Time to get back on track here and actually write about something again why this blog is in existence, Homebrew. Although I got rid of nearly 250 empty beer bottles during my relocation to South Carolina, I took extra time and care on making sure that my brew equipment made is safely. Now the challenge to find a brew store locally to purchase all of my "Groceries" from for making homebrew. It seems that I only have two options, one is a local brewery that commercially sells beer to local restaurants and is found in almost every store and the other, is a local start-up shop called Grapes and Grains. I decided to go with the local start-up shop and see what they were all about (I will talk about Grapes and Grains at a later time).
For this experimental recipe #1, I went with the following for ingredients.
SPECIALTY GRAIN
-- 0.5 lbs Caravienne
FERMENTABLES
-- 3.15 lbs Light malt syrup
-- 1 lb Light dry malt extract
-- 1 lb Wheat dry malt extract
-- 1 lb Florida Orange Blossom Honey
HOPS & FLAVORINGS
-- 1 oz UK Kent Goldings
-- 1 oz Styrian Goldings
-- 1 oz Saaz
YEAST
-- Wyeast Belgian Saison (not 100% positive what it was as I was limited)
As for the prep work to begin, I was a little out of my comfort zone as it has been since January since the last time I have brewed and I was now in a different house with a completely different set-up. After spending the better part of Saturday morning preparing everything from setting up the turkey burner to doing a complete deep clean and sensitization of all my equipment, I was finally ready to light the fire.
1. Bring 3.5 gallons of bottled water up to 155 degrees.
2. Steep my grains for 20 minutes between 155-165 degrees.
3. Remove grains and bring to a boil.
Etc.. Etc.. Etc... you get the idea.
While having free entertainment the entire 2 hours I was outside brewing with the neighborhood kids play hide and seek and a cold (non-homebrew) beer, I was loving the fact that it was 60 degrees outside at 9 PM rather than the ZERO degrees I was used to brewing in back in Minnesota.
After I got the water to a boil, I added my three Extracts. I Boiled the Kent Goldings for the full 60 minutes and added .75 oz each of the Styrian Goldings and Saaz for 10 minutes and the remaining .25 oz for the last 2 minutes. Along with adding Irish Moss at the last 15. I was then ready to shut down the fire and stir in my 1 lb of Honey from Florida.
While not being 100% prepared like I normally would have been, I failed to get ice. I had about 8 lbs of ice in the freezer and made due with what I had. In the mean time, I place a gallon of my bottled water in the freezer to assist with the final cool down. Not sure if this was a wise move, it was my only option to get the wort down to a manageable temp before adding my yeast.
After about 45 minutes to get my wort down to 85 degrees, I decided it was time to combine the rest of the water with the wort in the Primary and hope for the best. And perfect, my temp was now at 70 degrees and ready to aerate with the best friend a homebrewer can have. My $10 fish pump and Micron stone. Let the air begin. I let it go for about 15 minutes and added my yeast. I still am not positive exactly what yeast I used, as it was the only Saison yeast Grapes and Grains had in stock. I was specifically looking for the French Saison strain, but I wasn't going to be greedy. It doesn't really match-up with anything I can find online, but I chose this style of beer since it has a much higher temperature range for the fermenting stages compared to other Ale yeasts and I just like Saison beer.
Finally after 36 hours, I am starting to see some bubbly action going on in the closet. I was fearful that I might not see anything as the yeast was much older than I am normally used too (but still within the manufacturers 6 month recommendation) seeing, but again, I think I might have been spoiled back in MN with Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies right in my back yard.
Starting Gravity: 1.052
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