I decided to make this a "Dark" Saison (my third Saison - read about the first and second) partially inspired by The Mad Fermentationist's series of beers and partially based on the fact that I had some homemade "Belgian Candi Syrup" on hand.
The Candi Syrup was made with ~2 lb of Raw Sugar, Citric acid (to invert the sugar) and Di-Ammonium Phosphate which promotes Maillard Reactions. I heated this up to 290 F. It produced a very dark syrup (too dark for my intended purpose of using it to back sweeten Flanders Red) and has a nice caramel, toasted marshmallow, dark fruit flavor. This will be responsible for transforming a light saison into a dark saison (will be the only dark component) and will also provide some easily fermentable sugars to dry out the beer. I think the flavors will compliment the yeast character as well.
For the grainbill I am using Pilsner malt along with quite a bit of flaked malt (oats, wheat, and rye). Flaked malts will be 50% of the grainbill. I hope these will provide some residual starch that the Brett in the blend can munch on for an extended secondary (I plan for 3 months). I will mash in the low 150s to help it dry out. I am shooting for a pretty high OG for this beer (1.061) which, if the beer attenuates as it should, would give me a pretty potent beer (>7% ABV).
The Mad Fermentationist's beers are typically aged on dried fruit. I will be aging mine on Raisins which should play well with the Candi syrup - these will be added in secondary.
I'm going to ferment as high as I can (hopefully low to mid 80s) to promote a fruity ester profile. I'll be using a reptile heating pad in my fermentation chamber to promote this. I plan to reuse this yeast cake multiple times - it will be interesting to see how it behaves at various temperatures and with different beers.
Recipe Details:
- Grain/Adjunct:
- 6 lb Pilsner malt
- 2 lb Flaked Wheat
- 2 lb Flaked Rye
- 2 lb Flaked Oats
- 3 oz Acid Malt
- 1.75 lb Dark Candi Syrup (home made)
- Hops:
- 1 oz Hallertau (Pellet, 4.1% AA) at 60 min
- Yeast:
- Bootleg Biology Mad Fermentationist Saison Blend
- Water:
- 10 gal spring water
- 1 tsp CaCl
- 1 tsp Gypsum
- 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min
- Extras:
- 23 oz Raisin
- 1 oz of 350 F Toasted Oak soaked in Cabernet
Process Details:
- Batch Size:
- 6 gal
- Mash:
- 151 F for 60 min
- Boil:
- 60 min
- Fermentation Temperature:
- 80 F
- Primary Duration:
- 4 weeks
- Secondary Duration:
- 3 Month
Results:
- OG:
- 1.061 (Target 1.061)
- Efficiency:
- 72% (Target 72%)
- FG:
- TBD (Target 1.004)
- Apparent Attenuation:
- TBD (Target 93%)
- ABV:
- TBD (Target 7.48%)
Brewing Notes:
- 3/18/18 - Brewday - 1:30 to 5:30- Including setup and cleanup
- Heated 10 gal of strike water to 180 F
- Added 3 gal to the mash tun. Settled out at 167 F
- Milled my grain. Added in the flaked grains and 1 tsp of CaCl as well as 1 tsp Gypsum
- Added the grain to the mash tun - stirred well. The mash was a bit thick so I added 1 additional gal of water. The temperature settled to 151 F
- Mashed for 60 min
- Heated 6 gal of strike water up to 200 F
- Fly sparged. Collected 8 gal of 11 brix wort
- Started heating during the sparge. Had it to a boil 10 min after completing the sparge
- Boiled for 60 min
- Added hops after the hot break cleared
- Added Irish Moss with 20 min left int he boil
- Poured in my Candi Syrup with 15 min left. Had to fill the jar with hot wort a few times to clean it all out
- Added the wort chiller with 5 min left to let it sanitize
- Chilled the beer to 90 F
- Transferred to a bucket fermenter. Let the wort fall a couple feet to aerate.
- Poured in the yeast/bacteria culture during the transfer
- Collected 6 gal of beer. Measured the gravity as 1.061 - right on target.
- Moved the fermenter to the chest freezer with a reptile heater that will let the beer get up to 90 F
- 3/20/18 - Took a while but the airlock is finally showing some activity. The beer is fermenting in the high 70s/low 80s.
- 3/25/18 - Moved the beer out of the warmed fermentation chamber. It will age at ambient basement temps (high 50's currently).
- 5/5/18 - Transfered to secondary as follows:
- Sauteed 23 oz of raisins until they had caramelized and then deglazed the pan using port wine. Put these in the glass carboy I'll be using to secondary the beer
- Added 1 oz of oak that I'd toasted at 350 F and soaked in Cabernet for 6 months
- Transferred the beer on top of these
- Measured the gravity of the beer as 1.002. It has little yeast character and a pretty strong alcohol component. No brett or acidity to the beer so far.
Lessons Learned:
- I enjoy fly sparging with my current setup. It feels like a much more controlled way to collect wort than the batch sparging method (collect until the desired pre-boil volume is hit). I typically run out of water before the fly sparge completes which is the one slight annoyance. I think I might be better off having a lot more sparge water than I need (10-15 gal) and then saving the water for the next brew day
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