Tart and Funky Saison - Tasting Notes

This is a beer I brewed in April 2016.  I set out to create a Saison with the level of complexity of Tired Hands Saison Hands.  If you haven't had it, Saison Hands is a lovely beer that has gotten more and more complex over time.  They age it in a large wood barrel (foeder) and seem to be developing their own house culture - the beer is pretty much a full on sour beer at this point.

I used a complex grainbill for this beer and pitched Saison Yeast along with lacto, bottle dregs from a Lambic, and small dose of the afore mentioned Saison Hands.  I then let the beer age on the yeast cake in a bucket fermenter for the next 15 months.

The time suited it well!

Happy to finally be tasting this thing.  Cheers!

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• It has a very potent earthy aroma along with some big overripe fruit smells.  Very rich.  No malt or hop character comes through.
• Appearance:
• Straw gold in color.  Fairly clear.  Pours with just a wisp of foam - head disappears completely almost immediately.  The bottle conditioning yeast are either really slow or I didn't provide enough priming sugar.
• Flavor:
• Prickly acidity up front.  After that I get earthy and fruity flavors which mirror the aroma.  Nice little bit of sourness in the finish - about what you'd expect from a Berliner Weisse.  It also has an interesting flavor that I'd kind of associate with pickles somehow - maybe a slight vinegar flavor (picked up the same thing from the Tired Hands beer I'd added so I assume that it contributed this component).  Doesn't sound pleasant but it's far enough in the background to just give an interesting additional dimension.  There is also a little bit of bready malt in the finish.
• Mouthfeel:
• Light-medium bodied.  Finish is very dry.  No astringency.  The combination of acidity and very dry finish make for a very crisp and refreshing beer.
• Overall:
• The level of complexity in this beer is very satisfying.  I feel like I could pass this off as a Lambic as easily as I could a Saison with all the flavors it brings to play.

Sour Blonde 2.2.1 & 3.2.1

It has been over 15 months since I brewed my last Sour Blonde.  The last two beers I brewed (2.1.1 and 3.1.1) used East Coast Yeast's Bug Farm and Dirty Dozen.  I'd like to see how these blends perform on a second pitch.  With that in mind I'll be brewing a double batch (12 gal) today to test this out.

I've decided to do a primary fermentation with a fruity Belgian yeast (Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II ) and a Lacto culture (WLP 672 Lactobacillus Brevis) for these batches rather than pitching directly onto the cake.  I'm going to leverage yeast and lacto that I used quite a bit last year.  I've been keeping the lacto in a gal jug at room temp and the yeast (which I last pulled off a beer in July 2016) in the fridge.  I fed them a bit of wort yesterday and they are showing good activity.  I've liked the level of acidity I've been able to get right from the start doing this primary method.  This way, even if I don't get much more than some interesting complexity from the cultures in secondary, I'll still have a product with some reasonable sourness.  I'm going to ferment at 85 F which hopefully will allow the lacto to develop reasonable sourness.

I'm going to skip hops with this batch to ensure the lacto is able to sour the batch.

I have some raw wheat I've been meaning to use for quite some time so I'll do a cereal mash with this beer.  I'll add this to a normal mash on completion and allow it 60 min to completely convert.  I'll mash high though to hopefully have a high SG going into secondary - I'll also be adding 1.5 lb of Maltodextrine (which will get me an extra 0.005 SG) to ensure this.

I assume this beer is going to get close to 1.000 like the previous beers have.  I'm going to shoot for an OG of 1.040 to get an ABV of around 5% with that in mind.

I currently have 7 batches of sour blonde going.  This will give me 9.  I'm going to start bottling some of these.  I'd like to have 12 going at any given time to provide some interesting blending options.  I haven't tasted the beers aged on these ECY cakes - if they seem to produce some interesting flavors maybe I'll brew up another batch for these after giving these batches a few months on them.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 8 lbs Pilsner Malt
• 2 lbs Light Munich
• 6 oz Acid Malt
• 1 lb 8 oz Maltodextrine
• Cereal Mash:
• 6 lb Unmalted Wheat
• 1 lb Pilsner Malt
• Hops:
• None
• Yeast:
• Primary Fermentation:
• Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II
• WLP 672 Lactobacillus Brevis
• 2.2.1 Secondary:
• ECY01 Bug Farm (Second Pitch)
• 3.2.1 Secondary:
• ECY 34 Dirty Dozen (Second Pitch)
• Water:
• 15 gal spring water
• 2 tsp CaCl

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 10 gal (Target 12 gal)
• Mash:
• Main Mash:
• 158 F for 60 min
• Cereal Mash:
• Step 1:  120 F for 15 min
• Step 2:  155 F for 20 min
• Step 3:  Boiled for 15 min
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temp:
• Primary:  85 F
• Secondary:  Ambient Basement Temp
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• 12 to 36 Months

Results:

• OG:
• 1.045 (Target 1.040)
• Efficiency:
• 65% (Target 68%) - Not factoring in the Maltodextrine
• FG:
• TBD (Target 1.004)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• TBD (90%)
• ABV:
• TBD (4.73%)

Brewing Notes:

• 8/19/17 - Made a starter using grain and fed the Yeast in three Mason Jars and gave a half gal to the lacto in a jug.  Kept the lacto warm using a heating pad.  Poured the gal beer that had been aging with the lacto into the two fermenters that I'll be using.  This beer is very sour - has a lemony character.
• 8/20/17 - Brewday - 2 PM to 7 PM Including Setup and Cleanup
• Cereal Mash:
• Heated about 2.5 gal of spring water up to 125 F on my turkey fryer
• Milled 1 lb of Pilsner Malt and 6 lbs of Raw Wheat into the pot.  Stirred well and it settled out to 120 F
• Let this sit for 15 min
• Heated up to 155 F - stirred frequently to avoid any scorching
• Let this sit for 20 min - by the end it was a bit sweet so at least some conversion occurred
• Brought this to a boil - had quite a bit of foam at first but this quickly subsided with a bit of stirring.

• Boiled for 15 min.  The mash stayed off the bottom with stirring necessary.  I ended up boiling all the free liquid out in this time.  The grain was soft and mushy by this point
• Heated up 7.5 gal of water to 170 F and cycled it through the mash tun, rims, and grant until everything was up to that heat.  Ended up with all 7.5 gal in the mash tun.
• Milled the remainder of the grain and added it to the mash tun along with the CaCl - stirred well to eliminate dough ball. 

• Cycled the RIMS for a couple min
• Added the cereal mash
• Cycled at about 2 quarts per minute for 60 min with the RIMS set to 158 F

• Heated the remaining 5 gal of spring water up to 180 F
• Fly sparged
• Started to heat the wort after collecting a couple gal - had it at a boil after collecting about 5 gal

• Only collected 12 gal or so - it is a really cloudy and starchy looking wort
• Boiled for 60 min
• Added Maltodextrine after the hot break cleared
• Added Irish Moss with about 10 min to go
• Added the wort chiller with 5 min left to go
• Chilled the beer down to 80 F
• Transferred into two fermenters (which already had about half a gal of sour beer in them)
• Only collected about 10 gal of wort rather than the target 12
• Measured the gravity as 1.045
• Topped the beers up with half a gal of spring water each to get a bit closer to 6 gal.  This should dilute it down to be a bit closer to 1.040
• Added the yeast starters from three mason jars and the lacto starter to each - after all of that I did end up with pretty close to 6 gal in each
• Moved this to the fermentation chamber set to 85 F.  I have a reptile heating pad setup in there to maintain that temperature
• 8/21/17 - Had very strong fermentation underway by this morning
• 8/23/17 - Bubbling in the airlock has stopped and there is no more krausen on the surface.  The fermentation produced a pretty strong nail polish aroma.  I took a sample of the beer and measured the gravity as 1.019.  No solvent-like flavors are present thankfully.  It has a slight fruit flavor and a bit of sourness.  I suspect the sourness is from the sour beer I added at the start rather than due to the lacto.  It has a very grainy flavor at this point.  I'm going to give it a couple more weeks before transferring it into secondary.
• 10/22/17 - Transferred Sour Blonde 3.2.1 onto my ECY Dirty Dozen yeast cake where I'd been aging Sour Blonde 3.1.1.  The beer measures 1.008 at this point.  It had formed a bubbly pellicle and has a rich fruity aroma.  It has developed a light sourness which is lemony and would be quite nice in a Berliner Weisse.  I am going to save this yeast cake.
• 11/4/17 - Transferred Sour Blonde 2.2.1 onto my ECY Bug Farm yeast cake which had previously been used for Sour Blonde 2.1.1.  The beer had formed a really bubbly pellicle like the other did.  I didn't sample this one assuming it's probably pretty close to what I got from 3.2.1.

Sour Blonde 2.2.1 Primary Fermenter with Belgian Yeast and Lacto Brevis

• 5/25/18 - Status Report:
• Sour Blonde 2.2.1 (Fermenter #8):
• Earthy and musty smelling.  Also get some overripe fruit
• Light gold in color. A little hazy with pellicle chunks floating in it.
• Quite sour with a bit of earthy funk in the finish.  Get a slight bit of bready malt.
• Medium light bodied and dry.  The sourness is almost pucker inducking
• This one has some bold flavors and a pretty profound sourness.  It isn't very complex at this point though
• Sour Blonde 3.2.1 (Fermenter #9)
• Cheesy and earthy funk.  A bit of overripe fruit as well
• Light gold and quite hazy
• Moderately sour with a bit of cheesy brett character.  Has a slight mineral flavor to it.  I get a bit of bready malt in the finish as well.
• Medium light in body and dry.  Slight prickly feeling in the mouth
• Some interesting flavors and aroma.  Not terribly bold but has a pretty pleasant complexity
• 6/3/18 - Used 0.5 gal Sour Blonde 3.2.1 in a Cherry Sour Blonde blend
• 8/24/19 - Status Report:
• Sour Blonde 2.2.1:
• Aroma:  Overripe fruit and earthy funk.  Pretty potent aroma
• Appearance:  Light gold and slightly cloudy
• Flavor:  Firm sourness along with earthy brett and fruit.  Also get a bit of malt coming through in the finish.  Fruit caries into the finish with the sourness and almost gives the impression of sweetness
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and dry.  Has a bit of bite in the finish
• Overall:  Bold flavors and quite a bit of complexity.  I think this one is very nice.
• Sour Blonde 3.2.1:
• Aroma:  Slightly fruity (overripe) with a bit of brett funk.  Maybe smells a bit like a white wine.
• Appearance:  Light gold and pretty clear
• Flavor:  Lightly sour with a fruity flavor and a bit of earthy brett character.  It has a bit of bready malt in the finish.
• Mouthfeel:  Light and dry.  Pretty smooth drinking.  Leaves the mouth kind of sticky somehow (or maybe that's due to how many beers I've tasted so far).
• Overall:  Nice bold flavors with a nice level of sourness and complexity

Lessons Learned:

1. This primary mix of yeast and lacto is quite nice even after not being used for over a year.  I think I'll try to use this more often.  I saved a mixed yeast cake that I'll pitch directly for future beers.