Maisonette ‘23 - Mosaic Grisette

Appearance: Fairly hazy light gold color with a nice fluffy white head of small bubbles with good retention. Pretty much exactly what I’d expect in a saison.

Smell: Earth, spice, pine, citrus. Slightly more herbal (oregano/sage) and earthy/grassy than the floral and fruity chamomile and juicy-fruit gum I would ideally get. There are light elements of those fruit/flower components and enough white pepper to clearly be a saison though.

Taste: Leads with a moderately grainy malt flavor that then segues into some light juicy-fruit and pear like fruitiness with some grassy and herbal hop bitterness and moderate peppery phenols at the finish.

Mouthfeel: Moderate body and carbonation, surprising how full it feels given the low finishing gravity, though the yeast may have produced some glycerol that gives that effect. The carbonation being less than very high also doesn’t help the body and may be the biggest fault this beer has as far as a saison.

Overall: I’m not surprised this beer didn’t do well in one competition - while it’s a beer I like a lot, the mosaic hops always seem to cause confusion when this is entered as a saison. That said, I’m happy with the beer and find it to be similar to a lot of previous batches I’ve made, though not the best examples. There was a short period when the hop aromas had just started to fade where this beer seemed to be at the edge of what I’m aiming for but I now have to search hard for the floral and fruity characters I’d like to see pop here.

Notes for the future: I’ll likely go back to a Pilsner or Pale Ale Malt base for future batches and won’t necessarily go back for spelt over malted or unmalted wheat, I also think dialing back the wheat/spelt percentage would probably be a good idea. The Napolean and Rustic yeasts seemed to work really well here and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them again, although I might aim for a slightly higher fermentation temperature to increase the fruity esters. I also don’t think the higher hop load was a bad change, though doing a longer hop steep at moderate temperatures might be better than the flameout hop addition and I’m not sure the extra ounce+ of hops made much of an impact so I’ll likely go back to the 4 oz version in the future.

2/20/23: Brewday

Grain Bill: 5 pounds 6 row (Rahr), 1 pound Pilsner (Sugar Creek), 2 pounds spelt malt (Best Malz)

Hops: 5.35 oz Mosaic

Mashed at 152 for 30 minutes, which fell to 145 over that time before adding additional water to bring to 158 for another 30 minutes. Batch sparged at 170F.

.35 oz mosaic added at first wort and boiled for 60 minutes, 1 oz flameout hops added when cutting flame and immediately rapidly chilled. After reaching 170 the chiller was stopped and 2 oz mosaic added and let sit for 10 minutes. Temperature fell to near 150 during this time and chiller was started briefly to bring to 140. 2 more oz of hops were added and let sit for 10 more minutes before slowly chilling to 80F. Ran off wort into carboy, collected 5 gallons at 1.042 and pitched a pack of Imperial Rustic. Because the wort was under intended volume and over intended gravity, I boiled, chilled, and added another half gallon to reach 5.5 gallons at 1.038.

2/21/23: yeast is fermenting strong less than 24 hours after pitching with a decent sized krausen and plenty of airlock activity.

2/23/23: Krausen has fallen and the beer is no longer showing any signs of active fermentation. Sample shows 1.008. Smells terrific with juicy fruit gum and a touch of pine aroma but weirdly the sample is thin, not very flavorful, and roughly bitter, hopefully it just needs some time. Added Napolean yeast harvested from Hoppy Black Saison to attempt to dry it out further and do what it does.

2/24/23: No signs of activity, moved to a warmer area in the basement near a vent.

2/26/23: Gravity sample shows the beer has dropped slightly to 1.006 and is also tasting much better and fuller at this point, may have just needed more time but the Napolean may also be adding some slight character that improves the overall impression.

3/1/23: Kegged.

3/17/23: Tasting (notes were somehow lost, will need to redo, but photos below)

4/2/2023: This beer did not place in it's category at the DC Homebrewers’ Cherry Blossom competition receiving a 27 (which seems harsh in my opinion). One judge commented that everything in the beer seemed too subtle (I wouldn't agree with that) while the other knocked it for being too fruity and tropical (that's probably accurate). This beer isn't brewed "to style" for a saison so while other variations of Maisonette have been received well in competitions that use audience favorite style judging or when entered in specialty categories, I don't think it's worth entering in any more BJCP style competitions as a saison (other than the one that I've already sent it too).

4/4/23: Tasting, notes above.

5/1/23: This beer surprisingly placed second out of twelve entries in the Belgian Ale & German Wheat category at the BURP Spirit of Free Beer competition. The beer scored a 34 and was only beat out in the category by another saison that went on to win Best of Show for the entire competition.

False Sun - Hoppy Black Saison

If Black Saison isn’t a classic style, Hoppy Black Saison certainly isn’t. Yet, I’ve found myself making a hoppy black saison for the third time. Like my two previous batches this is intended to blend citrusy American hops, roasty dark malt character, and the spice and fruit of saison yeast. With that in mind I also greatly changed this recipe out of fear of getting too much chocolate/roast flavors and did not include any citrus peel in an attempt to let the hops shine on their own. I’ve also lost the original recipe at this point so it would be hard to entirely recreate even if I wanted to.

Brewday: 1/15/23

Preboil gravity: 1.035 at 7.25 gallons

Boiled 90 minutes

Post boil gravity: 1.047 at 5.25 gallons

1/19/23: This beer has been showing slight signs of fermentation (krausen and bubbles in the airlock) since the day after pitching yeast but the airlock bubbles have slowed rapidly to less than once a minute and I was worried this one may have stalled so I took a hydrometer reading. Gravity sample showed 1.006, indicating that rather than a stall it may have already reached final gravity as it’s below the estimated FG less than 4 days after pitching the yeast. This isn’t entirely surprising for such a fast working and attenuative yeast (not to mention an attenuative malt/sugar bill) but considering the beer has spent most of the time with ambient temperatures in the upper 60s it’s impressive how quickly it’s chewed through the sugars. Flavor is nice, fairly spicy but not clove-like from the yeast, a blend of coffee and dark fruit from the malts, yeast, and sugar, and a refreshing orange-like citrus character from the hops. Still a decent layer of yeast and this one could attenuate even further so it likely won’t be kegged for another couple of weeks but happy with where it seems to be heading at this point.

1/26/23: Krausen has fallen and it isn’t showing any signs of active fermentation. Added 1 oz each of American Cascade and French Strisselspalt.

1/28/23: Kegged and placed in chest freezer at 50F and 20PSI (targeting 2.7 volumes of CO2). Will likely need to adjust the pressure as the temperature in the freezer gets adjusted around a lagering schedule. Taste is interesting, not a lot of obvious yeast character and maybe not as dry as I expect from a saison with both the hops and candi syrup seeming to contribute a lot of fruitiness and some earthy flavors. All around it currently seems a little disjointed and I’m partially wishing I hadn’t added the D-90 but hopefully some carbonation and time will make everything a little more cohesive and saison like.

3/6/23: Tasting notes.

Aroma: Big pepper and fresh cut grass jumps out of the glass, lemony citrus notes eventually mingle in alongside light notes of dried fruit and black cherry.

Appearance: Very dark brown, approaching black with a large fluffy tan head that slowly fades to a thin layer leaving behind lots of foam clinging to the sides. Holding it to the light shows a nice garnet tint though clarity is only medium and I wonder if this one is near the end of the keg as there’s a small amount of what appears to be hop matter in the bottom of the glass that I haven’t noticed on previous pours. Not sure I would want this to look much different other than the particulate.

Taste: Roastier than the nose, with a very mild coffee note throughout. Light pepper and fruitiness from the yeast mingle with light grapefruit and tangerine peel alongside plum, raisin, and date. There’s probably a little bit too much going on though losing any one of the qualities or boosting the hoppiness might make the rest work better. Finish is lightly bitter leaving a subtle blend of fruitiness and the very light coffee impression.

Mouthfeel: This one is very heavily carbonated. This would probably be considered overcarbonation for most styles but I like this much in a saison and it helps the flavors all pop. Body is medium/medium-low, not as dry as would be expected in a saison but I think it mostly works here.

Overall: After more than a month on tap I’m still not really sure how to feel about this one. Part of me regrets using the D-90 as the dark fruit characters it adds seems to be one thing too many in a beer that also features so much from the hops, yeast, and malt. On the other hand, I frequently find myself having a second glass to try to determine how I felt about the first, so it has me going back for more. The hops have faded a bit at this point and probably could’ve been heavier in the first place. Certainly an interesting beer, in some ways it combines a Belgian Saison, a Belgian Dubbel, an American Pale Ale, and a German Schwartzbier all at once and surprisingly somehow almost manages to pull it all off. If I brew this again I will likely use more late/dry hops, an addition of orange peel to increase the citrus character, and drop the candi sugar, to let this be closer to the Black IPA and Saison hybrid I intended when first coming up with this idea.

Maisonette ‘22

After recently moving to a new house back on the east coast it seemed like a good idea to do a simple, easy, tried and true recipe for my first batch in a new environment and with new equipment. While most of my brewing gear from San Francisco made the trip with me I now have a yard and so am able to brew outside on a burner again for the first time in about 5 years. In addition to buying a Bayou Classic burner I also needed to adjust to other variable including a new (leaky) hose for providing water to the wort chiller, a new location for fermenting, and a new-ish water source (still WSSC water so it should be similar to what I used at my parents’ house)

In addition to a few new variables I also chose to make this specific recipe due to being super busy moving in and preparing my new house. In addition to brewing this beer today I am also building the collar for my keezer, assembling a grill, prepping for painting, and moving furniture in multiple rooms this week. Productive but exhausting work that only left room for an extract brew day with minimal interaction.

The recipe is pretty similar to a doubled volume version of the very first batch I made of this beer: dry malt extract, mosaic hops, saison yeast. One big change is that in the first version I made it used only about one third wheat DME whereas this really upped the wheat content with 100% Briess Bavarian Wheat DME. It will be interesting to see how this beer turns out with this high of a wheat content, I expect it to be fine but maybe not quite as enjoyable as the ~20% I usually aim for.

Tasting Notes:

Appearance: Light gold with moderate haze. Large white head with great retention. Looks somewhere between where this beer usually falls and a classic hefeweizen, darker and hazier than ideal but within range for a farmhouse style beer and pretty appealing all around.

Smell: Fruit and spice from the yeast dominate giving an even balance of banana and bubblegum with Christmas/baking spice aromas of clove and allspice. Moderate malt presence then shows with sweet honey and breakfast cereal character. Hard to pick up the hops specifically but the mosaic character seem to be just there, blending into the fruit and spice character giving slight berry and herbal characters.

Taste: Fruity up front with banana/bubblegum/berry character that quickly blends into a mix of honey-like malt notes, leafy bitterness, and a lingering peppery and clove like spice that lasts into the finish. As it warms the Mosaic hop character comes out a little more but is still largely drowned out by the pepper/clove and banana from the yeast.

Mouthfeel: Moderately low in body and moderately high in carbonation, keeping this one very drinkable. There is a touch of astringency in the finish but it isn't off putting.

Overall: This beer is a fine grisette/saison but lacks some of the subtlety of yeast character and complexity of hop character I go for with this recipe. The hops don't show through to the normal level I look for and the yeast seem to have produced both more clove like esters and more banana/bubblegum than the more subtle "Juicy Fruit"/Chamomile/pineapple characters I aim for. Part of that may be the temperature conditions being lower than expected in the beginning then fairly high, and part of it may be due to adding the hops at warmer temperatures in the hop stand than usual. Next time I will likely go back to all grain, cut down the wheat percentage to my usual ~20% and add most or all of the post boil hops closer to 140F. 

3/6/22
Brewday:
Measured out 6.5 gallons of tap water, added half a campden  tablet, then began heating on my new bayou classic burner. Added DME and stirred as much as possible until dissolved. Added .35 oz mosaic hops at boil. Added 1 oz at flameout and began cooling. After ~10 minutes stopped cooling and added another 1 oz hops at ~180F. Let sit for 10 minutes before cooling again. Added 1 oz at 150F and stopped cooling again for ~20 minutes. Cooled to 95F and moved to 2 separate 3 gallon carboys, each with half of remaining .65 oz of hops. Pitched half a pack of Wyeast Belgian Saison in each. Plan to add Wyeast French Saison to dry it out after giving the Belgian Saison a few days to create character.

3/11/22
Pitched an inflated pack of Wyeast 3711 French Saison split into each carboy. Yeast appeared to still be active but very slow. Ambient temperatures are far below ideal for saison strains in the low-mid 60’s.

3/16/22
Still showing slow signs of fermentation. The beers were placed next to the actively fermenting oatmeal stout in hopes the heat generated by those carboys would help kick start these but while those are overflowing with yeast activity these continue to just very slowly bubble with a thin layer of krausen.

3/17/22
Hydrometer reading shows this is only down to about 1.030 so it has hardly fermented. Taste is very sweet with a surprisingly high hoppy bitterness. Moved to an upstairs bedroom at around 72F (instead of the 62-64F basement). Hopefully the warmth re-ignites the fermentation but if not I'll probably add a yeast more capable of fermenting at the cool to moderate temperatures in a few days.

3/21/22
Gravity reading shows this has fallen to 1.015 so the higher heat definitely seems to have helped, but it should have a few more points to go. Sample is very tasty with lots of juicy fruit gum and grainy sweetness finishing with a pronounced but not overly strong bitterness. I don't think this will be one of my best batches yet but has shaped up nicely over the past few days and should be ready to keg soon.

3/24/22
Bubbling very slowly, seems about ready to keg.

3/26/22
Gravity down to 1.014, doesn’t seem to be going any further. Transferred both carboys to a single 5 gallon keg. Didn’t do a great job avoiding the trub and got more yeast and hop particulate than desired, hopefully that will settle out. Set keg to 10 psi in keezer at 32F.

3/27/22
Increased PSI to 15 and keezer temp to 40F.

3/30/22
Dropped temp back down to 33F and lowered PSI slightly. Seems fairly well carbonated. Taste is fairly fruity but a bit more bitter, rough, and hazy than usual. I think the higher percentage of wheat and adding a large amount of the hops as high as 180 may be part of the issue. Hoping a couple more days at cold temps clears some things up but doesn't seem like a bad beer as is.

4/2/22
Probably the most or second most popular of the 4 beers on tap for a housewarming party. Overall it's not my favorite version of this beer but is definitely a Saison with fruity and spicy characters and a touch of the things I like most about Mosaic hops.

4/13/22
Tasting night, notes above.

Grande Maison Smash Mosaic Saison

I have made many, many, many batches of my Maisonette recipe and was planning to do the same, but was forced to change directions due to ingredients on hand, and hence Grande Maison was born. Grande Maison is designed to be a scaled up version of Maisonette but done entirely as a SMaSH (single malt and single hop) beer. There were three reasons I decided to make the change to a bigger hoppier saison today:

1. I didn't have enough wheat malt for the normal recipe
2. I had a large variety of Mosaic hops and am trying to help clean out the freezer by using more hops
3. The SFHG is having a SMaSH competition in a few months, and this could potentially be an entry or at least give me a better sense of how the Viking Pilsner tastes as the only malt.

I decided to increase the malt bill/gravity/abv by about 50% while the change in hop types being used (Cryo, Leaf, American Noble, in addition to the usual Pellet) makes it a little harder to say exactly what the increase in hopping rate is but the estimated IBUs were kept the same. Looking back through my brew logs I could only find one example of a SMaSH I had previously made: my take on Prairie's 'Merica. This beer should be similar to that due to also being a saison with heavy usage of a modern fruity hop. Like the 'Merica clone, I thought about splitting some of the batch later to age with brettanomyces and/or add dry hops, depending on how it tasted after primary fermentation, but decided to keg all of it as is and tweak the recipe in later attempts.

Tasting Notes:
Appearance:
Nice pale yellow with large dense white head. Slightly hazy but looks about what I'd expect for a farmhouse beer.

Smell:
Pretty similar aromas to the Saison de Champagne, Moderate-High fruitiness from both hops and yeast giving some bubblegum, grape/wine, and berry aromatic. Moderate phenols giving a white pepper impression. There is also some alcohol present, more than I would like for a beer of this strength, it's not a weak beer but more alcohol aroma than I would expect for ~7%.

Taste:

More phenolic and sharp than the aroma, less of the bubblegum/juicy fruit character and more alcohol present too. The bitterness is only medium but combined with the fairly high pepper phenol character the overall impression is on the high-end of my acceptable range, almost like a Farmhouse IPA in that sense. Alcohol is noticeable but not overwhelming. Again the overall character is reminiscent of the Saison de Champagne beer that used the same yeast but the hops are a little less wine like and a little more rounded with some berry and grass and the phenols and alcohol are more noticeable.

Mouthfeel:
Not as dry as most of the Saison/Grisettes I've made, likely due to a combination of higher starting gravity and less attenuative yeast (I often use the very attenuative Wyeast 3711 French Saison or brettanomyces). That said, I think the low-medium body helps keep the moderate bitterness and phenols from coming across too sharply. Carbonation was originally very high but I've knocked it down to more standard beer levels (~14 PSI at 45F) and I again prefer this level over traditional Saison levels with this amount of bitterness, phenols, and alcohol.

Overall:
Not my favorite example of the style in many ways with the phenols and alcohol masking some of the fruitier characters. If I were to rebrew I'd likely move about 50% of the 60 minute addition to late in the boil or after flameout and add a dry-hop to really emphasize the fruity hop flavors. I'm not sure if I'll use this yeast blend again, it's not bad but doesn't have some of the character that I really crave in this style, maybe adding brettanomyces or an additional yeast strain would help balance this but I might just go back to the Wyeast Belgian Saison and French Saison blend that I've liked in the past (with or without Brett). The Viking Pils malt does a nice job of just hanging around with a very low crackery malt note that's I notice when searching for it but otherwise it gets out of the way to let the other ingredients shine.

Notes:
3/9/19
Brewed on the stovetop as usual. Brewing went off without a hitch other than ending up with less than 5 gallons due to the hops soaking up wort and blocking the run off. Still able to exactly hit the expected 1.060 OG. Pitched 1 liter starter of previously used blend of Wyeast Belgian Saison (3724) and Farmhouse Ale (3726).

3/10/19
Large krausen and rapid airlock bubbling.

3/26/19
Transferred to keg and set in chest freezer at 40F and 30 PSI for 24 hours. No FG recorded as I broke my hydrometer but I would guess it's between 1.004 and 1.008 putting the ABV right around 7%. Tastes pretty nice, fairly hop forward with some of the same wine-like character from the Saison de Champagne that used the same yeast blend, but more bitter and with other complementary components from the mosaic hops. Excited to see how it ends up once carbonated.

4/6/19
Tasting above, not bad but not my favorite.

Saison de Champagne

These 3 ounces of Nelson cost about as
much as the rest of the ingredients combined

The first time I can remember trying Nelson Sauvin hops was at a homebrew meeting. At the time I was still somewhat new to brewing and didn’t really care for Pale Ales or IPAs but that all changed that day. The flavors in that Nelson IPA were so exciting and new it immediately changed my mind on hoppy beers. For weeks after I was craving that flavor: the almost wine like, bitter but refreshing, somehow both familiar and unique flavor of Nelson hops. I have used Nelson a few times since, including in a clone of ‘Merica, and have found them to be terrific. The only downside is that they tend to be some of the most prized hops so the demand keeps them hard to find and expensive when I do.

When I first heard about Hallertau Blanc hops I was skeptical that they could have the same level of tropical and wine characteristics that make Nelson so great. After hearing that they had more of a subtle wine character mixed with mostly noble hop flavors I decided that they might make for a great complement to Nelson, at a much lower price.

I bought a full pound of Hallertau Blanc on a whim

Saison de Champagne is my latest hop-forwards Saison and I wanted it to utilize these hops and the classic Saison dryness to mimic wine flavors while also having subtle yeast phenols and bitterness that keep it squarely in the Saison category. While I had originally planned on adding dry hops and lightly oaking the beer I decided against it as I liked the character and didn't want to risk messing it up, but that’s probably something I will try if I rebrew it.

A hop farm that I happened to drive past just outside Nelson when I was visiting New Zealand

8/14/18
Brewed on the stovetop with filtered San Francisco water.

9/15/18
Kegged 3 gallons. Immediately keg filled 6 bottles with 4 carb tabs each to see how this bottle conditions. The last 1.5 gallons or so was added to my Brett Saison Solera.

10/9/18
Entered 3 of the bottle carbonated version into the California State Homebrew Competition under category 34B: Mixed-Style Beer as a mix of New Zealand Pilsner and Saison.

This beer ended up scoring a 35.5 but not placing in it's category in the competition. I was really happy with how this one turned out with noticeable white wine like character and subtle yeast character. While similar to my go-to Maisonette grisette recipe the change of hops and malt bill made it unique while still being fairly easy drinking and refreshing.

San Francisco Brew Setup and Brew Day (Maisonette 9.1)

A little backstory on this brewday: In late November I moved from the D.C. area to San Francisco. A few months prior to my move my wife Alyssa headed out to the west coast without me. Her company paid for a moving truck to take everything from her apartment in Charlottesville. To take advantage of this I moved all of my kegging equipment (and most of my other possessions) and had them shipped to sunny California. 

I kept my brewing equipment in the D.C. area (3+ months without brewing seemed unbearable) and rediscovered my dislike for bottling. Moving to San Francisco presented me with a chance to either ship my brewing system or start anew. After assessing the shipping costs I decided to gave away my fermenters, kettles, grain, and just about everything else that didn't easily fit in my checked bag which was already carrying the rest of my life. In the end I brought my yeast bank, hops stash, grain mill + drill, thermometer, refractometer, and campden tabs (to treat chlorinated water). Unfortunately my kegging setup got fairly ruined from being in the chest freezer and ended up with everything covered in rust and mold. A few PBW soaks and lots of elbow grease later I was able to save the chest freezer and temperature controller but had to replace the disconnects, tubing, regulator, manifold. Note to self: don't do that again!

Starting anew with your brewing setup has its downsides (like spending ~$1000 to replace everything) but also plenty of positives:

1. A chance to review your setup and determine what you like and what you don't: pretty happy overall with my system but it had lots of lifting, would like to minimize that
2. A chance to buy shiny new toys that you've always wanted: I bought a nice small weight scale and got a mash tun with a thermometer
3. A chance to get past those little breaks, defects, and missing components that you've just been working around: my old false bottom was loose and missing a nut, some of my old bucket fermenters were infecting everything that touched them

In many ways starting anew made me realize how happy I was with my setup: 1 boil kettle with thermometer + a 5 gallon stock pot, plastic cooler with false bottom mash tun, and plastic carboys. Pretty basic but simple to operate and capable of doing anything I've ever needed.

Some changes to my setup:

1. Switch from the propane burner I've enjoyed to an electric stovetop, fortunately I'm able to get 5 gallons of mash water to 160 in under 25 minutes and 7 gallons at 160 to boiling in under 35. This adds a little more time on brew day but not too much and can't really be avoided in an apartment.
2. My new mash tun has a thermometer. I went back and forth on adding this and ultimately feel like it was unnecessary but for only $10 more (it was on sale) than one without one its no big loss. While measuring mash temperature is hugely important and this should be convenient, it is inserted so high in the tun that I have to do a very thin mash (or a very large grain bill) to get it fully submerged.
3. Fermenting in kegs. This isn't something I plan to permanently/regularly do but the plastic carboys I ordered are arriving later than most of my other supplies so rather than delay brewing I thoroughly cleaned and sanitized the kegs. Rather than use a blow-off tube or drill into a keg lid to fit an airlock I wedged a wine cork into the ring for the pressure relief valve to keep it open during primary fermentation.
4. Immersion chiller: Without a garden hose I wasn't sure how I would be able to hook one up but have been looking at some kitchen converters because not having one is a pain.
5. No grains in bulk: While I plan to buy some bulk bags of grain they aren't cheap to ship. I also had accumulated a lot of various crystal malts and roasted malts that I could grab in a pinch. Now I have to know what's on hand.
6. Lots of small items: There are a lot of things I accumulated over years of brewing that I didn't think about when re-ordering but now regret not having. Some examples include water treatment salts, flasks, DME, mason jars, growlers, small fermenters (e.g. 1 gallon jugs).
7. Not being able to compost: Throwing spent grains and hops/trub in a compost pile and rinsing out with a garden hose has been such a convenient way to dispose of brew day waste. Now I have to move all waste into a bag and throw in the trash. I also don't have a garbage disposal so I have to be very careful about what goes down the drain.

Beer and brew day: In order to break in the new system and keep things somewhat simple I went with another iteration of my tried and true Maisonette. This should also ensure that I have a delicious beer on tap in no time. The brew day went pretty well with no real difficulties although I omitted the usual turbinado sugar since I didn't have any on hand, leading to a slightly lower gravity than usual. I split the wort between 2 kegs (3 gallons in each 5 gallon keg) and pitched my Maisonette blend from the last batch in one and a fresh pitch of Wyeast Belgian Saison in the other. I also collected about 1.5 gallons of second runnings which was pitched with dregs from the DCHB Blend #5 in order to build up the culture.

4 ounces of hops in six gallons of a 1.035 beer

Updates:
Belgian Saison:
After 12 hours: light bubbles, but no real krausen
After 24 hours: Large krausen
After 96 hours: Fermentation still noticeably active. Gravity down to ~1.018 based on refractometer reading of 1.025. Tasting good but a little too sweet and worty at this early stage.
After 120 hours: Pressure relief valve closed to minimize oxygen.
Transferred to serving keg set to PSI. I came back two hours later to find my kegerator full of a brown liquid. The picnic tap had fallen to a spot where it was being compressed by the roof of the chest freezer and had managed to all leak out :-(. Three gallons of amazing beer down the drain.

Maisonette Blend:
After 12 hours: No real activity
After 24 hours: Still no real activity, Wallonian Farmhouse II from TYB added in case other yeast was completely dead.
After 36 hours: Still no real activity
After 48 hours: Finally bubbling away with a small krausen
After 72 hours: Still active bubbling in krausen
After 96 hours: Fermentation seriously slowed. Gravity down to ~1.003 based on refractometer reading of 1.015. Tasting okay but there's a little of the bubblegum from the Wallonian II that I don't love. Pressure relief valve closed to minimize oxygen.
Transferred to serving keg and set to 20 PSI. Taste is mostly nice hops and a bit of fruity yeast character with just a very slight tartness and weird gym sock funk.
Update: This keg kicked pretty quickly but was a tasty beer similar to many other batches. Not the best batch I've made but not far off with the funky character fading a bit to give way to more of the fruity hops and yeast.

Second Runnings Beer (1.015 OG):
After 12 hours: No real activity
After 24 hours: Still no real activity, my Sour Blend #1 (Roeselare+dregs) added
After 36 hours: Small krausen
After 72 hours: Krausen activity very slow, pressure relief valve closed to minimize oxygen.
After 96 hours: Gravity down to 1.003 based on refractometer reading of 1.015. Taste is fine, fairly clean and bland at this point. Reminds me of an under-soured Berliner.
Transferred about 1 gallon to a water bottle and caught a jar of the yeast slurry. Taste is similar to before, thin, bland, under-soured, and pretty uninteresting.

Citrusy Farmhouse

When someone asks me what my favorite beer is I often have a tough time answering. My mind goes back to the great beers I've enjoyed and the fun experiences I have had around them: the time I had St. Bernardus 12 with friends shortly after turning 21, and the Westvleteren 12 I brought back from Belgium a few years later; the unfiltered Pilsner Urquell I was lucky enough to enjoy in Prague and the truly terrific bock I stumbled upon at Devil's Backbone; the first Russian River Sanctification I had when my brother introduced me to sour beers and the Cantillon gueuze I consumed after touring their spiderweb filled brewery.  Along with these commercial favorites there are homebrewed beers that come to mind: Scott's NEIPA, Sean's Rye IPA, and Mike's Anna dreg Saison. While all of these beers have been revolutionary, eye-opening experiences for me, Mike's beer was the first one to make me angry: angry that someone had already brewed the perfect mixed fermentation saison.

Knowing very little about the beer, Mike's blog post was not up yet at the time I brewed this beer and his responses my question on ingredients was: "some pale malts, some low alpha hops, some dregs from Hill Farmstead Anna" which wasn't enough to design a clone, especially when I didn't have access to Anna bottles. Still, I set out to brew something similar: a citrusy mixed fermentation farmhouse ale with mild-to-moderate tartness and mild-to-moderate funk.

While my End of a Spark citrusy farmhouse ale didn't give the exact flavors of Mike's it nailed the high citrus, moderate funk, and moderate tartness qualities I was chasing, while also using entirely different ingredients than his.

I took about a case of bottles of this beer to DC Homebrewers annual BBQ and competition hosted at 3 Stars Brewing. The beer was generally well received and even got an honorable mention from the judges!

Note: I had planned to take some pictures of this beer and do a full write up but accidentally took the last few to a blending session (post on that possibly to come). In all, this was an enjoyable beer that I would happily make again.

Wedding Beers

I've brewed quite a bit in the last few months (I did 6 batches between late March and early June). The main reason for this is a single cause: beer for my wedding. I'm getting married in North Carolina in early July and wanted to provide a large supplement of homebrew to add to other beverages to be enjoyed. In planning for the big day I took a look at this useful blog post to get some ideas on how to go about brewing, transporting, setting up, and serving the beers at the wedding. While I did not brew nearly as much beer as some of the people I read about during my research, I was able to put together 4 batches with each one netting about a full 5 gallon corny keg. These beers were all brewed between April and June with details below. I was also able to convince one of my homebrew buddies to kick in a 5 gallon keg of his own NEIPA.

My car loaded with 4 kegs and supplies to serve them

While brewing four ~5 gallon batches wasn't much of a difficult task given the timeline, having the beers be at their peak and having (almost) nothing else on tap for a few months made the project tough. The fact that the wedding was outdoors, near the beach, in North Carolina, and in July also posed numerous challenges with getting, and keeping, the beer cold and making sure the bartenders would be able to pour it.

Last minute prep/icing down for the 5th time

Beach Formal Belgian Tripel - Brewed in April in order to have some time to age, higher than expected extraction rate led to this beer being stronger than planned (despite reducing the amount of sugar added). The beer started as 2 separate 3 gallon batches, one brewed with BE-256 and the other with S-33, before being combined to one fermentor after several weeks. While it came off fairly boozy at first, a few months has brought it together to a nice example of the style.

Shoreline Summer Ale - Loosely modeled off Big Wave Golden Ale from Kona Brewing Company this is intended to be a moderately hoppy blonde with tropical fruit forward character. The grist is somewhat of a trimmed down version of my most recent StarTropics NEIPA while the hops emphasize the classic combo of Citra and Mosaic. At kegging in early May this was one of the fruitiest, tropical, exciting beers I have made and I was disappointed I needed to wait so long to drink it (and worried that the character would fade). While the fruit flavors transformed over time the beer still retained some tropical fruit salad goodness, just leaning a little more towards overripe fruit than the super fresh mango and papaya it started with.

Lighthouse Little Saison - A variation on my go-to Maisonette Grisette the beer features mosaic hops and saison yeasts in a small platform that always excites. Not my best batch of this beer, and it picked up some accidental brett along the way (for better or worse), but a tasty and refreshing beer none the less.

White Wedding Wheat Ale w/ Orange, Ginger, and Chamomile - This one was the least based on previous recipes with just mild input from my Summertime Rye beer. Instead of remaking a previous beer, I wanted to brew something of a Blue Moon clone with more interesting fruit/herb/spice character. The end result is surprisingly chamomile forward with light orange and almost no ginger but is a refreshing and easy drinker. This beer (along with the Shoreline Summer Ale) used my house Inglés culture, a slowly evolving blend of British yeast strains that I occasionally add new yeasts to during pitching.

Hazy Gudenius NEIPA - Guest brewed by Scott Janish, of his awesome eponymous blog and the soon-to-be-awesome Sapwood Cellars. Brewed with Citra Cryo Hops, along with Otto Supreme and Amarillo, this one is an obvious crowd pleaser.

Serving at the wedding, fortunately someone knew how to operate ball lock kegs and CO2 to get the beers to pour while I was taking photos

Post wedding updates:
At the wedding the Lighthouse saison and Hazy Gudenius NEIPA were clear favorites and both were near empty at the end of the night while the others were somewhere between 1/3rd and 2/3rds full. The White Wedding and Shoreline had become a bit oxidized and were not as good as they had been when fresh but still drinkable and they got the least love. Overall I think one less beer or switching one for something super different (like a dark beer) might have been a good idea but none of the beers turned out bad and they were much more popular than the light beers we had the bar serve for those who didn't want homebrews. I wish I had taken photos of each of the beers when pouring them, but there was honestly way too many other things going on.

Maisonette v4.0

Between Two Succulents without Zach Galifianakas

Here once again is the latest take on my little house beer. Maisonette is a beer I first brewed in March 2015, which means that in less than a year it has gone from an extract batch brewed on a whim to by far my most rebrewed recipe. Part of what keeps me brewing this beer is that it consistently comes out enjoyable regardless of the variations applied. Maybe even a larger part is just how terrific my very first mini batch of it was and how difficult it has been to emulate. With that in mind I set out to once again split this batch 2 ways but with yeasts that should be closer to the yeast blend I initially used.

Brew notes: Pulled 8.75 gallons straight from the sink. Added 1/2 of a campden tablet, then 1 g Gypsum and 2 g CaCl. Missed my mash-in temp hitting just 144° before raising to 149° after 10 minutes. 50 minutes later I ran off, batch sparged with 170° water (to bring to 165° let sit for 15 minutes then ran off slowly over the course of half an hour before moving the wort to the burner.

Added .35 oz. hops and 6 oz turbinado at boil, 60 minutes later I cut the heat and added 1 oz. for 10 minutes before applying cooling. Applied cooling to 145° then added additional 2.65. Applied additional cooling after 20 minutes only to have the wort chiller begin leaking. A small amount of the chilling water made its way into the beer, and I had a hard time deciding whether to reboil or just move ahead but was on a time constraint so I tightened the loose connection after about 15 minutes of cussing and yelling at it and continued the chill. Reached 80° degrees after about 15 more minutes.

Split evenly between two 3 gallon carboys and pitched yeast. One full packet of Danstar Belle Saison and a quarter cup of BKYeast C2 Brett slurry in one half with a pack of Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison in the other.

8 hours after pitching both carboys had fallen to near room temperature at 65° with the Belle/C2 version showing vigorous fermentation and the Belgian Saison just starting to bubble. 8 hours later both versions are actively chugging along nicely. Moved the carboys next to each other and wrapped in a blanket to allow them to maintain some heat.

12/20/2015
Belle/C2 version down to 1.004 gravity, while Belgian Saison version is still slowly bubbling away and only down to 1.029. Belle/C2 version kegged with 2 oz. bagged Mosaic hops.

1/17/2016
Belle/C2 version still on tap, pretty good, super fruity gooseberry/kiwi character from the hops, but not much else. Belgian Saison version down to 1.003 but still showing weak signs of fermentation (krausen and occasional off gassing). Tasting pretty great! I'm super excited to keg this one soon.

1/18/2016

Tasting:

Appearance- very pale in color, moderately hazy, with just enough clarity to make out some shapes behind it. Small but fairly stable and sticky white head. 

Smell- big sweet fruity hop aroma giving lots of gooseberry and a touch of mango and spice.

Taste- the hops are more subdued than in the nose with grainy, lightly sweet malt leading and the hops just giving a faint fruit salad character over top. Bitterness is cleansing but slightly spicy/astringent and stronger than I would like.

Mouthfeel- moderately thin mouthfeel, fairly low carbonation after a couple days in the growler.

Overall- a drinkable, likable, super fruity beer that isn't exactly what I'm going for. This beer seems to be heading more in the direction of an IPA without the bitterness than the juicy grisette I'm after. A fine beer, but off target. The Belgian Saison seems like the much more exciting option than this fairly clean/lightly spicy Belle Saison.

1/31/2016

Kegged the Belgian Saison version with the Belle/C2 version kicking.

2/6/2016

Brought a growler of the Belgian Saison version of this beer to the annual JamBEERee homebrew meeting between several DC/Northern Virginia area clubs (BURP, Grist, WortHogs, and DC Homebrewers). Received a lot of positive feedback mixed with a lot of confusion on what a Grisette is. I'm pretty pleased with how this batch turned out and plan planned to submit it to a few competitions.

2/19/2016

Tasting of the Belgian Saison version:

Appearance: Surprisingly clear pale golden yellow. A few weeks in the keg have done wonders for this beer. High carbonation (nearly 15 PSI) gives it a large head, that recedes to a small film after a few minutes.

Next to a Fern without Zach Galifianakis

Smell: The wonderful, almost artificial (makes me think of juicy fruit gum) fruitiness that I want in this beer leads the way. There is also some lemon, pine, coriander, banana taffy, and cranberry. The hops and yeast seem to work harmoniously to produce the big bouquet.

Taste: Light grainy sweetness fills the first sip with a myriad of tropical fruit and citrus flavors coming in later. A moderate bitterness lingers on the back of the tongue with a touch of pepper.

Mouthfeel: Super dry and crisp. After a few weeks in the keg this beer seems to have become even drier, bringing it closer in line with a traditional saison.

Overall: I am very happy with the way this one turned out. While it isn't quite as fruity and delicious as the first couple days on tap it seems to have developed into something more akin to what someone would expect from a saison. This beer is impeccably light and drinkable, enjoyable enough in a small taster or pint after pint. This is a good beer.

Maisonette 3.0

For the third iteration of my mosaic hopped grisette/table saison I decided to make a number of changes. While I was happy with the last version I felt it needed more hop presence, less yeast character, and a touch less wheat. For this batch I reformatted the entire grain bill swapping Spelt Malt for the wheat and Floor-Malted Pilsner for the American 2-row. I also am adding more mosaic hops to really emphasize the berry, citrus, and funk that they give. The batch will be split 4 ways with half receiving "Brett" Brux Trois and the other 3 gallons split in 1 gallon containers each with their own yeast.



An additional new feature of this version is that it will be the first beer I have brewed outside on my new Darkstar burner.

Fermentables:

Amount

Fermentable

Maltster

Use

PPG

Color

6.5 lb	Pilsner (DE)	Weyermann	Mash	37	2 °L
2.5 lb	Spelt (DE)	Weyermann	Mash	37	3 °L
6.5 oz	Turbinado	Any	Boil	44	8 °L

Hops:

Amount	Hop	Time	Use	Form	AA
0.35 oz	Mosaic	55 min	Boil	Pellet	12.8%
1.0 oz	Mosaic	10 min	Boil	Leaf	12.8%
2.0 oz	Mosaic	0 min	Boil	Leaf	12.8%

Yeast:

Name	Lab/Product	Attenuation
Saccharomyces "Bruxellensis" Trois	White Labs WLP644	85%

Notes:
9/7/15 (brew day)
Added 2g CaCl, 1g CaCO3, and 8g gypsum (CaSO3) to mash
Water: 8.5 gallons filtered Burtonsville water
Mash Water 3.5 gallons
Mash Thickness 1.25 quarts/lb
Strike Temperature 168
Mash Temperature 155
Mash pH: 5.24
Mash Time 60 minutes
Mashout: 1 gallon boiling, raise to 168
Sparge Water: 4 gallons
Sparge Temperature: 155.5
Sparge Time: 45 minutes
Boil Time: 55 minutes (x2 due to wort being split into 2 halves)
Cooled to ~70 degrees in ice bath, ~30 minutes per each half. Flameout hops added after moving to ice bath.
Split wort to one 3 gallon better bottle and four separate 1 gallon jugs. 2 quart yeast starter of Trois pitched into 3 gallon batch + a little bit in a container with a little less than a gallon of extra wort.
Weihenstephan Hefeweizen yeast, Tired Hands dregs, and Lacto Del pitched into each of the other three 1 gallon containers.
Massive fermentation in the 3 gallon better bottle, with airlock shooting off after only 3 hours and replaced with blowoff tube.

9/8/15
Tired Hands and Lacto Del batches also required a blow off by morning after brew day. Hefeweizen and extra Trois batches showing slow signs of fermentation.

9/9/15
1 gallon Trois batch showing vigorous fermentation and also received a blow off tube. Hefe version finally started bubbling during the day, not as intense a blow off as the others but solid fermentation activity.

9/13/15
Early tasting notes - Trois version is quite fruity (pineapple) but not as dry as I would like. Lacto Del is lightly sour but not overly exciting. TH version is nice, similar to previous versions but with less yeast and more hop characteristics than the last two batches. Hefe version is bland without much character from hops or yeast, might need to add something to make it worth drinking.

9/18/15
Moved the main Trois batch to keg and topped off with a little of the Tired Hands version (less than a quart). Moved to keezer at 33F, attached to gas, and cranked regulator up to 30 PSI. Hopefully this will carb very quickly.

9/20/15

Served this beer at the 4th Annual DC Homebrewers BBQ at 3 Stars Brewing Company. Got lots of feedback, mostly positive, including a few votes for the best homebrew there.  People seemed to agree that this was a nice, easy drinking beer, but it didn't do quite enough to blow people away and catch their attention as some of the other beers did. Seem to have enough left to get in a full tasting.

9/22/15

Tasting:

A: small white head sits on top of a cloudy pale yellow beer. Pretty for a cloudy wheat beer.
S- moderate fruity hoppy an yeast derived aromas dominate giving an impression of pineapple and guava.
T- more flavorful than the nose implies with more tropical juicy character. Fairly clean yeast character for a "saison" and it is hard to tell where the hops end and the yeast begins. The spelt and pilsner give a light sweetness and just a touch of grainy character.
M- moderate carbonation. Very dry but with a touch of lingering stickiness on the tongue that may be from the yeast or the spelt.
O- while not really a saison, more of an interesting take on an American wheat, it's an enjoyable and refreshing light summery beer, which is exactly what I told the people I served it to at the BBQ. Maybe my least favorite of the 3 versions so far, but still a nice beer. I would love to use Trois again after this beer, just not for this specific beer.