It's Saison! (finally...)

Hi All!

Well this week has been a busy one for me.
I kegged the Light Lager and a Pale Ale, racked the Strawberry Wedding White Sparkling Ale
into the secondary and added some strawberries and 3/4 of a lb of raw honey. Fermentation has picked up again!

And today I managed to bottle the Saison I brewed last November! The raw beer tasted great...see the recipe below (under the pics)

I thought that I would have written about the new brewing resource on this post, but I changed my mind. That review is pending the outcome of my next brew session which will be my Dusseldorf Alt.

Make sure you read the recipe notes if you try this one out. They are most important to insure your success!

Here's some pics of today's bottling of the Saison.......enjoy!


Here's the carboy of Saison about to get racked and bottled:

Here's a shot showing my bottle tree:

Checking the Final Gravity with the Hydrometer:

Looks like 1.006 to me! Fantastic!

After checking the FG, I pour the raw beer into my offical tasting glass.

Here's what it looks like:

 

Racking the beer into the bottling bucket:

Closeup of the carboy and the bottling bucket.

Note the cork wedge being used to hold the autosiphon in position.

It's just a wine cork cut diagonally to form a simple wedge. You get 2 out of 1 cork!

 

  Here's the recipe: (please pay attention to the notes!)

Recipe: Saison Du Mont #2
Brewer: Ron Short
Brewed: 11/06/2009
Style: Saison
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (40.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 6.00 gal     
Boil Size: 9.18 gal
Estimated OG: 1.060 SG
Estimated Color: 8.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 22.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 76.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU     
6 lbs 8.0 oz  Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)             Grain        53.06 %      
2 lbs 12.0 oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)                     Grain        22.45 %      
8.0 oz        Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)              Grain        4.08 %       
4.0 oz        Crystal Xtra Dark Simpsons 160L (160.0 SRMGrain        2.04 %       
4.0 oz        Golden Naked Oats (10.0 SRM)              Grain        2.04 %       
0.25 oz       Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %]  (90 min)    Hops         4.7 IBU      
1.00 oz       Styrian Goldings [4.10 %]  (90 min)       Hops         15.3 IBU     
0.50 oz       Hallertauer [4.80 %]  (15 min)            Hops         2.4 IBU      
0.50 oz       Hallertauer [4.80 %]  (0 min)             Hops          -           
0.25 oz       Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 5.0 min)        Misc                      
0.25 oz       Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 5.0 min)         Misc                      
0.50 lb       Rice Hulls (Mash 60.0 min)                Misc                      
1.00 gm       Seeds of Paradise (Boil 5.0 min)          Misc                      
1.00 items    Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)          Misc                      
3.50 gm       Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 min)             Misc                      
16.0 oz       Honey (1.0 SRM)                           Sugar        8.16 %       
1 lbs         Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM)          Sugar        8.16 %       
2 Pkgs        Belgian Saison (Wyeast Labs #3724) [StarteYeast-Ale                 


Mash Schedule: 5 Gallon Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 10.25 lb
----------------------------
5 Gallon Batch Sparge
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp    
90 min        Mash In            Add 3.08 gal of water at 164.6 F    150.0 F      


Notes:
------
Add the honey at flame out with the flavor hops and spices. Big Brew Day 2009 recipe!

Brewed this today and left out all the spices to see what the yeast does. After researching this style, it has been learned that there are no spice additions and the yeast gives off the peppery spicy phenols. We'll see how it turns out.

Left in Primary for 4 weeks. Taste tested and the gravity was 1.020. Too sweet! Re-racked into a secondary and added 1 pkg of dry champagne yeast. Checked gravity again 4 weeks later and it was 1.010 and tasted much better. Left it in the secondary until today 01.21.2010.
Bottling this beer today and will check the FG and will do a taste test too. Lets hope it dried out some more! looking for a FG of 1.008.
FG came in @ 1.006 and the raw beer tasted great!

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Well...that's it for now....

feel free to leave any comments or questions...and remember..

Keep Brewing!

(_)3