AG#42 - Apricot Pepper Saison

[Lugsy]

Inspired by a new found love of saisons I've decided to give this a go. It's a bit late in the year to be brewing this for the summer but you never know, we might get a few nice days in the autumn that will do it justice - the weather then probably won't be any worse than the summer after all

This was supposed to be brewed last Sunday but a brewery visit and a beer festival on the Saturday rendered me incapable of anything more complicated than lying on the sofa for the day

Anyway, here's the recipe:

Grist:
Bohemian Pilsner Malt (Weyermann) 3500g
Munich malt (Fawcetts) 250g
Wheat Malt (Fawcetts) 250g
Acidulated Malt (Weyermann) 200g
Flaked Rye 500g
Household sugar 400g

Hops:
Northern Brewer 9.2%AA 40g 90 minutes
Hallertau Mittlefruh 4.3%AA 30g 20 minutes
EKG 5.2%AA 20g 5 minutes

Yeast: WLP566 Saison II

Miscellaneous:
Black Pepper, cracked, 5g 5 minutes
Apricots 1000g added to fermenter after initial activity has died down

Specs:

Brew length 23l
OG 1.057
FG <1.010 (not sure how low this will go)
Alcohol ~6.5%
Bitterness 35 IBU
Colour 11 EBC

I made a 1 litre starter with the WLP566 in time for brewing last weekend, this has been in the fridge for the last few days and yesterday I woke it back up with some fresh wort, it's going strong now and looks like it's ready for some serious fermenting. I'll pitch this at about 22C and then raise it to 25C for a few days before ramping it up into the low 30's to finish off - seems a bit alien to be doing this to an ale yeast but that's what it likes apparently

I've done a cereal mash with the flaked rye and 100g of pilsner malt - doughed in with 1.8 litres of water for a 55C rest for 15 minutes, then a 65C rest for 15 minutes and a 15 minute boil, this was added to the main mash to get to the sacc rest at 65C (nice and low, this wants to ferment down a long way). The water profile for the Wallonia region where saisons are from is quite hard so it suits my water pretty well, I treated my liquor with a bit of CRS and then made pH adjustments in the tun with acidulated malt to get down to 5.2. I've never used acidulated malt before but it worked perfectly - my 5% in the mash dropped the pH by .5 exactly as predicted. I want a bit of a sour tang with this one too so we'll see how that works out.

The main mash has fully converted now so I'm heating some water to get to mash out, then a single batch sparge and we're on with the boil

[Lugsy]

All done now, managed to forget the sugar addition (this is becoming a standard omission for me recently ) but it's probably better added to the fermenter when activity has died down a bit, maybe a couple of days before the apricots go in. I collected 20 litres at 1.048 which is pretty much as predicted (I lose 3 litres in the copper), the sugar will take it up to about 1.056 but I've no idea what the apricots will add - probably not a lot to be honest seeing as it's only a kilo and they're essentially water with a hint of sugar. I went with 7g of pepper in the end and another alteration to the recipe came when I couldn't find any EKGs in the hop freezer - it's entirely possible that I've used them up but with 7kg of hops in there they could just be MIA - so I substituted with an equal weight of Mittlefruh.

All in all, not a bad brewday - the yeast is pitched at 23C and it's going down to the cellar to sit in the temperature-controlled water bath now. No idea how this yeast behaves, it's apparently faster than WLP565 and doesn't need such high temperatures but we''ll see - I'll let you know

[WishboneBrewery]

Did you, or will you be mashing your Apricots? (Sounds painful!)

[floydmeddler]

A daring brew... I love it! Will watch with interest. May even do something similar if the results are good!

[Lugsy]

Cheers Floyd - I'll keep you posted on progress and the end result

pdtnc - I've not decided how to go with the apricots yet - they're in the freezer at the moment, this should rupture the cell walls and make the sugars more accessible so I don't think I'll need to mash them. I'm in two minds about whether to pasteurise or not before adding to the fermenter, I think I probably will do as I'm not that keen on introducing any wild beasties to this brew. If I do pasteurise I'll heat them gently with a little water and hold at about 80C for a few minutes, I don't want to boil them up and lose too much of the aroma though.

[floydmeddler]

Cheers Floyd - I'll keep you posted on progress and the end result

pdtnc - I've not decided how to go with the apricots yet - they're in the freezer at the moment, this should rupture the cell walls and make the sugars more accessible so I don't think I'll need to mash them. I'm in two minds about whether to pasteurise or not before adding to the fermenter, I think I probably will do as I'm not that keen on introducing any wild beasties to this brew. If I do pasteurise I'll heat them gently with a little water and hold at about 80C for a few minutes, I don't want to boil them up and lose too much of the aroma though.

Good idea. I'd blitz them too, just to allow more surface area. However, they will dissolve anyway won't they I suppose, unless I'm mistaken...?

[Lugsy]

Good idea. I'd blitz them too, just to allow more surface area. However, they will dissolve anyway won't they I suppose, unless I'm mistaken...?

I think the yeast will break them down pretty well but maybe a pass through the blender would be a good idea to speed things up - I'm a bit uncomfortable with keeping a ferment going for longer than necessary at these temperatures, it'll be a bit of a playground for bacterial infection

The ferment is going well anyway - the krausen filled the 4" head space overnight and has settled down now so I think I've avoided the spew that looked inevitable this morning. The smell is certainly interesting - I believe "funky" is the word our American cousins use! It's at 25C for now, I'll leave it at that for another couple of days and then start ramping up to about 30C and see how that pans out.

I can't decide whether to add the sugar first or the apricots. I'm thinking it's best to go with the more difficult sugars first but I can't see there being much difference between sucrose and fructose as far as the yeasties appetite is concerned and my biochemistry is a bit rusty - any thoughts?

[floydmeddler]

I'd have added the sugar at the end of the boil to be honest. I've done this a few times with Duvel yeast... 1.080 with only a 800ml starter. I did this deliberately though to stress the yeast. Duvel is a monster yeast and was able to handle it. Here's the brew I'm referring to: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=38871

If I were you now, I'd add the sugar first then the the apricots. Purely so that the apricots can ferment out slowly and not have their aromas chugged out the airlock with the heavy ferment from the sugar. Sounds a bit daft, I know... something I heard a while back when making honey beers and it kinda makes sense! In fact, I'd add those apricots to secondary when the yeast is least expecting it!

[Lugsy]

Ah, of course - I'd completely forgotten about the scrubbing effect the fermenting sugar will have on aroma. That's that settled then, sugar first and then apricots, cheers Floyd!

[floydmeddler]

Sounds like a plan!

[Lugsy]

Activity has died right back on this now, I took a gravity check on Thursday and it was at 1.012 and still going strong. The sugar has just gone in and the temperature is up to 28C so I'm expecting a bit of a surge in activity in a couple of hours.

[WishboneBrewery]

Kind of a *WhoooshhhhSplattt* ?

[Lugsy]

Not quite that aggressive but it has started fermenting again already - happy yeasties

[Lugsy]

Checed this today, the krausen has dropped and the gravity is down to 1.006 after just 7 days. I have to say I'm impressed with this yeast

[Lugsy]

Turns out I had more apricots than I thought, about 1.4 kilos altogether. I've just pasteurised them by adding 500ml of water to the frozen apricots and slowly heating them to about 70C, mashing them up and holding at that temperature for 20 minutes. This is my first attempt at fruit pasteurisation - from what I've read it might not be necessary but I'm planning on keeping hold of some of the bottles for a while so I thought it was good practise to kill off any wild yeasts that might be present for fear of little glass grenades. This is now cooling in a water bath so if I've done anything stupid now would be a good time to let me know before I chuck the lot in the fermenter!