Megin's Brew Day



Megin and Janel discussing Roller Derby Names



My friend Megin hasn't brewed in some time and wanted to get back into the hobby so she asked if I could come over and help her with a batch since it had been awhile. Megin said she wanted either a Wit, a Saison, or an Alt. Yeast selection at the LHBS would dictate our decision as there were only a few slants of yeast and none specific to any of the three styles. There was a slant of WLP 550, Belgian Ale yeast which we thought should work fairly well for a Saison.



The brew day started out extremely sunny although extremely windy but for late February we couldn't have asked for a better day to be outside. Actually a quick check with NOAA and the wind speed that afternoon was 45 mph with gusts to 58 mph. No wonder it got so cold when the sun went down and the sanitizer in the fermenter had frozen over by the time the wort was chilled.



Megin adding hops



I was glad Megin chose a Saison to brew as I have mentioned before, they are probably my favorite style to brew and to drink. I actually spent over two years brewing only Saison's with two exceptions (a barley wine and a dubbel), trying to recreate what Dany Prignon does with his seasonal Fantome's.  The "style" is so varied and unconstrained by narrow guidelines that it allows for creativity within the the style that no other defined brewing category does. Saison was traditionally brewed to be low in alcohol for field hands and the name comes from Saisonniere's (seasonal workers) but has since WWII climbed in ABV but can be found at various strengths in alcohol. Saison can be light or dark or orange or somewhere in between; hoppy or not; spiced with anything under the sun or not all; funky, tart, or clean. Aside from the creativity Saison allows through tradition, it also provides the opportunity to go from an entirely pilsner malt profile, or to add things like spelt, corn, oats, wheat, as well as caramel, and roasted malts. Sugar to raise alcohol and dry the beer out is also an opportunity to be creative and make your own candy sugar. Saison yeasts can effectively ferment above 90F with positive and unique results, providing a great opportunity to brew good beer during the summer in hotter climats. The beer has such an interesting and practical history coupled with a rustic and creative nature that makes it the perfect modern style to homebrew.  This recipe is pretty straight forward with a few traditional spices, a little lemon peel, and moderately bittered with noble hops.

The day after we brewed I received a text from Megin that the fermentation had not started, so I went over with a slant of WLP 530 Abbey Ale yeast that I had in the fridge, which isn't desirable but was our best option. This is a continuous problem getting bunk White Labs slants from my LBHS. I have never had issue with White Labs or any other yeast from mail order or other homebrew shops, but this is the fourth bad vial I have gotten from that store.

Megin's Saison Recipe:

Specifics:


Did I mention it got cold?

 Batch Size: 5.3 gallons

Anticipated OG: 1.060

Anticipated FG: 1.012

Anticipated SRM: 6.91

Anticipated IBU: 28.6

Grain:

8 lbs. 2-Row

2 lbs. Munich 10L

1 lbs. Wheat Malt

.5 lbs. Table Sugar (to boil)

Hops:

.5 oz Hallertau at 60 min

1 oz Hallertau at 20 min
1 oz Tettnang at 20 min
1 oz Hallertau at 2 min
1 oz Tettnang at 2 min

Yeast:
WLP 550 Belgian Ale (didn't begin fermentation)
WLP 530 Abbey Ale (added after one day)

Extras:

.5g Indian Coriander, crushed at FO

Star of Anise (1 pod) crushed at FO

Green Cardamom (5 pods) crushed

Lemon Zest (1 lemon) at FO

Brewing Notes:

Single infusion mash at 152F. Batch sparge at 170F for 20 minutes. Drew 7 gallons of preboil wort and boiled down to 5.3g in one hour.

Homebrew in the 1960's



This kept me from brewing for three weeks



Unfortunately I haven't posted in a bit and even more unfortunately I haven't brewed in over a month. This has been the longest dry stretch for me in a couple of years without firing up my kettle. Weather, work, and fun have been to blame. I spent three long weekends "helping" Quinn house sit at his aunt and uncles beautiful cabin in the mountains outside of Centennial, WY. It was a nice life, we fed the horses, stared at the cattle, played with five deaf and blind dogs who have retired from ranch life to become house dogs. We moved a lot of snow and drove the bobcat to town for cocktails. It was peaceful.

A couple of months ago when Quinn moved back to Wyoming from Bozeman, MT, he found a gross of bottle caps in the basement of his parents house that his father had purchased in the 1960's when he planned to begin home brewing. Bill never got around to making any homebrew but these interesting cork crown caps survived. In talking to some folks older than me, I learned that pop used to come capped with these in the 1950's and into the early 1960's. Kids would pry off the cork portion to reveal random free pop under the cap of certain brands. Kind of like getting an Indian shooting a star on your Tootsie Pop. Do stores still honor that? Someone should try it sometime. I guess I never thought about what the world before silicon. Anyhoo, I thought these caps were neat and wanted to share them.

My first thought was to use the caps for wine or a traditionally corked beer like saison, but the more I considered how to use the caps, the more I realized that it wouldn't likely impart a corked character and the cork was likely old and dry and not a very sound seal. Also, it would almost be a shame to use them up, so I have settled on trying a few here and there for fun but reserving the majority as a novelty. Yesterday I bottled three of my Brett B Biere de Garde with them and they seemed to work really well. I need to try some on a non-funky beer to determine if the seal is still effective.



Cork lined Crown Caps



I always wonder what it must have been like to homebrew before the advent of homebrew shops. I suppose there wasn't a homebrew shop prior to President Carter legalizing home brewing in the late 1970's, so up until that point people were creative with equipment and likely making mostly extract batches with bread yeast and malt extract. Yuck. My great grandfather's recipe for Prohibition beer survives somewhere but I haven't been able to find it since I was a teenager. I do remember that it called for using bread yeast, a bucket covered in cheese cloth and lighting a match over it to determine when it was ready.



A gross of caps for 85 cents?



Tomorrow I will get back to brewing as I am going to help my friend Megin get back into brewing herself as she has taken a hiatus from the hobby. No idea what we are brewing but I am looking forward to it. On Sunday I am going to the new brew pub in Cheyenne that opened up this week. It is in a beautiful historic building downtown and I will post some pics and a review of that as well.