Maisonette 7.0

So I've moved straight beyond Maisonette 6.0 and directly to 7.0, what gives? 6.0 was brewed, I just didn't take great notes. It was "essentially" 75% barley (in this case Maris Otter), 20% malted spelt, and 5% sugar (turbinado). Why didn't I record it? Well, it's a complicated story that includes blending beer, stepped starters from dregs, and a beer that included a large portion of wheat extract. In the end the beer was a little lower in gravity than my typical batch but tasted pretty good and got strong responses at Homebrew Con where I was even interviewed by Basic Brewing Radio.

For 7.0 I took a few ideas (especially of using 6-row barley) from Dave Janssen's presentation on grisettes at Homebrew Con and used 6 row barley, with a blend of 4 adjuncts. Sound similar to my witbier recipe? It was actually a double mash day where the wheat influence came entirely from second runnings of the wit.

While the mash process was drastically changed from past batches the beer also under saw a slight tweak to the hop additions, still 4 oz of Mosaic but with 3.65 of them coming only post boil and in 3 separate hop steep additions of near equal amounts at 180, 140, and 120. The long whirlpool was influenced by my previous experience and Scott Janish's recommendations, while the temperatures of the whirlpool had more to do with personal experience and Jamil Zainashef's comments on Can You Brew It where he mentioned that flameout/whirlpool hops will still be above isomerization temperatures.

Fermentation was split between a starter of a repitch of 3724 for 3 gallons and 3 gallons with Jester King and Off Color dregs that had been previously used in variations of version 6.0.

7/9/16

Brew day

7/23/16

Fermentation still very active on DuPont half at 70F ambient temps. Tasting great so far, hoppy but in a juicy, fruity way, not the overly dank/hop bag character I sometimes get from Mosaic (especially when dry hopped).

Fermentation on JK/Off Colour half is much slower and beer is clearer but will give it more time. Less hops and more spice forward, good but not much Brett/funk.

8/6/16

It's amazing what a couple of weeks has done to these beers. The 'clean' half has had its hop bite fade substantially to the more expected juicy fruit/chamomile/pineapple character that I expect from this beer.

The 'Funk' version has much more pronounced Brett characters now with a mix of pineapple/overripe fruit and a touch of barnyard, pretty similar to most Jester King saisons I've tried. Racked both to 3 gallon kegs and added 10 psi of carbonation.

9/20/16

Tasting of bottled versions of each.

Straight version

Appearance: golden pale (lighter than the photo), fairly clear with a small but consistent head

Smell- Light banana, juicy fruit, light spice and citrus. Close to what I expect from this beer.

Taste/Mouthfeel- less fruit forward than expected, moderate spice, moderate body (a little too high).

Overall- less fruity and less refreshing than this beer usually finishes but still enjoyable.

Funk Version

Appearance- almost identical, less head retention.

Smell- light Brett funk, more classic hop character 

Taste/Mouthfeel- Brett funk, light sourness, some slight grape character, dry

Overall- while I had one person describe this as a "diacetyl bomb" I don't get much if any diacetyl. To me it's more funk/lightly sour/grape juice in a way that reminds me of some Jolly Pumpkin offerings.

Witbier Attempt 2 (gone sour)

Orange peels were zested with a cheese grater. Under the 17g of peel is the 10g of coriander and 1g of grains of paradise. I also added 4g of chamomile.

It's been a long time since I attempted to brew a witbier. While that beer was alright at first, it seemed to develop a metallic taste over time  and ended up not being all that enjoyable. For this attempt I hoped to use some of the advice I've learned over time, especially from Randy Mosher's great Radical Brewing. Some of those tips include using fresh citrus peel, opting for Indian coriander, and adding chamomile into the mix. I also threw in some of my own twists by including grains of paradise and including 3 types of wheat (unmalted (raw), torrified, and malted) and golden naked oats, along with 6-row barley (more on that in another post).

4 different adjuncts: bottom/right: malted wheat, left: golden naked oats, top center: torrified wheat, top right (small amount of light colored grains) unmalted (raw) wheat.

Note to self: use rice hills when brewing a wheat beer. This one got so stuck trying to runoff I ended up disconnecting the barb on the out spigot from where it attaches to the inlet under the false bottom, making sure that there was no chance of runoff. I ended up having to put the wort/grains through a double colander filtering setup. Very low efficiency rate, tons of frustration, plenty of lost wort and grains spilled everywhere, but hopefully all is not lost as I still ended up with a wort that showed moderate signs of fermentation less than 12 hours after pitching.

In the end I added 6 oz. of dry wheat malt extract to the 6 gallons of pre-boil wort to up the gravity from the drastically low 1.025 level. 

This beer seems to have gotten infected, probably time to trash the bucket. The beer has some slight off flavors with a bit of a pretzel/chemical smell in the nose and a touch of plastic in the flavor. Rather than give up on the beer already I added a few vials of blends I have been saving but didn't have any specific plans for. The contents of these vials include several commercial saison strains, Brettanomyces Lambicus, Lactobacillus Delbruekii, and BKYeast's C2 strain. While not undrinkable the beer isn't what I wanted it to be so I'm hoping these strains can improve the beer even if they take it in a very different direction.

8/31/16
Tasting pretty pleasant, slightly tart but with more citrus character than it had in the last tasting and no noticeable off flavors.

9/25/16

Gravity at 1.007. Kegged 3 gallons straight, blended the rest with the bottom of my sweet cherry lambic (mostly purée). Flavor is candied orange, bread dough, cherry pie, and low-moderate tartness.

Fermentables
Amount	Fermentable	Maltster	Use	PPG	Color
4.5 lb	6-Row (US)	Any	Mash	35	1 °L
2.0 lb	Torrified Wheat	Any	Boil	36	2 °L
1.0 lb	Unmalted Wheat (BE)	Any	Boil	36	2 °L
1.0 lb	Wheat Malt (DE)	Any	Boil	37	2 °L
0.5 lb	Golden Naked Oats (UK)	Any	Boil	33	10 °L
0.35 lb	Dry Malt Extract - Wheat	Any	Boil	42	3 °L
Hops
Amount	Hop	Time	Use	Form	AA
1.0 oz	East Kent Golding (UK)	30 min	Boil	Pellet	5.00
Yeasts
Name	Lab/Product	Attenuation
Belgian Wit Ale Yeast	White Labs WLP400	0.76
Extras
Amount	Name	Time	Use
1.0 g	Grains of Paradise	5.0 min	Boil
4.0 g	Chamomile (Dried)	5.0 min	Boil
10.0 g	Coriander Seed	5.0 min	Boil
16.0 g	Orange Peel	5.0 min	Boil
Mash steps
Step	Heat Source	Target Temp	Time
Protein Rest	Infusion	115.0 °F	15 min
Saccharification Rest	Infusion	155.0 °F	60 min