.
I used the French Saison (3711PC) strain from Wyeast, which was a seasonal special. It gave a nice funky clovey character, and although it fermented out very well it didn't leave the beer hollow or astringent. It looked horrific while fermenting though - lots of lumps floating within the wort!
Not sure what the Westmalle Trappist would do. I suspect it might struggle to ferment down as well as the Saison strain, leaving the beer a bit sweeter. It is a damn fine grain bill though, so I expect it'll turn out good whatever you ferment it with.
Irish Stout - 3rd brew with this recipe! (well, actually someone added 52g of Pacific Gem instead of 28g - giving the last batch an IBU of around 75 - so we're brewing the same recipe sans hops and combining the two to bring it back down to ~37 IBU)
BIAB infusion mash at 65c for 90 mins, only a 20 min boil, no-chill.
Combining the two batches together then spiliting up and using S-05 on one, and the yeast-cake from the Irish Red (Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale) on the other; should be interesting!
Yep!
Yes, do it!
Yes, used S-05 for the last batch; came out fantastic, and we ended up winning best beer overall at the Uni homebrew club competition 3 weeks back. It was likened to Harringtons Clydesdale stout, which I have but haven't tried yet, but won best-in-class at BeerNZ.
Fermented around 17, it was a little slow towards the end, so I racked it into a carboy and let it drop from around 1.020 to 1.012 over another two weeks. Ended up spot on FG. Bottled with about 60g of dextrose, it hit its strides about 5 weeks in.
No, I'd do the same!