Hot, Quick and Thick

Last Friday, recognising that I was in the position of being unable to brew for almost a month and having Christmas coming up, I bought a slab of Windhoek Draught in 450mL cans for $40 to help see me through. There’s a sixpack of it left now, looking at the site I am hard pressed to argue with the claim that is is the most sessional beer in the Windhoek range.

A belated merry christmas to all my friends and family, and a happy new year.

One of the next beers on my list to brew is a Saison. Like a lot of styles I’ve never brewed or even tried one before, so the recipe is based on what I’ve read of the BJCP guidelines for the style and other people’s recipes I’ve read on the internet.

As summer’s hit I’m remembering that I sometimes struggle to keep any brews below low to mid 20′s. Until I get some better cooling set up (which is also on the to do list), I think a Saison should fit the bill perfectly. The only downfall at the moment is I’m moving house in around 3 weeks time so do not have time to fit another brew in, especially not a saison considering how long the yeast can take to ferment fully.

The recipe is, as follows:

30 IBU
OG 1.058
FG 1.011
(estimates only)

70% weyermann pils
20% weyermann munich
10% joe white wheat

Northern Brewer bittering
Glacier 10g @ 15
Challenger 10g @ 15
Spalt 10g @ 15

3724 Belgian Saison yeast

90min mash @ 66°C

60min boil

The gravity and colour are on the lower end of the style, as I want a good summer quaffer. A little malt but an attenuative wort, hopefully the high attenuation on the yeast won’t make it too dry, we’ll see. NB because I have plenty of it spare at the moment, Glacier to introduce a lemony flavour, Challenger for a marmaladey flavour and Spalt for a little spiciness. I know the yeast should introduce a fair bit of spiciness but I think a little more won’t hurt. No added spices for seasoning like a lot of recipes include.

I’ve got no idea what it’ll turn out like or if it will be true to style, but I’m looking forward to it.

That’s what this blog is about, beer. That is, the brewing and consumption thereof. I started brewing (or assisting the fermentation of) my own beer a couple years ago and since then it has grown to be by far my favourite hobby, that and the drinking. Along with the drinking comes the talking, if I’m not careful I will bend anyone’s ear on the subject if they express too much interest.

I am currently teetering between part-grain part-extract and all-grain brewing, I have been brewing partial mashes for just over a year now with the following setup:

First, we have the mash tun:

This sophisticated device holds 2.5kg of grain with 6L water, enough for a batch of approximately 20 litres or more with an additional 1.5kg liquid malt extract. Sparging is an additional 8 litres water in three consecutive batches.

Which brings me to the sparge arm. This incredibly technical device allows to me to achieve a staggering 70% brewhouse efficiency with a good crush:

From there we go to the kettle. Also shown in this picture is the hot liquor tank:

The kettle is a 19L job that cost me about that much from a cheap store. HLT is on loan till Mum wants it back.

Ultimately I end up doing boils of around 13 litres and add the extract at the end to avoid having a high gravity boil. It works out acceptably for some or most styles. More importantly, it’s a very simplistic setup requiring only a 6-pack esky, a cheap pot or two, an adequate heat source and a laundry sink for cooling.