brew

Saison sans spice

The saison has an unassuming nose and the first flavor term that comes to mind is weird. It’s acidic and just bordering on sour but not quite there. Rather than spicy I find it fruity. The finish is dry with a bit of bitterness but still nothing spicy. Otherwise there’s not much hop presence. I don’t think I’d identify this as a saison in a blind taste test, but looking over the style guidelines it might be my expectations that are miscalibrated. The pepper flavor I associate with the style is definitely missing, but the tart and fruit that I find weird is apparently appropriate. Perhaps a higher fermentation would yield more of the spicy notes.

The recipe is properly old world with a base of 8# 6oz pilsner. Ten ounces each of wheat and munich malts as well as 2oz caramunich round out the mashables. We also added 13oz of white sugar to the boil to encourage a drier finish. This one was a 90 minute mash and boil. The boil part is typical with pils but I was a bit surprised at the longer mash; normally that seems to go along with mildly flavored beers. An ounce and half of Hallertauer at sixty minutes and three-quarters more at flameout are in charge of bitterness. 1.064 OG was very close to target. We fermented with WLP565 Saison yeast and made a point of putting the fermenter in a warmer part of the house. FG clocked in at a nice dry 1.008.

Wheat a la Begium

This spiced ale has one of the odder ingredient lists thusfar. Malt was straightforward enough with 4.75# of Pilsner, 4.5# of wheat malt, and 4 oz of Munich. This one actually called for rice hulls to keep the mash manageable. We used a three stage mash with a 15 minute protein rest, an addition of boiling water to get to a 150s mash temperature, and then one more addition at the end to reach mash out temp.  An ounce of hallertauer at sixty minutes is simple enough but the five minute additions were more interesting. We tossed in 1.5 oz of fresh orange zest, 0.4 oz ground coriander, and a gram of dried chamomile from cutting open herbal tea bags. Gravity at the end of a ninety minute boil was 1.053; fermentation was with WLP 400 Belgian wit yeast.

The wit looks great with wonderful, wheaty head retention. The coriander is strongly present in the aroma along with hints of citrus. The flavor is similar except I find the sweet orange taste is a bit more forward. Bitterness is very close to none. I think the chamomile comes through in the finish and the aftertaste but that could be only because I know it’s there. I really like the alternate take on a wheat beer. It’s crystal clear as opposed to the cloudiness of a hefe and much more delicately spiced.

St Louis Style H20

Beer flavored water, take two. Once again it’s American two row and flaked rice weighing in at just over 7# and 1.75# respectively. It was a ninety minute mash followed by a ninety minute boil with 0.75 oz of hallertau hops at sixty minutes. This recipe is practically identical to the lite American lager with a bit more gravity and a bit more hops. Yeast was also the same: WLP 840 American lager. OG was exactly on target at 1.046 and after primary fermentation plus lagering it finishing at 1.010.

This pale golden beer looks perfect. I can see straight through it with great clarity. It tastes like very nearly nothing. Up front is a light touch of sweetness, the finish dries away, and that really is everything. The style guide actually say strong flavors are a fault. The situation almost merits a Douglas Adams style anti-simile. The beer tastes exactly like an IPA doesn’t. I guess the brew process was well executed, but now that we’ve been through several subtly flavored styles I’m less impressed by the result. Basic clean flavors are a baseline expectation now rather than an appreciated sign of solid technique.

Pleasant Pub Pint

Our first entry in category eight! The British base malt was 6.5# of Maris Otter and flavor malts were 6 oz caramel 120 and 3 oz special roast. Run of the mill mash and boil wound up a hair over style with a gravity of 1.042. The hop schedule was nothing but East Kent Goldings: an ounce at sixty minutes and another half ounce each at thirty minutes and one minute. Rounding out the English ingredients was WLP 002 ale yeast.

A nicer golden color than I expected; there’s a bit of caramel in the aroma but it doesn’t come through strongly in the taste. The hop aroma is earthy and perhaps even just a little bit minty. The overall flavor is decidedly more bitter than I expected. In fact, I don’t think there’s much in the way of complementary flavors – starts bitter, finishes bitter. There’s a decent amount of body for such a moderate beer. All in all a pleasant little session beer. I now feel like I have a great idea what kind of bitterness EKGs impart.