The intended purpose for this brew was something to age with Brett over the next few months. But I got such a low FG on my last saison (1.002), that I decided to have another crack at the same recipe. This time I omitted the simple sugar in the hopes of leaving a little more body in the beer. I also plan on using a slightly higher mash temperature to leave some more residual sugar in the beer. I’ll need something left in there for the brettanomyces.
I’m planning on bottling 6 or so bottles with just plain sugar and the rest of the batch will be racked to corny for aging with Brettanomyces Bruxellensis, available as WhiteLabs’ WLP650.
Recipe Specifications
Boil Size: 27.90 l
Post Boil Volume: 23.40 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 19.00 l
Bottling Volume: 17.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.058 SG
Estimated Color: 9.7 EBC
Estimated IBU: 27.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 71.1 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Ingredients
3.00 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent 1 –
5.175 kg Bohemian Pilsner Malt, Weyermann (4.0 EB Grain 2 87.0 %
0.476 kg Munich Malt (17.7 EBC) Grain 3 8.0 %
0.297 kg Wheat Malt, Bel (3.9 EBC) Grain 4 5.0 %
20 g East Kent Goldings [5.80 %] – Boil 60.0 Hop 5 17.0 IBUs
20 g Styrian Goldings [3.00 %] – Boil 60.0 mi Hop 6 8.8 IBUs
0.50 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 7 –
20 g Styrian Goldings [3.00 %] – Boil 10.0 mi Hop 8 1.8 IBUs
20 g Styrian Goldings [3.00 %] – Boil 0.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Belgian Saison I Ale (White Labs #WLP565 Yeast 10 –
1.0 pkg Belgian Saison II Yeast (White Labs #WLP Yeast 11 –
Mash Schedule: Bubbles’ Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 5.948 kg
Mash In Add 16.65 l of water at 71.2 C 65.0 C 60 min
Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 17.70l) of 77.0 C water
25/07/2015 – Mash temperature of 65.5C. Thankfully, an uneventful brew day, though chilling the wort took an absolute age, probably because I was chilling in the afternoon. OG was 1.056. Used hop bags for all additions and got over 20 litres into the fermenter.
02/08/2015 – Fermentation has been going pretty strong, but still the odd bubble coming from the airlock. Will leave another few days before racking. I want to get rid of as much yeast as possible before it goes into the keg for brett ageing. I’m keen to see what the higher mash temperature and the lack of simple sugar has done for the FG.
14/08/2015 – Racked to corny keg today and pitched a vial of Brettanomyces Bruxellensis. I mis-calculated on the amount of trub in the fermenter and bottled 5 x 500ml bottles, thinking I had more than enough left to fill the corny. A lapse in concentration while siphoning also resulted in me losing a bit more beer than intended. I’d say I only got about 16 litres into the keg. Seated the lid with some gas and left in the shed. Will probably leave this about 6-9 months before having a taste.
14/11/2015 – Comparison tasting between the “La Deluge” saison and one of the few bottles of the unbretted “Funkytown” saison. In comparison to the Funkytown, the Deluge is tart and fiercely alcoholic. But the most striking difference between the two is the clarity. The Funkytown is absolutely sparkling, whereas the Deluge is extremely hazy, though you’d expect that for a saison. The Funkytown has an alcohol presence, but it’s not as hot. I can’t explain the difference in the clarity – both beers got the same dose of Whirlfoc. The hotter alcohol in the Deluge can surely be attributed to the fact that there’s no simple sugar in the recipe. The Funkytown recipe has a slightly lower OG but it’s an all-malt beer. The Deluge has a considerable portion of corn sugar in the recipe. I will definitely be rebrewing the Deluge beer without corn sugar next summer.
23/01/2016 – The ‘clean’ version of this is absolutely wonderful. It hits so many of the descriptors in the BJCP style guidelines, it’s uncanny. Dry, fruity, spicy, malty, hoppy, highly carbonated. Sweet malt aroma but the flavour and mouthfeel confirms this beer as absolutely bone dry. Alcohol is prominent but perfectly balanced. This is one of the special, and all too rare, beers where I wonder at how lucky I was to have made something as good as this. I’m very excited about the brett aged portion of this batch.
08/10/2016 – I applied some gas to the corny in order to have a taste before I wasted a lot of time preparing bottles, priming sugar etc. I was extremely surprised to taste considerable tartness, in addition to the familiar brett funk. Though the sample was extremely cloudy so I figured it might just be the yeast that I was tasting. Had a nightmare with racking to the bottling bucket. I hadn’t figured on the beer already being quite carbonated. I kept losing suction the the siphon because there was so much foam in the keg, so I had to hastily sanitise my large auto siphon and use that. It wasn’t much good though, as I basically had to “pump” the beer to the bottling bucket. It might end up oxidised as a result. I got all my bottles filled, along with fresh yeast in the form of approximately 2g of US-05, but I’m worried about bottle bombs on this one. Particularly with the 4 regular 500ml bottles that I filled. I have the bottles in crates in the kitchen, and they’re well covered. If the hold out over the next week, I’ll be happy enough. Bottled with 131g of corn sugar (14 litres @ 3.2 vol). Got 1 x 1.5l, 4 x 500ml, 9 x 750ml champagne and 10 x 0.375 geuze bottle from the batch.
Bubbles Brews Beer! 