Hoppy mixed fermentation saison experiment 1 recipe

Now that I'm situated in the new home it's time to start propagating those mixed fermentation cultures and resume brewing these long fermentation beers. I've brewed the first iteration of my barrel oud bruin in the new house so now it's my farmhouse/saison mixed culture's turn. I'm still learning this culture's quirky behavior so for this recipe I've opted for a simple recipe to explore how it interacts with hops. My last two beers with this saison culture were fairly weird beers and not a great opportunity to learn nuance of the culture. (This take on Funkwerks Tropic Bling and this really weird prickly pear beer.)

This recipe is more of an attempt to start work on a standard recipe for this culture. A simple grain bill and enough hops to keep some bitterness as it ages and give the culture lots of opportunity to play with the flavor components in the hops. Some of my favorite beers are brett IPAs like Stone Enjoy After and once hoppy brett saisons, so it only makes sense to give this culture an opportunity to produce the same type of beer. The hops I've selected for this recipe are leftover hops from the freezer. I'm less interested in the particular flavors elicited by these hops and more what the culture will do in the presence of a hefty amount of late addition hops. 

After this batch I'll probably take up a few more experiments, like mixing fresh and aged hops, before turning to perfecting a particular bill of hops.

The two issues I am most interested to see are: (1) how much this culture changes the flavor of the hops; and (2) how the culture's flavors integrate with the remaining hop flavors. This culture develops a unique flavor profile dominated by a hay and blueberry flavor. That brett hay note works really well with hops but I'm less certain how the blueberry flavor will mix with the hops. I could see it overwhelming the hop flavors over time or blending together into weirdness. 

Hoppy mixed fermentation saison experiment 1

Details
Batch Size: 1 gallon
Est. ABV: 5.5%
Est. IBU: 38.3
Est. OG: 1.052
Est. FG: 1.010
Est. SRM: 3.6
Expected Efficiency: 72%
Grain Bill	Pounds		Ounces		SRM		Pct. Grist
Pils malt	2		0		2		100.00%
Water Profile	ppm
Bru'n Water Yellow Bitter
PH: 5.3
Calcium	50
Magnesium	10
Sodium	5
Sulfate	110
Chloride	45
Bicarbonate	-93
Water Additions					Mash		Sparge
Gypsum					0.4g		0.4g
Epsom Salt					0.3g		0.3g
Canning Salt
Baking Soda
Calcium Chloride					0.2g		0.2g
Chalk
Pickling Lime
Lactic Acid					0.4ml
Mash Schedule	Step Temp.				Step Time
Single decoction mash
Mash volume: 3 qt
Sparge volume: 0.74 gal
Infuse 3 qt at 163F	148F				35
Decoct 0.6 qt and boil					10
Return decoction	158F				45
Sparge 0.75 gal	180F
Boil Schedule	Volume		Unit		Time		IBU
60 minute boil
Belma	0.17		oz		60		38.3
Mt. Hood	0.50		oz		Flameout		0
Opal	0.34		oz		Flameout		0
Rakau	0.36		oz		Flameout		0
Fermentation Schedule	# Days		Temp.
Yeast: Saison AF
Pitch 1l
Pitch at 64F	30		70
Age 9 months	270		70
Bottle to 3 volumes

Brewday and Fermentation Notes

Brewed 10.15.18.

Barrel Aged Americanized Oud Bruin Batch 3 Recipe

It's time to give my small barrel it's first Colorado fill and third iteration of this Americanized oud bruin recipe. I'm still working on the difficult relationship between my sour culture, which will easily go acetic, and my small barrel which has a lot of surface area and thin staves. Between batch 1 and batch 2 I shortened the barrel time considerably which seems to have helped the acetic issue by getting the beer out of the barrel earlier. On the other hand, it's less mature going in the bottles which means I'll need to stockpile those bottles and brew this beer more frequently. I may decide to start bottling half the batch and put the rest into one gallon jugs for later blending or bottling. For now I'm going to keep running this beer right into bottles until I feel overwhelmed by volume or decide the beer is better as a blending component than an individual beer.

Like batch 2, I've kept the initial recipe going. I feel like the recipe is a lock although the barrel aging is an ongoing development. As I mentioned in the tasting notes for batch 2, the amount of acetic acid was much less than batch 1. I believe this is due partially to pitching a large healthy starter of my sour culture (which becomes acetic very easily without a good early fermentation) and partially keeping it in the barrel for less time. Batch 2 stayed in the barrel for six months after a month primary in glass. This batch will have a month in glass but only stay in the barrel for three months. 

Barrel aged Americanized Oud Bruin batch 3 recipe

Details
Batch Size: 2.25 gallon
Est. ABV: 7.3%
Est. IBU: 24
Est. OG: 1.071
Est. FG: 1.015
Est. SRM: 25
Expected Efficiency: 72%
Grain Bill	Pounds		Ounces		SRM		Pct. Grist
Pilsner malt	4		0		2		66.80%
White wheat malt	1		0		2		16.70%
Vienna malt			6		3.5		6.00%
Crystal 80			4		80		4.20%
Chocolate malt			2.6		350		2.70%
Aromatic malt			2		26		2.20%
Black patent malt			1.4		500		1.50%
Water Profile	ppm
Bru'n Water Brown Malty Profile
PH: 5.5
Calcium	60
Magnesium	5
Sodium	16
Sulfate	50
Chloride	60
Bicarbonate	85
Water Additions					Mash		Sparge
Gypsum					0.4g		0.3g
Epsom Salt					0.4g	0	0.3g
Canning Salt
Baking Soda					0.4g
Calcium Chloride					0.9g		0.7g
Chalk					0.3g
Pickling Lime
Lactic Acid
Mash Schedule	Step Temp.				Step Time
Single infusion mash
Mash volume: 7.8 qt
Sparge volume: 1.5 gal
Infuse 7.8 quarts at 167F	150F				75
Sparge 1.5 gal at 190F
Boil Schedule	Volume		Unit		Time		IBU
60 minute boil
Belma [12%]	0.25		oz		60		24
Fermentation Schedule	# Days		Temp.
Yeast: Oregon Special
Pitch 300ml slurry
Pitch at 70F	?		Ambient
Bottle to 4 vol CO2 with 2 oz table sugar

Brewday and Fermentation Notes

Brewed on 8.19.18.

Mash:

First runnings: 1.075

Preboil gravity: 1.053

Preboil volume: 2.9 gallons

Mash efficiency: 70%

Postboil gravity: 1.066

Postboil volume: 2.2 gallons

Racked to barrel 9.14.18.

Bottled 1.14.19.

Initial impressions at bottling: Nice chocolate and stone fruit flavor comes through but at the same time has an acetic sharpness and slight vegetal funk I don't like. I noticed before racking the barrel seemed about 80% full which is either a poor job filling the barrel or the drier Denver climate is taking an angel's share out of the barrel. Will need to watch out for that when racking out the next batch.

Bottled roughly two gallons of beer with 2.5 oz priming sugar.