Saison Boulevard Smokestack Series Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale Clone

Williams 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Just finished a 3.5gal biab tank 7 clone. Cooled & my carboy looks like this. Used a paint strainer bag during transfer. What have I got here? Any ideas? Thanks for any & all help.

image-4120634653.jpg
 
Looks like hop, break material and other trub from the kettle. I dont know if you do the biab method often but this is pretty much how all of mine look.
 
Thanks for the reply. I've only done a few biab & usually in a bucket where I wouldn't see this stuff. I'm assuming it will settle out & leave more than a gallon of beer? I thought straining it took care of this?
 
I've had some come out like that as well. Looks like wort to me. You can always transfer it off from the yeast to another carboy when it comes time to dry-hop it.
 
It'll become more compacted as the yeast flocs out, some of it might be grain particles that had made its way through the bag. Its nothing to worry about and is pretty normal with that process. Im not strictly a biab brewer so dont consider me the authority but Ive done enough to notice the same thing youre getting here.
 
Here's and email that I got from Boulevard.


Please forgive my delay in getting back to you. We brew fairly large batches of Tank 7 (as compared to a homebrew scale) so rather than providing an actual recipe, I'll share some malt percentages and hop information based on IBUs derived from each hop and at what time during the boil. Let me know if any of this doesn't make sense and I'd be happy to help some more.

Malts
Pale Malt 77.6%
Pre-gelatinized Corn Flakes 20%
Malted White Wheat 2.4%

We mash in at 63C and rest for 50 minutes. Heat up to 68C and rest for 25 minutes. Heat to 73C and rest for 15 minutes before mashing off at 75C.

Hops
Magnum 6.4 IBUs at 98C
Simcoe 7.1 IBUs at 15 minutes after beginning of boil
Amarillo 14.0 IBUs at 65 minutes after beginning of boil (or 5 minutes before end of boil)
Amarillo 9.6 IBUs in the whirlpool

We boil for 70 minutes so adjust these times accordingly based on the length of your boil. Target gravity at end of boil is 17.3 degrees Plato.

We cool the wort to 19C and pitch with our House Belgian Ale strain. We ferment at 21 C until we reach our final gravity of 2.2 degrees Plato.

Tank 7 is dry hopped with Amarillo at the rate of .078 kg per barrel two days out from filtration.

I hope you find this information useful. If you have any other questions feel free to contact me directly and I'd be happy to share any information I can. Happy brewing!
 
Great information to know. Also good to know, another member has stated that Boulevard informed him that they bottle T7 with champagne yeast so harvesting what's in the bottles will not get you that good yeast they use for fermenting.

GTG

Silentbob said:
Here's and email that I got from Boulevard.


Please forgive my delay in getting back to you. We brew fairly large batches of Tank 7 (as compared to a homebrew scale) so rather than providing an actual recipe, I'll share some malt percentages and hop information based on IBUs derived from each hop and at what time during the boil. Let me know if any of this doesn't make sense and I'd be happy to help some more.

Malts
Pale Malt 77.6%
Pre-gelatinized Corn Flakes 20%
Malted White Wheat 2.4%

We mash in at 63C and rest for 50 minutes. Heat up to 68C and rest for 25 minutes. Heat to 73C and rest for 15 minutes before mashing off at 75C.

Hops
Magnum 6.4 IBUs at 98C
Simcoe 7.1 IBUs at 15 minutes after beginning of boil
Amarillo 14.0 IBUs at 65 minutes after beginning of boil (or 5 minutes before end of boil)
Amarillo 9.6 IBUs in the whirlpool

We boil for 70 minutes so adjust these times accordingly based on the length of your boil. Target gravity at end of boil is 17.3 degrees Plato.

We cool the wort to 19C and pitch with our House Belgian Ale strain. We ferment at 21 C until we reach our final gravity of 2.2 degrees Plato.

Tank 7 is dry hopped with Amarillo at the rate of .078 kg per barrel two days out from filtration.

I hope you find this information useful. If you have any other questions feel free to contact me directly and I'd be happy to share any information I can. Happy brewing!
Click to expand...
 
GTG said:
Great information to know. Also good to know, another member has stated that Boulevard informed him that they bottle T7 with champagne yeast so harvesting what's in the bottles will not get you that good yeast they use for fermenting.

GTG
Click to expand...

Yep - I emailed them and they confirmed that they bottle condition with a different yeast.
 
Tried another clone of this last weekend. Pitched mine with wlp575 at 68 then raised to room temperature. So far it taste very close, but we will see.
 
GTG said:
Great information to know. Also good to know, another member has stated that Boulevard informed him that they bottle T7 with champagne yeast so harvesting what's in the bottles will not get you that good yeast they use for fermenting.

GTG
Click to expand...


Yeah... Honestly I think they're kinda shiesty for doing that. They claim bottle conditioning is "the right way to carbonate beer". I think they're trying to protect proprietary yeast strains.

I already tried one clone of this. The flavor was similar, but not quite there yet. Color was too pale and my hop flavors were more bitter than floral... that being said... its still freaking delicious.

I Reformulated my grain bill and matched my hop additions to match Boulevards IBUs and times. I'm gonna try French Saison yeast this time and I'll probably dry it out with some champagne yeast.

Ill post a report in a month or so. Cheers!
 
GTG - same yeasts for primary or same yeasts for bottle conditioning? i have a good starter of T7 dregs but if it is indeed ec1118 or some other champagne type i'll have to go get something more appropriate.
 
I would Pitch the White Labs Belgian Blend (WLP575) at 64 and slowly raise to low 70's. I keep my starters small, just enough to wake up the yeast. I've had great success with my clone attempts of Tank 7.
 
cacique said:
Just finished a 3.5gal biab tank 7 clone. Cooled & my carboy looks like this. Used a paint strainer bag during transfer. What have I got here? Any ideas? Thanks for any & all help.
Click to expand...

You have a bunch of protein flocs there. The high wheat content in the beer will produce more protein than in an all malt beer. Ideally you would leave this in the kettle when you chill it should fall out of suspension fairly quickly when the flocs are that large. Just give it a little extra time. You can also transfer to the fermenter and let it settle for a few hours and then transfer to another fermenter.
 
So the grains that are listed as percentages, what is the total weight to start with? Their isn't a standard weight of grain for beers so how do I use this information to start my all grain beer? I want to brew 7.5 gallons or so. What ever will fit in my 10 gallon coolers.
 
Amarillo 9.6 IBUs in the whirlpool
Click to expand...

This was posted a little while ago. This line doesn't make sense to me. How do you calculate that many IBU's from a whirlpool addition?
 
mcl said:
This was posted a little while ago. This line doesn't make sense to me. How do you calculate that many IBU's from a whirlpool addition?
Click to expand...

I'm building a recipe now based on the information provided and was thinking of putting the whirlpool adding in as a 5 minute boil in BeerSmith. For my 6 gallon recipe, 53 grams of Amarillo (8.5% AA) gave me 9.6 IBU.
 
Thanks for the reply. I guess I need to read up on how many IBU's are gained from whirlpool additions. I was under the impression it was negligible.
 
I think it really depends on the temperature during whirlpool. Commercial brewers whirlpool at Hugh temperatures for an extended period of time (sometimes 30-60 minutes) before chilling. If you assume that the wort temperature stays above 200 for a period of time, you're going to get some extraction. The difference in IBUs between a 1 minute boil and a 5 minute boil is pretty small. I believe once the the temp drops below 200, you're not adding IBUs, thus my back of the napkin justification for using a 5 minute boil to estimate the whirlpool IBUs.
 
I think my next brew will be a 12 gallon batch of Tank 7. I will split this into two batches. I'll pitch a saison yeast in both (probably 3724) but for one batch, I am going to secondary with brett B in order to achieve something along the lines of Saison Brett.

Thoughts?
 
jfrizzell said:
I think my next brew will be a 12 gallon batch of Tank 7. I will split this into two batches. I'll pitch a saison yeast in both (probably 3724) but for one batch, I am going to secondary with brett B in order to achieve something along the lines of Saison Brett.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

If you're going for Saison Brett, I'd recommend using Brett C. I spoke with Steven Pauwels a year or two ago, and he told me that they use a "commercial strain" but would not confirm my suspicion that they used Brett C. I'm pretty confident on that, though, and I've gotten a very similar brett profile pitching a pack of WLP645 in secondary.
 
Here is how my clone came out. Maybe need a little less hops on the front end and back end. Maybe add some whirfloc the last 15 minutes of boil.

image.jpg
 
Silentbob said:
Yeah... Honestly I think they're kinda shiesty for doing that. They claim bottle conditioning is "the right way to carbonate beer". I think they're trying to protect proprietary yeast strains.

I already tried one clone of this. The flavor was similar, but not quite there yet. Color was too pale and my hop flavors were more bitter than floral... that being said... its still freaking delicious.

I Reformulated my grain bill and matched my hop additions to match Boulevards IBUs and times. I'm gonna try French Saison yeast this time and I'll probably dry it out with some champagne yeast.

Ill post a report in a month or so. Cheers!
Click to expand...

If they're giving you the recipes, times and temps, I highly doubt they're too interested in the secret yeast strain. I suspect it has more to do with the inconsistency of the product. There is no way to measure or control the amount of yeast if you bottled the fermentation yeast. It will vary per batch and per bottle. This results in a ****ty product that isn't consistent. Some bottles might carb up like mad while others languish for days or weeks longer. Your variability will result in a whole lot of pissed of customers.

By filtering the yeast, then adding a precise and known quantity of bottling yeast you have a much more consistent product. You can use a poorly flocculating yeast for fermentation, but a highly flocculent yeast for bottling and you can know that each bottle will have the same amount of crap on the bottom of it.
 
Here is my attempt recipe at this clone based on the numbers I've seen

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Tank 7 Clone

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Saison
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 7.5 gallons
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.074
Final Gravity: 1.016
ABV (standard): 7.56%
IBU (tinseth): 37.25
SRM (morey): 6.27

FERMENTABLES:
12 lb - Pale Ale (77.9%)
3 lb - Flaked Corn (19.5%)
0.4 lb - White Wheat (2.6%)

HOPS:
0.2 oz - Magnum (AA 15) for 60 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil
0.21 oz - Simcoe (AA 12.7) for 45 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil
4 oz - Amarillo (AA 8.6) for 5 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil

MASH STEPS:
1) Sparge, Temp: 152 F, Time: 60 min

YEAST:
Wyeast - Belgian Saison 3724
Starter: No
Form: Liquid
Attenuation (avg): 78%
Flocculation: Low
Optimum Temperature: 70 F - 95 F

TARGET WATER PROFILE:
Profile Name: Kansas City, MO, USA
Ca2: 40
Mg2: 5
SO4: 174
Na: 58
Cl: 2
HCO3: 142
Water Notes:


Generated by Brewer's Friend - http://www.brewersfriend.com/
Date: 2012-11-08 17:12 UTC
Recipe Last Updated: 2012-11-08 17:04 UTC
 
Schumed said:
Here is my attempt recipe at this clone based on the numbers I've seen

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Tank 7 Clone

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Saison
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 7.5 gallons
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.074
Final Gravity: 1.016
ABV (standard): 7.56%
IBU (tinseth): 37.25
SRM (morey): 6.27

FERMENTABLES:
12 lb - Pale Ale (77.9%)
3 lb - Flaked Corn (19.5%)
0.4 lb - White Wheat (2.6%)

HOPS:
0.2 oz - Magnum (AA 15) for 60 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil
0.21 oz - Simcoe (AA 12.7) for 45 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil
4 oz - Amarillo (AA 8.6) for 5 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil

MASH STEPS:
1) Sparge, Temp: 152 F, Time: 60 min

YEAST:
Wyeast - Belgian Saison 3724
Starter: No
Form: Liquid
Attenuation (avg): 78%
Flocculation: Low
Optimum Temperature: 70 F - 95 F

TARGET WATER PROFILE:
Profile Name: Kansas City, MO, USA
Ca2: 40
Mg2: 5
SO4: 174
Na: 58
Cl: 2
HCO3: 142
Water Notes:


Generated by Brewer's Friend - http://www.brewersfriend.com/
Date: 2012-11-08 17:12 UTC
Recipe Last Updated: 2012-11-08 17:04 UTC
Click to expand...

.26oz Amarillo dry hopped after 1 week fermentation
 
Schumed said:
TARGET WATER PROFILE:
Profile Name: Kansas City, MO, USA
Ca2: 40
Mg2: 5
SO4: 174
Na: 58
Cl: 2
HCO3: 142
Water Notes
Click to expand...

The chloride for KC municipal water is 22. That is the 2011 average. I spoke with their director of water quality testing.
 
highgravitybacon said:
The chloride for KC municipal water is 22. That is the 2011 average. I spoke with their director of water quality testing.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah....anything else need to change?
 
Thanks for the recipe, I just tried the commercial example of this for the first time now that blvd is available in so cal and thought the flavors were delicious. My one qualm was that its too sweet, saisons should really finish out in the single digits. I would probably try the recipe with a lower mash to suit my preferences. Thanks again.
 
I'm drinking this right now. It was my first all grain. My efficiency was only around 55%, but it's still drinkable. I'm pleased with it. Transcribed the recipe from Beer Magazine a few months ago when I was in Afghanistan.
 
mpride1911 said:
I'm drinking this right now. It was my first all grain. My efficiency was only around 55%, but it's still drinkable. I'm pleased with it. Transcribed the recipe from Beer Magazine a few months ago when I was in Afghanistan.
Click to expand...

Was your recipe any different from the one in the thread?
 
My mash temp was off which is what lowered my efficiency. It was too low. I found out later that my digital thermometer is just garbage. Also I didn't use falconer's flight hops, as the store didn't have any and I chose something with a similar alpha.
 
Update

I tapped my keg...It wasn't completely carbed up and was room temp...
Mine is on the left...Color is pretty close....even closer in person...Once it cools down should clear up and be pretty damn close in color

Aroma I couldn't tell the difference...The Amarillo really comes through here

Flavor very similar but not sure a perfect clone...mine I think needs to condition some more...mine taste stronger but very tasty and refreshing....thinking my efficiency was higher than normal....

I used the Belgian Saison yeast from wyeast so guessing that has a lot to do with flavor too


Overall this will be gone quick and will probably do again

image-2893839236.jpg
 
What yeast and what was your fermentation like temp wise? It's a fair feat to clone this.

Save a few bottles for the KCBM competition.
 
I used the White Labs Farmhouse yeast and kept my carboy in a rubber maid tub covered in blankets next to my heater which kept the temp right around 70 throughout primary and secondary.
 
highgravitybacon said:
What yeast and what was your fermentation like temp wise? It's a fair feat to clone this.

Save a few bottles for the KCBM competition.
Click to expand...

I used 3724 Belgian Saison because that is what I had on hand at the time...

Fermented at 68 the first 48hours and slowly raised the temp over a few days to 76 for a few weeks.

I've heard the yeast to use to get the closest is the 3726 farmhouse ale

I like my version though...and I think its competition worthy....I will have a few entries for the KCBM comp
 
I used this recipe as a guide for brewing my first batch of homebrew ever. It was all-grain. :)

Everyone loved it. The homebrew shop guys loved it. I can't wait to brew more beer!!!

Changed things up a bit due to lack of Amarillo hops:
10.5# pale malt
3# corn
1.5# wheat malt
Hit all mashing temps on page one
Boiled with 1 oz Magnum pellets. 60min
OG = Unknown - didn't have a hydrometer
Wyeast #3726 Farmhouse
10 days in primary (wish I went longer) 1.025
Racked to secondary with 2 oz. whole Citra hops in a cloth bag.
13 days later went to Corne keg. Had to add a gallon of water to fill.
FG = 1.016
14 days on CO2 and had a beer like no other. Cheers!
 
For those that were wondering, I don't believe Saison Brett (which is phenomenal BTW) is fermented in primary with bret. Rather Boulevard adds it at bottling.
 

Similar threads

Rob2010SS
Amber Ale thoughts...
Replies
21
Views
2K
AmarikinBrew
AmarikinBrew
B
Recipe style.. American Lambic, Farmhouse Ale, or something else?
Replies
5
Views
958
hottpeper13
H
F
No Diacetyl Hazy Fermentation Schedule
Replies
4
Views
2K
Northern_Brewer
Northern_Brewer
H
Recipe help
Replies
2
Views
1K
Jag75
Jag75
Sammy86
Saison Old Country Ale (Lithuanian Farmhouse Ale)
Replies
25
Views
6K
Sammy86
Sammy86

Latest posts

Back
Top