Monday, August 19, 2013

Fresh Orange Saison

I'm really enjoying the articles, posts, and links that John is producing on the EastBayBrewing blog.  Keep up the great work, John!

I'd like to post a recipe I brewed on the second day of Summer this year.  It was seasonably hot so I chose a beer style that typically employs a higher fermentation temp, provided of course I chose the right yeast.  Fortunately my recipe worked, the beer was delicious, and provided a nice break from the sweltering heat. 

My Fresh Orange Saison recipe is derived from combining two different Saison recipes, one of which is from the Sacramento-based Hops To Table Magazine:

http://www.hopstotable.com/2013/04/19/saisonrecipe/

and the other recipe from notable San Francisco brewer Bennett Buchanan:

18 lbs Belgian Pale (could also use domestic or English 2-row)
Wyest French Saison yeast 3711 (or White Labs Saison II or Belgian Saison Blend)
Wyeast 3724 Belgion Saison (pitched at 80 degrees F)

Brewday Notes: 


4 lbs white wheat
1.5 lbs acidulated malt

1 oz Magnum (60 min)
1 oz Hersbrucker (15 min)
1 oz Hersbrucker (flame out) (we've also done it with 2 oz at flame out, depends how much hop aroma you want)

Both of the above recipes are for 10 gallon, AG batches.  My homebrew system allows for 5-6 gallon yields, so I reduced various ingredients by approximately 50% from each recipe above and developed my own "Fresh Orange Saison" with the intent of producing a crisp, easy drinking, session beer.  I achieved my goal with the following hybrid recipe:

9 lbs Belgian 2-row
2 lbs White wheat
0.75 lbs acidulated malt
7 oz flaked oats

Mash grains with 3.5G of 172 degree F water for one (1) hour.
Sparge 5.5 gallons of 172 degree water for another hour.

Hop additions for a 60 min boil were:
1 oz German Magnum (60 min) (see Brewday Note #1)
0.5 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker (15 min)
a snuff-sized pinch of Irish Moss (15 min)
0.5 oz Fresh Orange Peel (5 min) (see Brewday Note #2)

#1.  Approximately half of the G. Magnum (60 min) boiled over within a minute of the hop addition.  As an emergency back up I added 1/4 oz of Styrian Goldings (at 55 min).  I am known to make mistakes like this on brewday, and I always try to document those mishaps!  

#2. I picked the last orange of the season off a neighborhood tree earlier that morning.  I peeled the orange, removed the majority of the pith (white, spongy tissue on the inside of the peel) and quickly dehydrated the peel by placing it above the air conditioning unit in the 100 degree plus heat.  It worked great, the peel was completely dried within a couple hours.  

Fermentation occurred for the first week in a 6.5G glass carboy.  I racked to a secondary 5G carboy after 7 days, and racked again to another 5G carboy after 14 days.  During the 2nd racking I added 1/2 teaspoon of Knox Gelatin to 1 cup of boiling water, see John's gelatin link here: http://eastbaybrewing.blogspot.com/search/label/Gelatin%20Clarifying  

I then poured the water/gelatin into the tertiary carboy and gave the 5G vessel a swirl to distribute the gelatin throughout the beer.  A week later the result was a semi-clear beer (pictured) that became clearer after a week in the keg at 16 psi.  Unfortunately I have no idea what the ABV was because I forgot to take an OG reading.  Lesson learned!  I sure tasted like it may have been in the 4.0 to 4.5% range.  Perhaps some of you can tell by the picture below what the ABV is ;)



Happy East Bay Brewing -

Justin

2 comments:

  1. Great post, Justin, thanks for sharing! Our "Samba Saison" recipe shown above just won Honorable Mention at San Francisco Homebrewers Guild saison competition.
    http://sfhomebrewersguild.com/2013/08/19/results-of-the-sfhgs-belgian-independence-saison-competition-released-at-our-recent-homebrew-share/

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  2. Fantastic showing at the SFHGS, Bennett, and congratulation on the award. And thank you for sharing that Samba recipe with me, I will be repeating it in the very near future and will post the results again. Long live the Fresh Orange Samba!

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