After the frustration that was bottling my Pomegranate Hefeweizen, I was not exactly looking forward to doing the same with the Saison so soon after.  The good thing was that even though I was not equipped to keg it just yet, I did save quite a few of the 22 ounce bottles for the occasion.  Filling fewer bottles is at least one step in the right direction for this part of the process.  That and it seemed that a Saison deserved something more than a plain old 12 once bottle to live in.

More large bottles makes for less work.

Now on to the bottling details of this one . . .

As usual, there are not too many additional details to share with the bottling process (especially when nothing goes wrong), but if you have more interest in how it happens check out the video for the Blueberry Chocolate Stout bottling.  There was nothing to add at bottling this time, but that video will give you the gist of it.

Always seems to be a different color coming through the siphon.

As usual I boiled ¾ cup of corn sugar in 2 cups of water, cooled it, then added it to the bottling bucket before racking the beer over.  This was all after rinsing the sanitized bottles and bottling equipment and allowing them to air-dry a bit.  Having more 22 ounce bottles in the mix made for fewer bottles overall and therefore slightly less work this time.

The final hydrometer reading left it with a specific gravity of about 1.0132 which was just about spot on to where it should have been and gave it a final ABV of roughly 5.92%.  That number was very slightly down from when it was racked to secondary fermentation, but I never consider my readings exact.

Starting to learn from previous messes.

The taste and aroma did not change much from the sample I tried before racking to secondary.  It had some banana in the aroma with just a bit of spice.  It was light and incredibly easy drinking with some notes of lemon and some slight bitterness toward the finish.  I am pretty confident that this will turn out very well when finally carbonated.

Next up as I wait to sample this one will be racking and eventually bottling the Black Ale that has already been brewed.

Nothing to do now but wait.

Cousin Adam got a bottle of the Saison before its official release and I think that he will get to it before I actually review it.  Regardless, stay tuned for the official review!

If I had to pick one of the three segments of my brewing posts as the least interesting it would probably be the racking done in part two.  Now I say that since there is not too much to share with it being a pretty simple and quick process, especially when there are no additions to be made.  With that said, it is more interesting to me since it is the first taste I get after the yeast has done work for a week.  Until I figure out a way to better share that part of the experience you will just have to settle for a few of the details of this batch to keep you up to date on the progress.

The hard work is done.

If you are interested in a visual example of the racking process take a look at Part 2 of the Pomegranate Hefeweizen or maybe go way back to Part 2 of the Pumpkin Ale.

So the (in progress) Belgian Saison came in with a specific gravity of about 1.013 at the time of transfer that, for once in my relatively short brewing career, was spot on to what was expected of the recipe.  With a current ABV of approximately 5.95% it is slightly lower than originally desired though as expected with a slightly low original gravity.

Time to just sit back and watch.

Back to the bathtub.

The sample (that I always drink after the hydrometer reading is done) had a bit of a banana aroma with a hint of spice.  It was light and incredibly easy drinking with notes of lemon and some bitterness towards the finish.  I thought it was quite nice overall (even at room temperature and flat) and cannot wait to taste it when carbonated.

A beautiful sight.

So now it is back in the bathtub to clarify in secondary for a week or so before bottling (for which I have saved a bunch of 22 oz bottles).

Until then . . .

The intensity of my home brewing seems to be at one end of the spectrum or the other, with no real middle ground.  When I take a break from it I do not brew at all for months, but when I decide to brew I do a handful of brews in a relatively short period of time.  As I continued with the run of new styles for me, the next one up was a Belgian Saison, which should be a nice beer to have around for the upcoming summer season.

The video from the first part of the Pomegranate Hefeweizen is a good reference for this one as well since the initial setup is much the same.  Even though I am doing a different style, the actual brewing process really does not change a lot.

The grains as they come.

As with every batch, I do my very best to ensure that everything used for my brewing has been sanitized to the best of my ability before getting started.  With that, I again brought 2.5 gallons of water to about 160 degrees and put the following into the grain bag:

• 1.75 lb Belgian Pilsner Malt
• .5 lb White Wheat
• .5 lb Flaked Wheat
• .5 lb Aromatic Malt

The grains were then soaked for 45 minutes while maintaining the temperature at about 155 degrees.  I need to refine my methods a bit to better maintain that temperature, but I am generally close enough to not lose too much sleep over it.  The grain bag was then pulled out and I poured 2 quarts of 170 degree water over it to ensure all of the grainy goodness was not lost. I removed the pot from the heat and then added:

• 3.5 lb Wheat Extract
• 3.5 lb Extra Pale Extract

Little green nuggets

Once the malt extract was stirred in, the pot went back on the heat until there was a good rolling (controlled) boil.  I set the timer for 60 minutes and then it was time for:

• Bittering hops – 2 oz Tradition
• Flavoring hops – No hops this time, though 2 Tbls. (+/-) Fresh Lemon Zest and .5 oz Crushed Paradise Seeds were added (last 15 minutes of the boil).
• Aroma hops – 1 oz Crystal (last 5 minutes)

Adding lemon zest was new for me.

As was adding Paradise Seeds

After the 60 minutes of boiling I was able to get everything pretty quickly down close to 80 degrees, though I again struggled with the last few degrees.  The room temperature in my house this time of year hovers around 80 as the windows are open to the outdoor air and breeze quite a bit, so getting liquid cooled to below that is a bit of a struggle sometimes.  Even with that I think that I have all of the bugs worked out of my method, so it should not be a problem next time.  That or I could build the wort chiller instead of continuing to put it off.  I think if I keep writing it down maybe I will eventually get to it.

Some of what is left after straining.

Throwing in some extra beasties this time.

When the temperature was at roughly 84 degrees (with water added to about 5.25 gallons) I pitched in the bloomed SafBrew T58 dry yeast that I was using for the recipe.  Since the specific gravity was to be pretty high (and higher than I have ever brewed), I went with the two packets of yeast that were recommended in the recipe.  The yeast was bloomed by adding both packets to 2 cups of warm water and letting it sit for 15 minutes.  I then boiled 2 tsp. of sugar in a small amount of water, cooled the mixture, added it to the yeast, and again covered it as I continued with the boiling step of brewing.  The airlock was bubbling away within hours, so all should be well.

The original specific gravity came in at approximately 1.0584, which was a bit lower than expected.  That is typical for me and I suspect maybe I am topping it off to a bit more than the 5.25 gallons that I am aiming for which would water down the mix some.  I will let this one sit for a bit more than a week to let all of that yeast do its work before racking it to secondary.

Stay tuned . . .