I have not brewed any beers in at least 5-6 months, simply because it takes much longer to go through what I brew and I also drink other craft beer, since social interactions have become less frequent with people due to Covid-19 – time has come to brew a new beer!
A few good months ago now, Mute Dog brewing has hooked me up with a few different yeasts, one of them is a Abbey Culture, a wild yeast “originally harvested it from honey I got from a neighbor of mine in 2012”, other characteristics:
” it’s also quite fruity, maybe leaning toward pineapple, but mostly just generically fruity, like bubblegum “
” A lot of saison yeasts express a somewhat assertive black peppery phenol. Mine is more subtle, like mild clove and vanilla. “
” Oh, it’s also very highly attenuative, so whatever you make with it is going to end up pretty dry. Expect FG to be 1.006 or below (maybe a bit higher if you make a huge beer, but not much higher). “
” Also, it’s highly alcohol tolerant, it has produced beers of 12-13% with no problems. I used it to make a sake and it went to 20+% “
” I’ve run it from 48-105°F it doesn’t seem to care. It goes a bit faster at warmer temps, obviously. “
” It’s good in Saison, though maybe not as spicy as some might like it. Great in Beire de Garde, also makes an excellent Wit, Dubbel, Tripel, & Quad. Also tasty in cider. “
At first the yeast was slow, it was in the fridge for a while, so it took a few good days to come out of sleep, but once it did, it started to move nicely.
about a week later it finished and here is a quick sample from under the microscope at 400x magnification, the slide was actually dirty, but I just wanted a quick glance… btw even at 1,000x you bearly (bears, hehe) see the inside structure of the individual yeast cell, you really need much better microscope, but optical cuts off at about 1,000x without loosing quality.
Almost a month later, the fermentation is over with FG-Final Gravity of 1.006 / starting gravity SG was 1.064- this should be a solid 8% Beer! Now we are going to age them, we got a total of 10 gallons clean beer….
Here is how the yeast looks after all the beer was removed (bottom of conical fermenter), yes yeast was collected to save into some empty jars and stored in fridge for next time.
Conclusion, there are risks with Wild yeasts, but if you find the right stuff and you are willing to invest the time and effort into it, you will be beyond rewarded, life is short, take more risk!
On 2/12/2021 – I brewed a 10 gallon batch of Storm Surge Baltic Porter, rated at 9.6% ABV. This beer has a large grain bill, as in expense, almost $70 just for the grains.
Also reused the grains and reboiled for 30 minutes, with whole homegrown hops added to the mash tun, to get a 5 gallon batch of lower ABV beer around 5%, which is a great technique to get more beer, literally for free.
I will post the full recipe details later, but some details:
About the Mash: 90 Minute Mash at 148F, at end of Mash the temp fell to about 142F, so then slowly started reheating to mash-out temp of 165F, an extra 25 minutes.
This year yet again we pressed some asian pear and mixed apple juice to make hard cider. I used a press that a friend of mine has access to via membership through a local tool library in Seattle, but I recon you can also buy one if you will press enough apples or use it frequently to justify its expense.
Here we were pressing some juice from mixed asian pears from a single nice mixed grafted tree, it produces one 5 gallon bucket of pears which give us about 2 gallons of juice:
you notice the light colour from the pear juice compares to a different colour from the apples:
To Make either apple or pear hard cider is easy…. you can use any fermentation container really, even growlers and if you don’t have an air lock, simply put some aluminum foil over it, the gas will escape and prevent anything going inside, the positive pressure should prevent anything going inside as well.
Crush and put some campden tablets into your fermentation container and let its do its thing for 24 hours, and allows gas exchange so that sulfur dioxide can escape. This process will kill any bad things from the collecting process of the pears/apples, bacteria and wild yeasts.
you can use many different yeasts, including wine yeasts.. some people naturally ferment it with natural yeast, but this is more risky and you never know how it will turn out, as each time the yeast and results could be and will be different…
After 24 hours, add your yeast of choice and let it ferment. To clear later you can cold crash it in the fridge for the cider to clear up, and there are many different natural agents you can add to clear up the cider as well, such as bentonite clay.
You can even transfer to another container and leave any sediment behind to further finish the fermentation and help to clear up the cider, which is recommended. Once all done, you can naturally carbonate with priming sugars or force carbonate with co2 gas if you already have this equipment.
So this is basically a regular Blonde Ale recipe using a Scottish yeast, the Scottish Ale #1728
this yeast is pretty versatile, we did the Scottish Scotch Ale previously, so wanted to re-use it in something else and also save about $10 – a good house yeast – https://wyeastlab.com/yeast-strain/scottish-ale
grains for a 10 gallon batch:
20 lbs of 2-row Premium ( use a local grain if able and keep this beer regional )
1 lb of crystal 15Love
hops:
1 ounces of Willametter hosp at 15 minute to end of boil and 1 ounce at end of boil
yeast:
Scottish Ale #1728
OG was 1.052 for a beer about 5.5%
total cost of grain and hops was $36.30 / we had the yeast from last brew so re-used, save money…
In addition to the primary brew, for the last year – we have been re-boiling the primary grain at 1/2 volume, so 5 gallons, adding whole hosp (its a mushtun so its ok) and you can even add a little bit DME, we added 1/4 lb to bring up the ABV% a bit. This nice #hack allows you to use different hops if you want and even different yeast using grain that you normally throw away – Yay to #freebeer
Yes, this beer will be a lighter body of the primary style, but it almost becomes a completely different beer in it’s own right, if I didn’t tell you it was a re-boil, you wouldn’t know anything different.
About two and a half months ago, in the middle of our Regional Pandemic, I brewed this Scottish Ale. It felt weird and strange brewing it in the middle of the happening.
Basically the recipe was used the same as last time, more updates later, Cheers for now!
Below are our photos (is lighter than in the picture), should be – amber color, you should see through the glass to the other side.
Cheers!!!
Today we are sharing a recipe of another fellow brewer from the Brew Nerds Community on Google+ ( thanks for permission to share your recipe Bryan Carr!! )
Here is his recipe:
OG: 1.100 FG: 1.025 ≈ 9.8-10.0 %
Grain: 15# Maris Otter 1.5# Crystal 60 0.5# Crystal 120 2 oz Roasted Barley 2 oz Chocolate
Hops: 0.5 oz Fuggle @ 90 0.5 oz Fuggle @ 60 1 oz Northdown @ 15
Yeast: WLP028 White Labs Edinburgh, 1L starter with 3 vials… call it overkill.
Mashed at 146 F for 60 minutes, then brought it up to 156 F for 30 minutes. Mashed Out at 170 F and collected roughly 9 gallons of wort for the boil. It had a 90 minute (rigorous) boil, and final volume of 5.5ish gallons.
Fermented at 70 F in primary for 1 month, then dropped it down to 58 F degrees in secondary for 2 months. Bottle conditioned for 6 weeks.
//
For our 10 gallon recipe (based on grains/hops/yeast) that we have access to we picked:
30 lbs of Golden Promise, at $1.30 a pound
3 lbs Crystal 60 Lov., at $1.85 a pound
1 lbs Crystal 120 Lov., at $1.85 a pound
4 ounces or 1/4 lb Chocolate malt 350 Lov., at $1.90 a pound
We couldn’t get a hold on the Northdown – substitute Perle hops // also got the Fuggles (multiplied for a 10 gallon batch). For yeast – Scottish Ale #1728 – using a 2000ml starter.
Further brew details and pics later…
OG was 1.086, FG was 1.014 // so basically 10%
The beer tastes awesome only 1 week out of fermentor (one week in fridge/keg), test pour.. the classic chill haze is there, but a few weeks later it will all naturally clear up, follow-up photo later.. Very drinkable only after 1 week – so I think we have a winner here!
Beer came out delicious – this yeast/beer needs conditioning and aging, right off the bat it doesn’t taste all that good, but give it 3 months and what a difference, give it even more time and my ohhh my – Cheers!
We brewed the Saison on right after New years using the Wyeast 3724 strain to ferment starting at room temperature. As expected it stalled at around 1.032 (read up on this yeast if you are not familiar), raising temperature to about 90F is recommended with this wild beast, but I was super busy and wanted to see what happens if you leave it alone. “A lot” slower, but a few weeks later it eventually reach 1.012 on its own, attaining about 7% ABV, from SG of 1.065. I have decided to keep it even longer for higher ABV, to get a drier Beer, as this yeast is more than capable. In addition to the primary brew, we also brewed a Light version by re-heating the grain at 50% of original volume.
My technique is to reheat in the mashtun and take advantage of the grain acting as filter, thereby adding whole hops right into the re-boil and not worrying about hop stuck. I re-heating to bring to a boil and then cook for about quick 25 minutes – yes, the dynamics change here a bit vs. normal primary brew, but the final product is always great Light beer.
Light beer pic below: 3% ABV
Primary beer pic below: 7% ABV
The light beer comes out Straw color, is very easy to drink and swallow, Low ABV at about 3%, maybe even a bit lower 2.8%
Brew in 2017: Belgian Raspberry Saison
picture below ( wort after mashing finished, continually recirculated ):
4/9/2017:
Today we have brewed a Belgian Saison – using the Wheast 3724 strain. If you read about this strains feedback and requirements from the manufacturer and other people’s experiences, you will quickly realize that this is not a beginner strain. If you are starting out and lack precise heating control in your fermenting environment (or some heat control), then you perhaps should go with a different strain, like the Wheast 3711 or perhaps offerings from other vendors like, White Labs., but check the requirements and do a little research for which ever yeast you decide to go with.
The temperature range for this strain is between 75 ~ 95F, it is a high attenuator 75-80% / which will give you that dry classic Saison profile beer. The grain profile for this brew was more complex than for the French Saison. We used regional hops from England.
For precise heat control management and data capture for later analysis, we of course use the Beeruino, it logs all the variables we need and allows us to monitor and tweak the temperature as the yeast gives you feedback on what to do.
We will post more details later including the exact recipe and final details on ABV.
The starting OG was 1.044 on this beer (11 gallons) and we take samples (gravity reading, date) over time as it ferments and quickly transform that into a plot using R to show what is going on.
[wpedon id=4272]
OG <- as.numeric(c('1.044','1.033','1.012','1.010','1.006'))
class(OG)
DATE <- as.Date(c("04/09/17","04/13/17","04/27/17","04/30/17","05/06/17"), "%m/%d/%y")
class(DATE)
observations <- as.data.frame(OG)
observations$DATE <- as.data.frame(DATE)
summary(observations)
with (observations, plot(DATE, OG, type="o", col="blue", ylab="gravity reading", xlab="Date") )
the resulting R plot (using simple x over y axis)…
On the 4th week we added 2lb of frozen raspberries / and waited a week extra.
Video before shows how I blend frozen raspberries. Total volume added was 3/4 of a gallon – I mix warm water with frozen raspberries, otherwise its difficult to get them blended.
On Friday 5/12/2017 the heat was turned down to 78F and I let the temperature fall so that everything settled to the bottom of the fermentor. You can ferment longer after the addition of the raspberries to let things integrate longer, maybe 3 weeks total after fruit addition.
Here is how the color looks before and after / also for testing purposes its always a good idea to leave some of the original beer before fruit was added to see how they compare.
left = before adding fruit
right = after addition of fruit
This yeast likes heat!
Make no mistake about it, this yeast like heat right from the start, 80F minimum is perfectly ” a ok ” even as soon as you pitch. Some people like to gradually raise it by a degree per day or so, but I think that this is totally unnecessary.
Most other strains when fermenting at these temperatures would result in a beer that tasted like a combination of gasoline and nail polish remover, seriously, so for this reason a lot of people naturally are wary of starting at higher temperatures. Be warned that if you start with a warmer starter, and pitch into a cooler wort say 68F / this yeast can stall right away and you might not even see fermentation – which probably will freak you out. As that’s exactly what happened the 1st time we did this, simply raise your temps to 75, then 80, then 85, 5F per day and let it sit there. Agitate your fermentor if you can once in a while.
Stalling – did I say already that this yeast is notorious for stalling ? It doesn’t matter if you are an experienced brewer, it has a mind of its own, it will stall, maybe on your first try or 5th try. Also – this yeast can be slow – so a lot of people will confuse that with stalling, but it just takes time.
This strain will most likely stall around 1.035, for us it was 1.033, just ramp up the temp and take a vacation, you will have to wait a few weeks.
Make a big starter – for this brew we only made a 1000ml starter, but bigger is better with this strain of yeast, next time we will do 2000ml starter at bare minimum.
This yeast *may* be pressure sensitive.
Some research indicates that this yeast could also be stalling because of the pressure created inside the fermentor from co2 gas, and therefore some people open ferment, maybe put some aluminum foil over the exhaust.
What we actually did was use an air lock, because not a lot of pressure is needed to move the air lock up, but more is needed to overcome the water resistance enacting over the fermentor when the blow-off tube is sitting in a container full of water.
But think about it, maybe that’s really what an exciting brew is all about, brewing becomes a little bit boring after a while, if everything comes out like clock work ” as to be expected ” and there is no element of mystery, what is going on in there, hello yeast, knock knock, anyone there ?
This Saison will reward you with a wonderful complex peppery-fruity flavor, people will be breathing down your neck, they will beg!!
The ABV can range anywhere between 5 ~ 7.5%, it all depends on your recipe and what you are looking for.
Detailed observations to come, stay tuned!!!
Grains used:
22 lbs – German Pilsner
1 lb – Vienna
1/2 lb – Munich
1 lb – Caramunich
1 lb – Wheat
Hops:
2 ounce at start of boil – East Kent
1 ounce at 5 minutes to flame off – Styrian Hops
Yeast:
Wyeat 3724 1000ml starter
Cost:
The more complex the grain bill is, the more it will cost ( specialty grains cost more per pound compared to base 2-row grain ) – for all ingredients ( grain, hops, yeast, raspberries ), total was $72 with tax – this brewed 11 gallons, which means that we average about $6.50 per 1 gallon of awesome, fantastic beer. Tell me where you can go and buy a gallon of Belgian Saison with Raspberry for $8 bucks ( no where ), most breweries sell Belgian by a small glass and that cost $8/$12 per glass, forget buying a growler to take home or a gallon.
The biggest cost was the German Pilsner, at $1.79 per pound.
Here is how it looks at only 1 week out of the fermentor with a quick cold crash in the fridge – ( tart, dry and a good hint of fruit ), very drinkable, now we age and see how it transforms and refines over time.
In conclusion – if you want a stronger/sharper raspberry flavor, remove beer about a week after addition of the fruit from the fermentor, however; if you want it more smooth and less fruity, let it ferment longer 3 weeks up to a month after addition of fruit. You can also have both worlds, by removing half of it and half later from the fermentor, and also save some without fruit additions so that you can compare it all.
7/28/2015 – on Sunday we are brewing a slightly different variation this year. 80% Pilsner, 10% Vienna, 10% Wheat. Columbus for bittering and Saaz for Aroma hops // using French Saison Yeast #3711 by Wyeast. In addition we will use Raspberries during secondary conditioning for a – French Raspberry Saison… Also we will shoot for at least a Double, so approx. 9% ABV+. The colour we are looking for is a farmhouse straw!
The two pics below were a test pour out of the Fermentor at 2 weeks, the classic staw Farmhouse Ale colour was spot on. The beer tasted awesome as well, only will get much better with time.
Raspberries also come through the best in beers for the flavor, taste and their overall profile. It can turn some beer slightly sour with an unexpected benefit!
OG this time was 1.068… FG was 7 days later (1 week fermentation), for a final of 1.005 – which would put this beer at a approximate 8.30% // not too shabby!
Now to Age // CHEERS!
Here is how the beer looks like at mashout…
and here is how it looks like after 1 week of fermentation with the raspberries added to the fermentor at day 3.
7/20/2014 – we used 12 pounds of grain (per recipe percentage proportions), and 1/2 lb of Belgian Candi sugar (that’s all we had left).. OG – 1.049, FG – 1.009
ABV % – 5.25%
Belgian Saison Ale
Historically a Saison is a french style farm beer, brewed in Fall/Winter for the next season – a harvesting/farmer drink. These days many variations exist, and many good articles too – Google for additional research and ask questions if you are not sure about something.
If you want a traditional Saison don’t add any spices or orange/lemon peels and use traditional German hops like the Noble or something regional from the French area – since this is a traditional French beer. We also like East Kent (even tho they are from the UK) and Styrian – these add a sweet edge to the beer.
Traditional Sainson’s are bottle conditioned and highly carbonated. Color can be Golden to Amber, ABV 3 ~ 5%, modern Sainson can be as high as 6.5%+. Should be moderately hoped to balance out the maltiness for all ABV variations.
Age: 1 ~ 2 months, and up to a year+
60 minute standard mash, some people even do a 90 minute mash
We will post out ( OG , FG ) and final ABV later.
85% lbs domestic Pilsner // we like to use the German Pilsner Malt as substitution.
10% Wheat
5% Euro Caravienne
Hops / Additional ingredients:
Once you achieve a rolling boil, set timer:
At start-of-boil add 1.5 oz of Styrian Golding Hops and 1 lb of Light Belgian Candi
At 5 minutes end-of-boil, add 1 oz of Sweet Orange Peel or lemon peels – depends what you want – ( skip peels for a traditional Seison )
At 2 minutes end-of-boil, add 1 oz of Noble Hops
Yeast:
Wheast #3711 seems highly recommended by other brewers, Wheast #3724 was reported to be slow and a pain-in-the-ass. Yeasts by White Labs was recommended, choose a proper yeast for a true Saison beer.
5-gallon secondary batch – here we use 6 gallons of water, added 2 ounces of whole hops into the grain (false bottom will prevent whole hop clog), bring to boil and do a short 30 minute boil, adding hops at a reduced time ratio. We also added (1lb dry light dry malt extract dme) to help with OG.
Hops:
2.0 whole hops Yakima – start of boil
0.5 ounce Norther Brewer hops – start of boil
0.5 ounce Fuggles last 10 minutes of boil
30 minute boil. You might still get a stuck mash, so mashing out at a higher temp helps – I used a strong pump to suck and get it flowing, cool down the temps while recirculating (if no pump), good luck.
Here is how the secondary batch looks like after 3 weeks of fermentation and a quick co2 charge, it tastes light and is very easy to drink, creamy head with a chocolate taste, pretty damn good beer. The beer is at about 4.5%
this beer came out delicious! – slightly on the sweet side with a hint of a hop after taste…
Today I am brewing a Brown London Ale using Wyeast 1318 yeast, which is a “London Ale III”.
Here I will do my standard 10 gallon batch sparge, but also do a 2nd running on the (same grain) and brew a secondary 5 gallon batch. I’ve done this before and you basically get 50% more beer with the same grain bill, just a bit weaker beer.
For this I always like to start with a high-er gravity beer, like 6% or higher, and then this way your secondary will end up around 5%+
In your secondary, you do have an option to add more DME or like in this case, we added 1/2 pound of Dark Brown Sugar. In the second batch you have the freedom if you want to use a totally different hop profile or even yeast. Of course you can keep everything the same, like I did.
malt:
primary 10-gallon grail bill:
18 lbs Golden Promise
5 lbs Munich Malt
1.5 lbs Crystal 15
1.5 lbs Crystal 60
0.60 lbs Chocolote malt, 200 Love
0.50 lbs Dark Brown Sugar
secondary running – same grain on a 5 gallon batch, plus 0.50 Dark Brown Sugar.
hops:
10 gallon – batch 1.5 ounce Cascade whole hops on 10 gallons from start of boil and 1 ounce of Willametter at 15 end of boil
5 gallon 2nd running – exactly the same
yeast:
London Ale III – Wyeast 1318 yeas
On the 2nd running I will use 6 gallon of water, re-heat it only and then transfer out of mash tun to the boil to finish it off, with standard 1 hour boil.
OG on 10 gallon – 1.06 – about 6% + – this one fermented for only about a week, and it comes out nice and sweet, I bet if you let it go longer it will end up higher ABV and less sweet, if you like this.
OG on 5 gallon – 1.04 – FG was 1.004 but also I left it in the fermentor for over a month, it comes out nice and clear and lighter color, more like a Newcastle Brown (also way better), so this comes out at a surprising 4.7% – so basically a 5% beer – see pic below:
Some nice outcomes from the secondary running is that the grain had more time to cook, so it is a little more of a roasty/nutty flavor, and in a English Brown Ale that is not a bad idea.
About 5 weeks ago we brewed a Blonde Ale / here I wanted to experiment more with the wild yeast culture that I have collected from raspberries in summer of 2018. This is my second attempt, the first was brewing a low ABV beer, but even here I think letting it ferment for more than the original 1 week would have been better. I finished fermenting in the bottles, so I am glad I didn’t use too much priming sugar.
below pic of the Krausen, some of it was saved…
It seems very important to monitor the activity and make sure it is done, especially if you are going to use priming sugar in your bottles so that they don’t over pressurize and become little time bombs.
The culture works, but incrementally over time, for this test I didn’t do any temperature tests, just keeping the Beeruino set at minimum 68F, since the basement can get cold sometimes – but right now I don’t know if it performs better at higher temps like 75F or 80 ~ 90F or some other range.
I took a weekly sample using a hydrometer and its flask.
The OG (original gravity) was 1.059 on this Blonde Ale.
1 week later
1.04
2 weeks later
1.03
3 weeks later
1.022
4 weeks later
1.014
5 weeks later
1.010
6 weeks later
1.008
Looks like at about 1.010 the fermentation stabilized and ABV is about 6.7% / probably in the end closer to 7%
I would monitor the flask as it basically is a mini-fermentor, but would still take a weekly sample from the fermentor, it was pretty much spot on – so one should be able to just take one sample with a hydrometer and monitor the flask (save beer), cover it with tinfoil or something like that seems to work awesome for me.
some warning – this was my first time collecting wild yeast and fermenting using it, there is a lot more to wild yeasts than meets the eye and more than I wrote in this blog, I am aware of it – but this is more of a story than anything. If you decide to go down the adventure road of wild yeast, just be careful and use common sense – research everything, this is by no means some indefinite write-up, also – stay away from assholes, they are everywhere, enjoy the hobby and don’t let them bog you down!
by the way: if you are interested in purchasing the Wild Yeast that was used to make this beer – Contact me.
When the Norwegian Farmhouse Ale was brewed – I did a second water running on the grain (lower ABV 3%) to test out a wild yeast that was collected in Summer of 2018 off Raspberries.
Now to those that don’t know a wild yeast is not a pure strain of yeast, it is in fact a culture – which is a mix of yeast, maybe even more than one yeast and other bacteria. When I first captured the yeast after the initial fermentation there was Brettanomyces in the krausen- this gives you the sour beer, in the top of the krausen you can see a spider web like infection – this is a tell tale sign.
I didn’t want a sour beer, so I had to clean it up, I collected the yeast below the krausen and did another yeast starter – you can google about this process to learn more…
see video below of what I did:
After another fermentation and confirmation of a clean yeast, I stored in the fridge until I had an opportunity to use it later, which was on this brew. Wild yeast in my opinion are a lot tougher, they have to survive winter in some harsh conditions, nature maintains it without any human involvement or lab process, in piles under leaves, under snow, sometimes freezing for months. I think it gives to the complexity and variability of the beer and probably why there is a resurgence in the Wild Ales.
So anyways, this yeast was added to the wort from the second runnings, pics below, as you can see the Brettanomyces is gone!!!
Yes, I collected all of that krausen into a sterilized jar and into the fridge it went for another brew. As you can see it was very clean and I didn’t see any weird colors or blocks of anything odd.
So now I have my very own unique wild culture of yeast collected from my land 🙂 Hooray!
another warning when bottling – let the ABV settle for a while to make sure it is stable and use less than the idea amount of priming sugar your first time as with a non-wild yeast, so you don’t end up with exploding bottles, as example I used 3 ounces of sugar for this 5 gallons batch, and everything ended up fine for me and nice…
I will brew some other beers in the future and blog more later…
I will update once the beer is ready to drink with more pics and a more detailed taste report!
