Chocolate Saison

Saison is a really interesting style. Like other farmhouse Belgian styles, there is a wide spread of interpretation and creativity involved. In addition, saison is a style that has morphed from a low gravity beer produced from what was available on the farm (wheat, spelt, barley), and fermented at whatever ambient summer temperature (upwards of 85-90 degrees), to the American interepretation of a highly spiced, high gravity Belgian ale. The description and guidelines from BJCP regarding the style are all over the place as well:

Vital Statistics:	OG: 1.048 – 1.065
IBUs: 20 – 35	FG: 1.002 – 1.012
SRM: 5 – 14	ABV: 5 – 7%

With a varience of 2% ABV, and more importantly, the SRM goes from medium golden straw, to a light amber, this beer can be all different things. However, as most good homebrewers and commercial brewers will tell, this beer is all about the YEAST. Since saison has become a more popular style, Wyeast and White Labs have released additional strains away from the classic Saison Dupont strain(3724 and 565 respectively). That particular strain is one of the most difficult to work with in order to get the most out of it. You can potentially attain 85+% attenuation from this strain, but it requires a lot of attention by the brewer in terms of wort make up (grain bill, mash temp, boil length), and fermentation temperature. I've used this strain twice with great success only on the second time when I reached nearly 90% attenuation without any additional yeast. It was only because I was able to hold it in the 80s for 2-3 weeks to finish it out.
All that said, as you can see from the title, this beer is going to take a much different track. While I'm still looking for the classic flavors of a saison, I'm also looking for the chocolate to come through along with the funk. Fantome and Jolly Pumpkin, two amazing breweries, both produce chocolate flavored saisons. Both also incorporate different levels of wild yeast and bacteria presence as well as mine will. My goals are: not nearly as high abv (around 6-6.5%), a light roast character supplimented by a solid chocolate flavor from cocoa powder (and possible cocoa nibs and other spices), very dry, estery but not overly so, and a complimentary funk character. I'll start out fermentation in the mid 60s and slowly move it up to 73, then 77-78 to finish it out before racking onto the Roselare.

Stats OG 1.064 FG IBU 22 ABV 6.2 % SRM 17

Specifics Boil Volume 7.5 gallons Batch Size 5.5 gallons Yeast Wyeast 3724, 3763 85% AA

Fermentables

% Weight	Weight (lbs)	Grain	Gravity Points	Color
67.4 %	8.00	Belgian Pils	36.7	2.6
25.3 %	3.00	American Soft White Wheat	15.7	1.5
4.2 %	0.50	Belgian CaraMunich	2.2	6.8
2.1 %	0.25	German Carafa	1.0	13.6
1.1 %	0.13	American Black Patent	0.5	11.4
	11.88		56.0

Hops

% Wt	Weight (oz)	Hop	Form	AA%	AAU	Boil Time		IBU
28.6 %	0.40	Magnum	Whole/Plug	14.1	5.6	60		19.2
71.4 %	.75	Saaz	Whole/Plug	3.5	3.5	5		2.4
	1.40							21.6

6/24/09: Brewed on a hot, sunny morning. No problems with runoff/manifold. Mashed at 148 for 90min, short vorlauf. Managed to get a huge spike in efficiency (was aiming for 1.057, got 1.064). Added 9oz of cocoa powder at flameout. Was quite the opaque mess going into the carboy. I'm a little concerned with the small amount of fat floating on the surface as I don't know the fat content of the cocoa. Picked up a bottle of Saison de Lente from The Bruery and I'll pitch the dregs from it into the beer tonight to get the Brett going early.
7/02/09: Took my first sample today. I'm impressed it's already down to 1.020! The flavor, however, leaves a lot to be desired. The saison esters are certainly coming through nice and spicy, but the cocoa powder is thick and chalky. I added some leftover cake from the Gose to give the Lacto a head start before I hit it with the Roselare. I'm hoping to get it down to 1.010 before racking.
7/11/09: Gravity at 1.010. Racked to secondary and added the Roselare and 4ea cinnamon sticks. Flavor is well, bad. It's astringent, has a slight tartness and is lacking the ester profile. The chocolate is vague, but there. I'll see where it goes but it's not showing a ton of promise at this point.
7/29/09: Took a small sample today. Flavor is progressing really nicely. There's a considerable amount of lactic twang taking hold and the cinnamon is blending in well. The astringency seems to be gone and the chocolate becoming more vague. I think this one will turn out well in several months. I may add some chocolate nibs in another month, but I'll be sure to update if/when I do.

Tangent: Soap Making

One hobby I picked up a few years ago when I was living in California working at a bakery (or I should say slaving at a bakery), was making soap. I have memories of my crazy Aunt making her own and giving it as gifts. My mom and I loved it and I think it's a great hobby to get into; it involves working with many different ingredients with different properties, it's slightly dangerous, and it keeps you from buying something else overpriced at the store. I choose the hot process method as it's much speedier and doesn't require you to dry/cure the soap out for weeks before use.
Here's a little primer for making soap using my process:
Using the web and books, you can find info on what quantities and percentages of certain vegetable oils to use. I keep notes on each recipe just like beer so I can reference it and how each soap turned out for further recipes.
Recipe for today:
13oz Pure (not extra virgin) Olive Oil
10oz Coconut Oil
7oz Safflower Oil
7oz Sesame Seed Oil
2oz Castor Oil
.75oz Lemongrass essential oil
152gm Sodium Hydroxide (lye)
12oz Water
-Disclaimer: Lye is pretty dangerous stuff to work with; I've only been burned with it as a dishwasher but never making soap. Just be careful and don't make soap with kids around.
1) First I mix up the lye and water by adding the lye to the measured water. Stir for about 30 seconds and then walk away. You'll see some smoke produced and a pretty caustic smell; make sure you have good ventilation. Return to the room in a few minutes and continue.
2) Measure out all your oils and either premelt the solid ones (coconut, shortening, most nut/veg butters) or melt them in your crock pot.
3) Warm up the rest of the oils in your stock pot with the setting on low (being sure all solid fats are melted), and stir in your lye solution being careful not to splash.
4) Use a hand held or burr blender and mix the solution moving around slowly until it becomes opaque and thickens like pudding. At this point, put a lid on crock pot and cook, stirring every so often for 1 hour. (always keep track of what utensils touch the lye solution/soap as they need to be cleaned thoroughly. Most folks claim you need a separate set of spoons and mixing utensils for making soap, but I don't bother)
5) Once the soap looks like it's separating, with the liquid glycerin floating on top, stir it back in. You'll notice it looks just like apple sauce in texture. Give it another 15-20min of cooking.
6) And now for the old-school method: pull some of the soap out with a spoon and cool it off. Touch a little to your bottom lip and taste it: if it burns or really stings, continue to cook. If it just tastes like soap, it's done.
7) Let your soap cool for a 10-15min and then add essential oils and any other additions (oatmeal, flaxseed, sesame seeds etc) and pour or scoop into a mold. I use my utensil organizer as a mold lined with wax paper (or parchment if you have it).
8) Give it a good 24-48hrs and pull it out. At this point you can slice your soap and use it but I find if you slice it and let it cure for another couple weeks it will be harder and will last longer.
Give it a shot, make up your own recipe, it's great fun and a very useful skill. I haven't bought soap in over 4 years and have enjoyed the variety and quality of homemade all vegetable oil soaps.

Links:
Supplies
Lye Calculator
Basic Instructions

Poll Results: Saison it is!

So after hoping saison wouldn't win in the poll (and voting several times for the braggot), it looks like a last ditched effort to push it over the edge happened. I'm still not quite sure how I want to go about it, so I'll open up this posts' comments to advice on what direction to take. So far, I've ordered some basic malts (Pils, Munich, Caramunich) and Wyeast 3724; and I have Magnum and Saaz hops to use. My thoughts are to keep it fairly low in gravity (OG of 1.055-1.060), keep fermentation lowish for a saison (mid to upper 70s), IBUs 15-25 and pitch the Roselare cake into secondary. I'll still mash low enough for the 3724 to get it to at least 1.020 but ferment on the cool side so the esters don't get out of control and clash with the funk. The only other ideas I had for this are 1)fruit and 2)oak. Both very much in balance and in the background, but enough to provide some more complexity and interest.
Bring on the ideas! I plan to brew next Wednesday; taking today off to enjoy not hauling around massive amounts of boiling water.

SOFB Score Sheet

Well, I finally got back my score sheet for the Cream ale I entered a couple months ago. I was really pleased with how it turned out and felt pretty confident it fit the style despite a couple changes I made to Jamil's recipe. Both score sheets/judges gave me a 32 overall, which I'm pretty happy with (I later found out a wheat, blonde and kolsch placed in the style; no cream ales). The comments, however, leave a bit to be desired. I've only judged a couple competitions, but I've learned a lot of judges vary in how much feedback they leave. Both my score sheets, aside from be horribly written, are pretty sparse. Okay, so light hybrids are a difficult style in that they should be very clean and minimally flavored, but they could have written something more helpful in terms of improving it.
The only comments that gave me "advice" were: "somewhat sweet for style" and "malt balance to be heavy, making it not light and refreshing enough" and "more corn would distinguish it for style". I was told there was some cardboard as well which is a little interesting; and some noted flavors/aromas that have hinted at its current Brett infection (I've noticed bottles between obvious brett presence to light Belgian fruitiness).
I've had very few commercial cream ales, but it seems judges want some that slaps them in the face with corn as it's the common detractor. I guess I find the comments to be a bit concerning because they are trying to interpret the guidelines differently as in they want more corn, yet the style says "A low to moderate corny flavor from corn adjuncts is commonly found, as is some DMS. Finish can vary from somewhat dry to faintly sweet from the corn, malt, and sugar."
My vital stats are all in style, but I guess it was too sweet/malty for style....
Perhaps I'm just slamming them too much, but I hoped more for this beer. Well, back to the drawing board.

Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz

Surly Brewing Co. is one of those breweries that just loves to do things outside the box. They take a base style of beer and put their own spin on it. For example, an IPA with Scottish malt; a brown ale with oats, Belgian and British malts; an Oktoberfest with tons of hops and rye malt; and a Baltic porter with smoked malt. I've had the fortune to try a few, and have yet to be let down with the quality and creativity of their beers. The one that has really hit me was Coffee Bender. It is their American Brown ale with cold steeped, locally roasted coffee added. Now, coffee stouts and porters are common place, but something as low gravity and minimally roasty as a brown ale with coffee? That's new to me. It's flavor profile was exceptionally creamy, with the distinct, bitterless coffee flavor, and a mildly roasty, biscuity finish.
From what Surly tells us, it is a 5.5% abv brown ale with Belgian and British malts and oats. They use cold steeped coffee for 24hrs in the beer (at what process in the brewing, I don't know). I was really inspired to brew up something similar, and just based my recipe off of Jamil's American Brown recipe with the eventual addition of coffee. I plan to get this kegged within a month or so.

Stats OG 1.046 FG 1.011 IBU 43 ABV SRM 20

Specifics Boil Volume 7.5 gallons Batch Size 5.5 gallons Yeast WLP011 72% AA

Fermentables

% Weight	Weight (lbs)	Grain	Gravity Points	Color
85.7 %	9.00	American Two-row Pale	43.6	2.9
4.8 %	0.50	American Crystal 40L	2.2	3.6
4.8 %	0.50	British Chocolate	2.2	43.2
2.4 %	0.25	American Crystal 60L	1.1	2.7
2.4 %	0.25	American Victory	1.1	1.1
	10.50		50.3

Hops

% Wt	Weight (oz)	Hop	Form	AA%	AAU	Boil Time	Utilization	IBU
71.4 %	1.25	Centennial	Whole/Plug	9.0	11.3	60	0.260	39.8
28.6 %	0.50	Centennial	Whole/Plug	9.0	4.5	5	0.052	3.2
	1.75							43.0

06/08/09: Brewed today with more problems. Efficiency took another dive to something in the high 60s, I had issues with my manifold coming undone during sparge and then not getting enough wort out so I had to top off with water. On the plus side, fermentation got going real quick and is happily blowing off this morning. I'm hoping to reach the low 70s for attenuation.
06/17/09: Brew is down to 1.011, so I reached 76% attenuation interestingly. Flavor is fantastic, tons of toasted bread and a touch of chocolate. Coffee will do wonders for this beer. Still haven't decided the method on coffee addition, but I'll deal with that when one of the kegs kicks.
06/25/09: Kegged up beer and put together 32oz of water and .5# Vienna light roast coffee from Whole Foods to add tomorrow morning.

Gose, An Enlightenment

A month or so ago, I got together with out barrel group (we need a real pack name) at Rustico Restaurant in Alexandria and they had Leipziger Gose on tap. Having never had a gose and knowing a couple details about it, I had to try it. It was this wonderful, low gravity wheat based german ale with flavors of coriander, some light savoriness (from the salt), and a touch of lactic funk. Aside from a Berliner weisse, it was such a refreshing beer, and one I was determind to brew.
I searched as much as I could on the web to find out the ingredients, fermentation, and how to make the perfect gose. The problem was, there's no definite example that defines the style and so I had to go on others' advice to make up my recipe. What I determined from all the recipes and advice I got was that a gose is essentially a cross between a witbier and a Berliner weise. It is: wheat based (at least 50% or greater), around 3.5-5% abv, spiced with coriander and salt, has a varying amount of lactic character (though more restrained than a Berliner) and a fairly clean fermentation profile (as opposed to a German Heffe).
What I had to determine was: how much lactic acid, how much coriander and salt, and what type of fermentation profile. Well, I ended up taking some advice, and also taking it into my own interpretation. I ended up using both a lactic culture (saved from the Berliner), Brettanomyces Clausenii (from another beer), and a clean American Hefeweizen yeast. I also decided to do a no-boil, double decoction to both "save" time and expand my brewing experience. Anyway, here's the recipe:

Stats OG 1.050 FG 1.010 IBU 5 ABV 5.2% SRM 6

Specifics Boil Volume 6 gallons Batch Size 5.5 gallons Yeast Wyeast 5335, US05, WLP320, Wyeast 5151 80% AA

Fermentables

% Weight	Weight (lbs)	Grain	Gravity Points	Color
36.4 %	4.00	American Pils	19.6	1.3
45.5 %	5.00	American Soft White Wheat	26.5	2.5
9.1 %	1.00	American Munich (Light)	4.4	1.8
9.1 %	1.00	Flaked Oats	4.4	0.4
	11.00		54.9

Hops

% Wt	Weight (oz)	Hop	Form	AA%	AAU	Boil Time	Utilization	IBU
100.0 %	1.25	Saaz	Whole/Plug	3.2	4.0	MH	0.083	4.5
	1.25							4.5

6/3/09: Brewed a bit after racking my Mango Spice beer. Ended up doing a double decoction, meeting rests: 135 (10min), 150 (40min), 158 (5min). The last I wasn't able to get to a mash out. I boiled each decoction for 10-15min. 1oz of Penzey's Coriander (whole, ground to a powder with my Vitamix) added at the sanitation heatup of the wort.
6/17/09: Nice thin pellicle starting to form. Very streaky in appearance, pretty cool. Gravity down to 1.010 (79% AA). The flavor is simply amazing, the mingling of lactic and brett with a great bready finish. The coriander plays in there as well and I think the salt addition will add some nice savoriness. I can't wait to keg it up!
7/02/09: Kegged about 4.5gal and bottled 2gal. The keg got 16 grams of kosher salt while the bottles got 11 grams. Didn't taste either so we'll see how they go. Final gravity still hovering around 1.010.