Dry Hopped Sour Saison (and Topper)

When it came time to bottle the Saison du Bruegel, I needed something to put on the yeast cake...I decided on a sour saison.  Brewed on 1-29-17.

While saisons are supposed to be slightly sour or notably bitter, people rarely do a sour one.  So, with the American style saison yeast (saison parfait from Bootleg Biology) and some Nelson Sauvin hops eyeballing me in the shop, I decided to make a sour, dryhopped saison. 

Saison du Bruegel

So, fancy yeasts are hard to get up here, beyond some wyeast...so when I saw that Bootleg Biology had homebrew pitches up for sale, I jumped on it; purchasing the Saison Parfait (clean), Funk Weapon 3 (a fruity and mildly funky brett), and their Sour Solara Fall 2016 (full on mixed culture).  This recipe came about by my wanting to quickly use the Saison yeast with a rustic, multi-grain saison.

Wizards Wit

A couple of months ago, I tried Anchorage Brewing's Whiteout Wit; it was delicious.  Bold lemon and spice, refreshing, and only a hint of any funk from the Brettanomyces the company used in it.  Flavoured with lemon peel, corriander, black pepper, and using Sorachi Ace hops (to further the lemony goodness).

Apfel Fermented Blonde Ale

I got to eyeballing the German Sweet Apfelwein the other day--there are a good couple pounds of pureed granny smith apples resting on the bottom.  And I just know that the apple cider isn't going leech all the flavour out of them--especially given that I will have to leave all that and more behind when I rack, otherwise I won't get the apfelwein to clear.

Rye Tripel (1gal BIAB)

I have never had a rye beer.  There, I've said it.  This isn't for lack of desire, so much as I haven't really seen a good quality one in my area that wasn't also an IPA (most annoying, actually).  Therefore, I set out to make my own.

Still not the best pic, I know.

Spruced Up Belgian Quad

Welp...I decided--more or less--that I was going to start brewing 1 gallon all grain batches.  I figure that it is easier--less water and weight, even if not less actual work and time--and if I do it right I can get a pipeline of a gallon every week or so.  Plus getting experience with my system and recipe creation, which is even more important.  Weekish for fermentation, week for secondary/cold crashing/dry hopping....and a month or so for bottle conditioning.  Oh well.

Anyways, I brewed the first one today.  I originally put together the (unmodified) grain bill as a Belgian IPA, after trying the Stone Brewing 08-08-08 Encore (which I have succeeded in culturing yeast from, btw.  But haven't tested it yet, and don't know what variety it is.).  Well....then it got cold out, and I got thinking that maybe a strong dark ale would be better.  This was /after/ buying the original grain bill, of course.
I still plan to make the Bel IPA soon, mind.  

Rosehip Tripel (and small beer)

At some point in the last few months, I decided to brew something...complicated--a brett finished Tripel with--second use--rosehips.  That second use is the key--the plan was to use the rosehips in a mead (1.5 gallon, approx), ferment the rhodomel on them for five days or so, before racking a gallon of the young mead off into a smaller vessel, and racking the Tripel on them for a secondary fermentation.  At some point around then, I intend to add brett brux (from Anchorage Brewing dregs) and let it age.

I decided to use the second runnings in a "mini-mash" to make a small table beer.

Walnut Belgian Graff: Brew Day

Some time ago, I had a thought that I wanted to make a beer (or cider) with walnuts--I originally chose a Belgian tripel based cider, lightly hopped.  This...did not work.  The grain bill ended up putting it more on the lighter end of the Strong Dark Ale spectrum--which I really have no problem with.

Anyways, I wanted a high abv cider with malted grains, a good degree of maltiness and no hops, flavoured with a couple of spices (vanilla and cinnamon) as well as subtle walnuts.  My recipe and notes are below.
I have heard of issues coming from brewing with nuts, but decided I don't really care...the issues are with head retention, something I consider nice, but not necessary.  Regardless, I added some wheat malt to possibly help with that (the jury is out on whether the addition of wheat helps with head).

I used my standard procedure for graffs--mash the grains, then use a prolonged boil to reduce the malt almost to a syrup.  At flame out, add other sugars and the apple juice (which quickly cools the wort), and siphon into the carboy.  Because there are no hops, I did not have to worry about oxygenating or light.
My mash was done with the BIAB method--I found it worked quite well, although it was tricky to keep the temperature constant (neither did I really care, so long as it was between 145-155...the low end will be closer to style, the upper end closer to what I like)....I cannot complain about the results, given my efficiency (and will be using the method again).

As for the yeast; it is unavailable commercially, and I could not find out what it may be.  I pitched the dregs from a bottle of Ommegang's Abbey Ale into a half gallon of apple juice to grow a good starter.  Repeated it, with another 1/2 gallon to check the flavour (don't ferment cold...the strain throws off sulfur), then pitched 2 oz of the lees from that batch into the graff wort.  If you don't want to try "culturing" your own from a commercial brew, just use whatever appropriate Belgian yeast you wish...something with moderate esters.  Some sources (mrmalty) says that the Ommegang strain may be the White Labs Belgian Wit II...or it may not.
(After tasting the second batch of test, I like the flavours--it gives off some nice, tart, fruitiness, once most of the yeast has dropped).

Malty, Appley, Caramelly goodness.  With maybe a hint of walnut.