Inspiration
This beer is the original recipe from my days at Mediamatic for their house Saison. When I made this, this was the best Saison I had brewed, so I knew I should try it again to see how close I could get to replicating it. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough 3711 Wyeast to ferment at the right pitching rate, so I opted for having it become a blend of 3726 slurry from I and II in this series. Also, I should have checked the fermentation temperatures on this recipe, originally meant to be in the low twenties. We're in the middle of a heat wave here in Amsterdam, so the lowest I could ferment was 25C - towards the upper limits of 3711.
Recipe
Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 16 liters
Original Gravity: 1.042
Final Gravity: 1.004
ABV (standard): 5%
Fermentables
Bohemian Pilsner 61.3%
Flaked Oats 22.6%
Bohemian Wheat 12.9%
Rye Malt 3.2%
Hops
5 g - Warrior, Type: Pellet Use: Boil for 60 min
21 g - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 6.9, Use: Boil for 10 min
103 g - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 6.9, Use: Whirlpool for 30 min at 85 °C
30 g - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 6.9, Use: Dry Hop for 2 days
Mash Guidelines
1) Infusion, Temp: 39 C, Time: 15 min
2) Infusion, Temp: 65 C, Time: 60 min
3) Infusion, Temp: 68 C, Time: 30 min
4) Sparge, Temp: 76 C, Time: 15 min
Yeast
3711 packet with roughly 50 billion cells
Wyeast Farmhouse Ale 3726, starter from slurry of previous batch
Water
Amsterdam Source + 6.5g Gypsum added to mash
Mash: 5.93 pH
Add: 3ml Lactic Acid = 5.52 pH
Pre-boil: 1.026
pH: 5.70
Add: 3ml Lactic Acid = 5.30 pH
Add: 2ml Lactic Acid = 5.01 pH
Post-Boil: 1.042
pH: 5.00
Post-Brewday Notes
Brewed 21/08/2020
Ideal Situation:
Primary Fermentation @ 70F (21C) until 1.020
Secondary Fermentation @77F (23C) for 7+ days
Prime w/ cane sugar to 3.2 vol CO2.
Reality:
Primary: 24-25C for first week
23C for following week
23/08/2020 @ 1.020
Tastes raw, is a beautiful light straw yellow color and very hazy. Bitterness present in the back. Really curious to see how this continues to ferment.
29/08/2020 @ 1.004
Tastes a lot closer to what I remember this beer tasting like when I made it at Mediamatic. The dryness provided by the 3711 has really helped cut through the sweetness that I've experienced with 3726 in its last two batches. Looking forward to seeing how much more this beer will dry, and how it tastes with a dry hop this week.
31/08/2020 @ 1.004
Dry-hopped
02/09/2020
Cold crash @ 15C
03/09/2020
Kegged 6L
Bottled 10 bottles @ 3.2 vol CO2
09/09/2020
Despite everything in this recipe going quite well in the process, I'm pretty disappointed with the result. The nose is subdued, with only a slight fruit and citrus aroma and a mild malty background. The flavour is very light,perceived as dry and finishing with an unwanted slightly rough/harsh bitterness. I would prefer to have much more character in this beer - elevated acidity and barnyard rustic Saison flavour - and for it to be less bitter. I've learnt through this beer something important: that if I use an ingredient (the Cascade hops from a 2018 harvest in this case) and am not excited about them when I first open the packet, I should use another hop instead. The most unfortunate part about this beer is that it tastes flabby and dead without a burst of a high quality dry-hop. I'm also basically uninterested in making anymore "clean" Saisons. All of my favorite commercial examples are made using a mixed fermentation. Moving forward, I may try and add something to this beer to salvage it. I tried a few things tonight and wasn't happy enough with any of them to move forward: I tried blending it with white wine, mango juice, raspberries and salt to try and increase the flavour complexity and to reduce the perceived bitterness. I'll wait another few days now to see how it develops and then make my next step.
04/04/2021
It's been a long time since I last drank this beer, but it ended up getting much better while in the bottle conditioning phase. It really started to taste the way that the Mediamatic beer used to be, only slightly less hoppy. I'll be brewing this recipe again to continue working on it in the future.