#3 Belgian Blonde 29Oct08

My third beer was an attempt to make something akin to Affligem Blonde, a favorite of mine in that style. One method technique I changed here was to "mash out" (adding water to the grains left behind from the initial mash) by adding 180F (instead of 170F) water. Supposedly the grain bed will cool the water enough upon addition that the water will still be below 170F (to avoid extraction of undesireable tannins, etc) and this will allow for better extraction of sugars from the grains. In reality, my mash efficiency improved about 10% with the higher mash out temp being the only major change, so I gotta give props to my LHBS (local homebrew shop) for the advice.

4 lb. Belgian (Dingemans) pilsner
1.0 lb Dingemans Cara-pils
1 lb Weyermann Vienna
4 oz Aromatic
10 oz oats
4 lb Briess pilsen light DME
1 oz E. Kent Goldings @ 45 min (plugs, 5%)
0.5 oz E. Kent Goldings @ 5 min (plug, 5%)
White Labs 575 (Ale blend), fermented @ 70F
6 oz corn sugar at bottling
6 gallon batch

Notes: Initial mash temp: 157 F; final temp 150 F after 60 min. Original gravity: 1.055 for a 63% mash efficiency. Fermented 10 days to a final gravity of 1.010. Rack to secondary and condition 1 week @ 70F. Bottle w/6 oz corn sugar and condition @ 70F 1 week.

Taste: Improved after ~1month in bottle. Flavors not as smooth. Disappointed with poor head retention. The increased oats definitely enhance a creamy mouthfeel. Consensus is the #2 Saison is much better, but head to head against Affligem blonde, my blonde was actually pretty comparable in character. But #3 Blonde is getting neglected due to the option of the #2 Saison. It's just that good.

#2 Saison 26Sep08

I made several changes to this beer in order to try and improve on my first beer:
1) Increase the amount of grain and DME by 1 lb each to make up for my low mash efficiency
2) Increase the amount of carapils and add flaked oats to increase body
3) Use 1 lb of malted wheat to increase head retention

Recipe:
3lb Belgian Pilsner (Dingemans)
1lb Weyermann wheat
1lb Cara-pils
6 oz Flaked Oats
4lb Briess light pilsen dry malt extract
1 oz E Kent Golding @ 45 min (5.0%, plug)
0.5 oz E Kent Golding @ 5 min (5.0%, plug)
0.5 oz Saaz @ 5 min (3.0%, plug)
White Labs #568 (Saison Blend), fermented @ 75F (avg house temp) in blanket-wrapped bucket

Notes:
Initial mash temp: 156 F, final mash temp 150 F. Original gravity was 1.056 for a lousy mash efficiency of 56%. Final gravity was 1.015 after 1 week. Transfer to secondary for 2 weeks. Add 6 oz corn sugar before bottling. Condition in basement.

This beer was a big hit. The body and flavors were much improved. Smooth with a nice mouth-feel. The hops were not as bitter, which I'll attribute to limiting my bittering hops to 45 min, and were well integrated throughout the body and finish of the beer.

#1 Saison 10Jul08

I never cared much for beer until I started traveling to Europe more often, and visiting Belgium in 2002 was a revelation of sorts. It's interesting that Germany and Belgium are neighbors, because they take polar opposite approaches to beermaking. Germany is famous for their "Reinheitsgebot"- a beer purity law originating in 1516 that stated German beer could only have three ingredients: water, hops, and barley (they didn't understand that bacteria did the fermenting back then). In Belgium, if yeast can ferment it, or if it might be a tasty addition (e.g. fruit, spices), it's still beer. Until the Reinheitsgebot was repealed in 1987, a wheat beer was illegal to sell in Germany as beer! Those whacky Germans!

The first beer I brewed was a Belgian Saison, my favorite style. A light (by Belgian standards) and dry beer, but with a lot going on in the flavor department. I brew the partial mash method (a marriage of all-grain and extract brewing). Details of my partial method procedure are in a separate posting.

Recipe:
4 lb Dingemans (Belgian) pilsner
0.5 lb 9L Crystal malt
0.5 lb Carapils
3 lb Pilsen light dry malt extract
1 oz East Kent Goldings (plugs, 5.6%) @ 60 min
1 oz Styrian Goldings (pellets, 2%) @ 5 min
White Labs #568 (Saison Blend), fermented @ 80F
5 oz corn sugar added before bottling

Notes: Fermentation was complete in 4 days. After 10 days, racked to secondary to clarify for 3 weeks @ 72F. Being my first beer, this took me forever to brew and I forgot to take an original gravity sample when I finshed @ ~1am. However, I didn't need an o.g. sample to know my mash efficiency was low once I tasted it. The beer was tasty, but very light. Considering it was summer, not such a bad thing. The flavor and aroma were nice. I was very disappointed with the head and head retention, and made some adjustments in my second beer.

Partial Mash: detailed method instructions

There are a few examples of partial mash instructions on the web, and when I get around to it I'll post some helpful links. But there are subtle varations and here's my excruciating details, which may help other beginners like myself.

· Put grains in nylon mesh bag. Tie at end.
· Heat 7 qt of water to 170F
· Add water to a modified 5 gallon Igloo cooler, modified according to the excellent instructions @ http://members.shaw.ca/Fly_Guy/mlt.htm except I had to get larger sized parts because my cooler's hole diameter was 1/8" larger
· Lower grains into cooler (measured temp 155F), poke to wet thoroughly , and mash (set) for
60 min. Temp will drop ~6 degrees during mash
· While mashing, heat 6.5 qt water to ~180F (no hotter, but slightly cooler is fine)
· When mash is completed, collect wort directly into 5 gal boil pot. No need to “recirculate”the wort to clarify
· Add the 6.5 qt of 180F water to cooler. Let sit for 10 min (temp dropped to ~165F)
· Drain into the boil pot to provide a total of ~ 3 gallons.
· Bring the wort to a boil
· Add bittering hops in a mesh bag and begin 45 min boil
· After 45 min (15 min remaining), remove bittering hops and add dry malt extract
· 10 min after adding DME, add flavor and aroma hops in a mesh bag
· Afer 5 min remove brewpot from heat and put in sink.
· Cool until 95F by gently stirring and draining multiple water baths from sink. Removed aroma hops bag after cooling.
· Do not let anything non-sterile touch the wort from now on!
· Sterilize (Star-san) fermenter, pitcher, strainer, yeast packet, ladel
· Add 2.5 gallons filtered water to fermenter
· Pour wort through strainer (to remove pellet hops) into fermenter to make ~5.5 gallons
· Aerate the wort by pouring back and forth between fermentation bucket and pot
· Pitch yeast
· Remove sample with sanitized ladel and measure Original Gravity
· Bubbler should be active by next afternoon
· When bubbling stops, remove sample with sanitized ladel and measure Final Gravity
· Rack to secondary, if desired, and condition for additional week or two to clarify
· Bottle: Sanitize autosiphon, bottling bucket, bottle caps.
· Clean bottles with jet washer
· Sanitize bottles in dishwasher (water only- no detergent!) for 45 min on heavy duty cycle (140F water)
· Boil 2c water and add 6 oz. corn sugar (high carbonation level). Add to bottling bucket and
then rack beer to bottling bucket. Stir after racking to make sure sugar is well mixed.
· Bottle and condition for 1 week @ ~70F.