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HLRA · 04-18-2012, 05:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwarven_stout

I made a tea out of the flowers once. It's lightly floral and a little bitter. I've also have dandelion wine.

i like your base recipe. its close to alot of the saisons i've done.

do you think the bitterness of the dandelions would make you handicap your target IBU range at all?

HLRA · 04-24-2012, 03:51 PM

brewed this yesterday.
I like a wheatier saison, so i upped the wheat substantially from dwarven_stout's recipe.
i am hoping the lighter brew that results isnt lacking in malt to stand up to the dandelions.

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: WLP 568
Yeast Starter: 1500mL w/ stir plate
Batch Size (Gallons): 13
Original Gravity: 1.057
Final Gravity: 1.008
IBU: 25
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 6

Grain:
17.00 lb Rahr Pilsner (2.0 SRM)
3.00 lb Dingemans Munich (9.0 SRM)
9.00 lb Briess White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)

Hops:
1.25 oz Galena (13%) @60 min
0.50 oz Saaz (3.2% AA) @30 min
0.50 oz Saaz (3.2% AA) @15 min
0.50 oz Sorachi Ace (11.6% AA) @15
0.50 oz Saaz (3.2% AA) @flameout
0.50 oz Sorachi Ace (11.6% AA) @flameout

Yeast:
WLP 568 White Labs Belgian Saison Blend

Mash Schedule:
15 mins at 110F
slowly raised to 145F via additions of H2O around 175F over the course of 60 mins
then 1.5 gals of mash was decocted and returned at 176F to raise the temp to 150F where it was held for another hour

The yeast in this batch was harvested via pipette out of a starter from 04 Jul 2010 and stored in 25mL vials in the freezer since then (with a little glycerin added)
i used 4 vials in a 1200mL 1.040 starter that i had to make from mashing 100g white wheat and 55g pilsner + 25g priming sugar because i was out of DME.
after 2 days it was spiked with an additional 15g priming sugar and 30g table sugar in 300mL. at this point it was put on my newly constructed DIY stir plate for 24 hours.

i was kinda amazed it was still viable at almost 2 years in my crummy freezer. due to my skepticism on its viability, i drank some out of the starter before pitching. it tasted great, so in it went.

I plan to split out 5 or 6 gals of this batch into secondary and spike it with dandelions that have been steeped in hot water. havent decided yet how hot. probably not true pasteurization levels (175F), most likely 125F or so. as i mentioned in an earlier post I am going with dwarven_stout's levels at around 200 heads. yellow and white parts only.

this is bubbling away with a nice krausen at around 75F & 8 hrs after pitching, but I plan to raise it closer to 80F at around the 24 hr mark and hold it there for a few days.

and being new to all grain (this is about batch #6) I had never seen a stuck sparge before. will definitely be adding rice hulls to this recipe in the future.

lastly i am sure some of you are thinking Galena was an odd choice and you're probably right. but hey, sometimes you use what you have on hand and style be damned.

dwarven_stout · 05-01-2012, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HLRA

Mash Schedule:
15 mins at 110F
slowly raised to 145F via additions of H2O around 175F over the course of 60 mins
then 1.5 gals of mash was decocted and returned at 176F to raise the temp to 150F where it was held for another hour

Interesting. Is that meant to mimic the Dupont rising temp mash schedule?

Let me know how it turns out!

This year I'm skipping the fruit dehydrator step. I'm just picking the biggest dandelion heads I see and cutting off the yellow part with a knife and cutting board. The petals dry easily overnight, and I minimize both work and the amount of green and white bits in my petals.

HLRA · 05-02-2012, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Is that meant to mimic the Dupont rising temp mash schedule?

no really it was more of a function of me not having dialed in using the new mash tun (70 qt cooler) coupled with wanting to try a decoction.

i remember reading in places that a multi-step mash is better when you have a lot of wheat and figured I'd give it a try.
it took so long though. i doubt i will do it again unless i was really trying to replicate a bock or german beer where the multi step + decoction is considered historically to be part of making the style.

the decoction was kinda cool cause you get to see the mash progress up close. getting darker, starchy thickening phase, finally conversion.

cutting the petals first sounds like such a good idea. too bad i already have them all dried out and closed up.
to paraphrase warren miller: if you dont do it this year you'll just be one year older when you do.

gonna rack this today, so i should be able to report back soon on how it tastes.

HLRA · 05-04-2012, 06:02 AM

racked today out of primary.
gravity was at 1.017

nice spicy yeast thing going on. has an interesting light reddish hue... from the munich i guess.
filled two 6gals and one single gallon. might start experimenting with dandelion tea and the one gallon in a few weeks so look for an update.

HLRA · 09-04-2012, 09:40 PM

final report:
this turned out delicious.

sat in secondary at 82F for about 2 mos.
then we made a tea with the dandelions and the bottling sugar and then filtered out the dandelions before pouring it into the bottling bucket.

waited a few weeks and entered one in the preliminary round of the brooklyn wort contest ( brooklynwort.com ) and it was good enough to see my brother into the final round.

i made it through myself with a different saison, but i'd have to say the dandelion was pretty much a sure thing.
one of the nicest beers we'd ever brewed together.

too bad there isnt enough to enter in the final round ( you need to bring 5 gals )
and see if it really has what it takes.