I think I've lost count of how many brews the DRB has had on tap, but I can start counting the all-grain batches. Above is a photo of my first Saison. I blogged about the brewing process a few weeks ago. This was my second all-grain batch, and it went even smoother than the first one. The gravity dropped to 1.011, and because I was so busy this past week, I ended up kegging one of the carboys and brewing a wheat that I've re-used the Saison yeast with. The Saison turned out wonderful. It's cloudy, but has a wonderful orange hue to it. The taste is awesome, a bit of an orange sweetness to it, with a pepper type spice and other flavors whirling around. Every time I drink some, I find a different flavor.
Here's the Wheat recipe - it's an extract batch, and let me tell you, extract was so easy after doing all grain, I feel like I could do a batch in my sleep, or when I get up in the morning before work.. haha. But, this was probably even easier than other extract batches I've done:
7 lbs. Bavarian Wheat DME
1 oz. Saaz Hops (full boil)
1/2 oz. Orange Peel (final 15 mins.)
1/2 oz. Crushed Coriander (final 15 mins.)
I transferred the Saison to a keg and immediately pitched the cool wort on top of the yeast cake. Within 5 hours activity started and continued for 3 straight days. It's slowed down now, and I've wrapped it in an electric blanket to get it a little warmer. I'll probably take a reading this weekend to see how the gravity is doing.
I'm also going to rack my second Saison to a secondary for a clearing stage before I bottle it. I still need to get some bottles for the Saison, I'm going to put them in bombers instead of smaller bottles, and will probably let them sit for quite a while before cracking into them.
What's next? Well, I think the DRB has seen enough of summer beers, we're ready to move on to maybe something hoppy or dark. I might do a quick 5 gals of a Pale Ale and am eventually going to do a weizenbock for my autumn beer. After that, who knows! I probably need to work on consuming the product before I think about brewing more.. I'm eventually going to run out of carboys! A good problem to have.. :)
Posts
