Saison with Motueka & Calypso hops

[kchomebrew]

Decided to make a Saison to be ready by early/mid March in time for Spring. I've got some remaining amounts of Motueka and Calypso on hand, as well as some Vanguard for bittering. Figuring the lemon/lime/peach/pear notes will work well with the spicy noble hoppiness of the Vanguard. I am splitting into 5 gal batches and will do a mix of 3711/3724 in one batch and 3726 in the other. I'll also keep these right around 70F for the ferment. I know a lot of folks say to go higher with the temps, but it's the dead of winter and I don't have a heating belt, etc. So these will stay on the first floor for a few months and I'll give them ample time to ferment out.

Pre-boil kettle vol: 14gal
Final Vol.: 11.28gal
Efficiency: 90%
Assumed OG: 1.060
Assumed FG: 1.008/1.009
Assumed SRM: 4
Assumed IBUs: 35

HLT - 2 tsp gypsum and campden tablet
1.25 qt/lb grist ratio - 7 gal. strike water, 9.5 gal. sparge water
- mash / protein rest 122F for 15m / rest 150F 85m / mahout 168F /sparge -
10 lb (47.6%) Belgian Pils (Castle)
7 lb (33.3%) Belgian Pale (Castle)
1 lb (4.8%) Flaked Wheat
1 lb (4.8%) Flaked Barley
1 lb (4.8%) Flaked Maize
- 90m Boil -
1 oz Vanguard - 90m
1 oz Vanguard - 60m
1 lb Belgian Candi Sugar - 15m
1 tsp Irish Moss/1 Whirfloc - 15m
1 oz Motueka - 5m
2 oz Calypso - 5m
1 oz Motueka - whirlpool - 20m @ 180F
2 oz Calypso - whirlpool - 20m @180F

Will chill to 65F and pitch yeast. May or may not dry hop, depending. If I do dry hop, will likely do mix of citra and amarillo. Brewing this tomorrow.

 

[kchomebrew]

Completes the brew today. OG hit target at 1.060.

Photo is my neighbor doing the manual labor.

 

[ahurd110]

Nice. I've really enjoyed Motueka when I've used it in the past. This sounds like it will be tasty. Curious to hear how the yeast affects things.

 

[kchomebrew]

Forgot to mention I did a 122F protein rest on the mash for 15m and then 150F rest for 85m. Pretty much what I do for all my saisons I brew.

Fermentation is well under way. The 3726 is really aggressive right now and the 3711/3724 mix is a bit less active but still doing fine. Ambient in the room is about 66F and each fermenter is reading about 72F at the moment. I have them sitting next to the furnace in my basement which is probably the most consistently warm area during the winter and it should get warmer in the next few days since it's been in the 50's recently but dropped into the teens today (furnace should run more frequently and expect it to be around 70F consistently next to it). Basement itself, away from the furnace, is at about 63F for 10 months out of the year ( lucky me for general fermentation). Here's the best photos I could get with it being so dark.

 

[BHowe]

I understand the general idea for the protein rest, however, why would you bother with it with the flaked grains only accounting for such a small percentage?

I want to say Palmer only recommended this for bills containing over 25%........

Just curious as I'm about to knock out a saison myself with about 8% rye and wheat.

 

[RonPopeil]

protein rest will make the beer clearer. helps prevent chill haze. some malts need it if you use large quantities. some malts benefit from it like german malts. I think most people do them when decocting but more as an aside since boiling your mash and returning it to your sweet liquor is going to raise the temperature of the liquor.

 

[kchomebrew]

I find the body and head retention i get with the protein rest works well. Infact I've received gold medals and nice judging comments on the body and head retention with similar unmalted grain bills on Saisons I've made ( less than 20%). I know the thought is that modified malt will lose body and head retention if you do a protein rest and that I'm potentially losing body that could be gained from the base malt. That hasn't been the case for me on the Saisons where i use a protein rest. All that said, I don't protein rest on any other style or on Saisons where there is not unmalted grains.

I'd say give it a shot and see what happens. Sounds like you are using a good amount of unmalted additions. Works well on 10 to 15% unmalted grain batches for me. Best of luck !

 

[kchomebrew]

A brief update here. So I purchased a Foxx Equipment Brewers Heating Pad to help with the saison fermentations. I'm real pleased with this item. I've basically put half of the carboy for the 3724/3711 batch on the pad and the 3726 batch carboy has about a 1/4 of it touching the pad. The 3724/3711 batch is maintaining right at 78/80F and the 3726 is right at 72F. I can tell this heat pad is built very well also. It's solid plastic and notes it's flame retardant, which makes me feel comfortable about it. Anyway, I'm getting close to primary fermentation being completed on these and then will transfer to the secondary to condition for a about a month. After that, I'll bottle half of each batch as is and then add some Brett B to the bottles for the other half of all the batches. I read an article on The Mad Fermentationist blog about using Brett B for bottle conditioning - as follows: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2012/08/bottle-conditioning-with-brett-belgian.html

So it says about 10 drops to a 12 oz. bottle and 20 drops for a 22oz/750ml. After that, I'll probably let the brett bottles sit for at least 3 mo. So we're talking min. June 2014 for the first sampling of the brett batches.

 

[kchomebrew]

Took gravity readings. 3711/3724 batch is at 1.008 and the 3726 batch is at 1.002. Surprising that the 3726 batch dropped more quickly than the one with 3711. 3726 batch seems lighter in color and has a very tropical fruity spicy Belgian nose and taste to it. 3711/3724 batch is pretty much similar to 3724 aroma flavor I've tried. Seems like the 3711 got out competed in the batch. Interesting. And the fact it's at 1.008 is in line with 3724 ferments I've done in the past.

 

[kchomebrew]

So I plan to bottle all of these batches and half the bottles I will add Brett B. Any suggestions on how much I should add ? I'm thinking 10-20 drops/1ml for bomber/750ml bottles ? I don't want any bottle bombs, but I believe once the FG on these batches (one is at 1.002 other at 1.008 last I checked) are under 1.005 it ought to be ok to add Brett to the bottles. Any suggestions or ideas are welcome if you've done this before. Thx.

 

[kchomebrew]

Bottled the 3726 batch tonight. Half as is and half with Brett B added into the bottles with a medicine dropped. Used 10 drops for 12oz bottles and 20 drops for 22oz and 30 for the 750ml.

Took gravity on the 3711/3724 mix batch and it's at 1.005. Going to wait another week to see if the gravity drops further and then will bottle that one same as the 3726.

 

[BHowe]

Just following up on the saison I mentioned doing without a protein rest. It has decent head retention and lacing, but still lacking. I will incorporate the protein rest next time for sure...

In other news the Belle Saison dry yeast is a monster.

 

[kchomebrew]

Bottled the 3724/3711 batch today. Half as is and half with Brett B added to the bottles. FG was 1.005.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[kchomebrew]

Alright. Just posting to say that I've resisted trying to crack open any of the Brett B batches until at least April 23rd'ish since I bottled on 1/23. I read that Boulevard Saison Brett doesn't fully develop from the bottle inoculations until 3 months out. Sigh. Hard to do with 2 full cases of nice saison sitting there.

 

[bolus14]

Any follow up on the non Brett bottles? I just bottled a Motueka/El Dorado Saison and now have the 1 - 2 week waiting game to play. I'm wondering if you pick up any of the Motueka or Calypso in yours, at bottling time I really didn't get either from the samples I tasted?

 

[kchomebrew]

Yeah. Non Brett turned out okay. Definitely motueka and calypso are prominent. If I could go back and do this again I would have used way less Belgian Pale malt (like 10-15%). What ended up happening is I feel like the base of the beer is more like a Belgian pale ale at this point. With the hop stand use of motueka and calypso, the hops are noticeable and the beer has a fruitiness to it (I think the calypso was most prominent). Recently entered this one and one of the judges actually commented that he was curious to know what yeast I used because he was impressed with the fruitiness displayed in the aroma and flavor. But, both judges commented this would be better placed in 16B rather than 16C. I attribute this to the excessive use of the Belgian Pale Malt and the beer not being dry enough.

With all that in mind, I am interested to see how the Brett version turns out. It's quite possible the Brett changes this beer and drys it out and makes it something totally different. So we will see !


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Early8]

Still waiting to hear how they all turned out. I am tempted to do an all Motueka Saison, although I do have some Calypso on hand as well. Looking forward to full report once you have tried them all.