Saison No. 4

Brew #: 30
Brew Date: September 07, 2013

Ingredients

2.0 lbs German Vienna malt

1.0 lb flaked wheat

0.5 lb flaked oats

12.0 oz sugar

6 lbs light dry malt extract
3.0 oz Vanguard (5.4% AA) hop pellets @ 60 min. (bittering)

0.75 oz. Styrian Goldings hop pellets @ 30 min.  (flavor)

0.75 oz Styrian Goldings hop pellets @ 5 min. (aroma + flavor)

1.0 oz Vanguard hops hop pellets @ 0 min. (aroma)

8.0 oz honey, @ 0 min.

0.5 oz dried sweet orange peel @ 0 min

0.25 tsp black pepper @ 0 min

0.25 tsp turmeric @ 0 min

1 vial of White Labs WLP568 Belgian Style Saison Blend Ale Yeast

0.5 oz Styrian Goldings hop pellets, @ dry hopping

Procedure

Poured grains into 1.3 gals of 162°F water.  Held at 150°F-153°F range for 60 mins.
Strained grain liquor into kettle containing 2 gals of water.  Added bittering hops, sugar, and DME. Brought to boil.
Added aroma hops at 30 mins from end of boil.
Added aroma & flavor hops at 5 mins from end of boil.
Added aroma hops, spices, orange peel, and honey at 1 min. from end of boil, and turned off burner.
Strained into fermenter holding 2 gals of cool water, and added enough water to bring level up to aprox. 5.5 gals.

Fermentation notes
9/8 Pitched yeast at 78°F
9/9  am temp 76°F, pm temp 76°F
9/10 am temp 75°F pm temp 76°F
9/14 am temp 71°F
9/17 pm temp 75°F
9/26 pm temp 70°F
9/26 Racked to secondary fermenter, with addition of 0.5 oz Styrian Goldings (4% AA) hop pellets
10/05 Added 7/8 cup of corn sugar dissolved in 16 oz. water.  Bottled some and kegged the remainder.

Gals in fermenter:  5½

Gals. in Keg: 2.5

O.G.: 1.071

F.G.: 1.005

A.B.V.:  8.6%

Tidying up

Yesterday I undertook the long-postponed, and long-overdue, task of cleaning and reorganizing my "brewhouse", or as we call it around here, the beer closet.

The first step, of course, was to empty it out, and clean up the space with anti-septic wipes.

Then, I sorted through the stuff, identifying items that needed to simply be tossed out, and putting those that were to be retained together with similar items.

Two boxes of empty bottles were set aside for storage elsewhere, thus providing a lot more room in the closet.

Another useful addition was the purchase of a small, 16-drawer organizer, that'll keep me from having to dig around in the deep drawer for small parts, such as fermentation locks, rubber bungs, hose clamps, bottle caps, and so on.

It took a while, but it will make things much, much easier.