'Tis the Saison

With the Goldings Pale Ale still in the fermenter with a couple ounces of dry hops, I felt the need to brew again, just so I can fall asleep to the burping of the airlock.  I got a shipment of yeast this week, with a couple packs each of Wyeast 3711 French Saison, 3638 Bavarian Wheat, and the limited release Pacman (Yay Rogue!).  Since saisons are one of my favorite beers, I thought I'd give it another whack - last time I made a saison, I accidentally made it imperial by not knowing my new all-grain system, resulting in a thicker, denser brew, almost a belgian golden ale instead.  Still tasty, and great to make mussels with, but definitely not the spicy, refreshing beer I was looking for.  I've really gotten to know my system since, so I formulated up a recipe based on Jamil Zainasheff's Raison D'Saison from Brewing Classic Styles.  The malt bill is pretty much the same, but I substituted the 3711 French Saison for the 3724 Belgian Saison called for in the recipe to really drive the FG down and give it a nice clean pepper note.  This time, I hit all my numbers within a gravity point or two, and this morning, I woke to the sweet bloop blip blip of fermenting beer.  

Calculated in BeerAlchemy

OG: 1.054
FG: 1.007
ABV: 6.3%
IBU: 29
Color: 6.1 SRM

Grain Bill
7 lbs. German Pilsener
0.5 lbs. Wheat

0.5 lbs. Munich I

0.5 lbs. CaraMunich III

1 lb. sucrose

Hop Schedule
Hallertauer Hersbrucker 3% - 2oz @ 60 mins
Hallertauer Hersbrucker 3% - 1oz @ knockout

Yeast
1 packet Wyeast 3711 French Saison

Mash
Single-step infusion @ 147°F 60 mins, batch sparge

Dogfish Head Aprihop

A beautiful, sunny, 90 degree spring day really makes me want to drink a brewski or two, so I stopped by the store and picked up a 4-pack of Aprihop, their spring seasonal.  It's an American IPA brewed with apricots, topping out at 7% ABV and 30 IBUs.  I'm not a big fruit-beer guy, but Dogfish head rarely disappoints, and certainly didn't with this one.

This clear orange ale pours with a thin white head that stays all the way down the glass.  Being Dogfish Head, they dry-hopped the crap out of it, this time with Amarillo, so a blast of citrus with a whiff of apricot hits you.  The taste is immediately of crystal maltiness with a bit of sweetness from the apricot, followed by a pleasant hop bitterness and a lingering fruity flavor.  Not being over-sweet, a body light enough to quench your thirst but heavy enough to have some presence, and an appropriate level of medium carbonation makes this a perfect beer to sip on the porch while reading a book.  

Allagash Fluxus 2009

I picked up a 750 mL of last years Allagash Fluxus, a beer which the friendly counter guy informed me is released every year on the anniversary of their new brewery, and is something different every time. For some reason, I'm not usually one to purchase Allagash on your average night.  I feel like it's always available, so there's no hurry to grab it, unlike, say, the newest Mikkeller.  This one is brewed with sweet potatoes and black peppercorns, both unusual ingredients which piqued my curiosity.

I cracked the bottle when I got home - unfortunately, it was a little too chilled for the style, which seems to be based on a saison.  The beer pours a hazy orange with a pillowy head which dissipates within a few minutes to a light lacing on the surface.  A spicy aroma, full of fruity Belgian esters and a touch of pepper, hits the nose.  In the mouth, an initial sweetness from the malt and  is immediately followed by a hop bitterness and a bit of spicy heat from the peppercorn.  The finish is a hint of rich, caramelized sweet potato.  The carbonation is light, and the beer is refreshing despite the 8.3% ABV.

Overall, I liked this beer quite a bit - too bad it's a one-off, because this would be a fantastic Thanksgiving libation!

Empty Kegs

Big weekend - finished off a keg of ESB and a keg of mild.  Good thing I have a batch of pale ale finishing up this week, because I am definitely out of beer.  I'm thinking about doing either a saison or bier de garde next weekend...

Goldings Single Hop Pale Ale

I just received a pound of US Goldings pellets, and I've been wanting something a little hoppier than the milds I've been making lately, so a pale ale it is.  


EDIT: Added 2oz. US Goldings dry hops after fermentation was complete.  CHange reflected in recipe below.

Calculated in BeerAlchemy

OG: 1.048
FG: 1.012
ABV: 4.8%
IBU: 41.4
Color: 5.3 SRM

Grain Bill
10.0 lbs. US 2-Row
0.5 lbs Caramel 40L

Hop Schedule
US Goldings - 2oz @ 60 mins
US Goldings - 1oz @ 30 mins
US Goldings - 1oz @ flameout
US Goldings - 2oz @ end of fermentation

Yeast
1 packet SafAle US-05

Water
1/2 tsp gypsum

Mash
Single-step infusion @ 152°F, 60 mins

Measuring SRM

I realize not many people have access to the necessary equipment to directly measure the color of a beer, but fortunately, I work in a research lab and have all this stuff sitting around, waiting to be used by curious brewers such as myself.  My most recent finished beer, an ESB, was just kegged and I've always wanted to try out the spectroscopic determination of beer color, so I though I'd give it a shot.
Wikipedia (which was the only source I could which gave the wavelengths needed for the process) defines the SRM (an acronym for Standard Reference Method - the output of the equation is in dimensionless units) of a beer as the absorbance at 430 nanometers times a constant and a dilution factor.

SRM = 12.7 * D * A, where D is the dilution factor (for an undiluted sample, D = 1, for a sample diluted 1:1 with deionized water, D = 2, 1:2 D=3, etc.) and A is the absorbance at 430 nm.

When I ran my ESB through, I got an absorbance of 1.36, which resulted in an SRM value of 17.3 -- what? An SRM of 17.3 is something expected from a dark lager, not a golden ESB. However, an EBC value of 17.3 looks right on, and conversion to SRM using the formula SRM = EBC * 0.508 results in an SRM of 8.8, which is close to the color calculated by my brewing software, 9.5.

Is Wikipedia wrong, or are my measurements incorrect? Does anyone have a reference for these measurements?

For those interested, here is my procedure:

1. Dispensed 35mL of beer into a centrifuge tube
2. Centrifuged at 10,000 RPM for 10 minutes
3. Passed supernate through a 0.3 micron syringe filter
4. Decanted filtrate to a small vial
5. Pipetted 3 mL into a plastic cuvette
6. Measured the absorbance at 700 nm (This measurement will tell you if your sample is clear of turbidity - a value under 0.039 times the absorbance at 430 nm means your sample is acceptably turbidity free)
7. Measured the absorbance at 430 nm

Results:
A(700) = 0.005784
A(430) = 1.36414

The Mash

Hello Internet, and welcome to The Mash, a beer, brewing, and fermentation-focused blog.

Before I was of legal age, I wasn't yet aware of the variety of beers available. Through mass media exposure, the only brews I was aware of were the standard macros, Guiness, Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, and Leinenkugel's (my dad's suds of choice). The first time I walked into a liquor store, I was amazed by the array of six-packs they had - and what the hell are bombers and growlers? I walked out with 6 bottles of something I bought merely for the cool looking skeleton dude holding a brewski on the label, Rogue Dead Guy Ale.

And I haven't looked back since.

I began homebrewing because I wanted to try to make something that tasted as good as that first sip of a real craft brew - something hoppy, malty, and above all, flavorful. I'm not sure that I've succeeded yet, but I hope that someday my beer can make someone realize that there's a bigger, bolder, and brighter world out there than PBR tallboys and Corona.

And that's what brings me here - I want to share my thoughts on beer and brewing, recipes, techniques, reviews, etc. Like the mash of a brew session, I hope that The Mash can be the start of something great, but if not, hey, it's still beer, right?