AG#42 - Apricot Pepper Saison

[Lugsy]

Just taken a gravity check on this. The apricots have been in for 2 1/2 weeks now and it's down to 1.004 so I'm bottling today with 180g of white sugar to get about 3 volumes of CO2. Some will be going in Champagne bottles, the rest in sturdy 500s. It tastes like white wine with a funky edge to it, nice and dry so I'm happy with it so far. A hefty level of carbonation and drinking it nice and cold should make it pretty much spot on

[Lugsy]

I couldn't help myself so I chilled one of these down today and tried it in the sunshine down by the pond this evening. It's lovely, possibly my best brew yet! Well carbonated, nice gentle bitterness, great apricot flavour at the start, more body than you'd expect for its gravity and that lovely saison funk all the way through. The pepper isn't really apparent (I'd double it at least for the next attempt) and I think I could get away with less apricots next time, maybe just a kilo. I just wish I'd split the yeast though and saved some for the next brew but I'll be trying to re-culture some from one of the bottles for a re-brew very soon.

I saved a gallon of this and stuck it in a demijohn with the dregs from a bottle of Orval, I'll be leaving that for a good few weeks before bottling. I'm not sure if the Brett will do much in such a dry beer but it's worth a go and the side-by-side comparison should be interesting.

Well chuffed

[floydmeddler]

Glad it's worked out well for you man. Great sounding brew!

[Tom_D]

Excellent stuff Lugsy, it sounds awesome! Was well intrigued about this one so it's great to hear it's worked out so well.

[floydmeddler]

Tom, a little bird tells me that you're going to be in receipt of a very special delivery...

[Tom_D]

Tom, a little bird tells me that you're going to be in receipt of a very special delivery...

Yes indeed! I'll keep yours safe man and promise that I'll try not to drink it. Might be best if I keep it in the cellar at work and you can swing by and pick it up if that works?

Cheers Lugsy, can't wait to try it

[floydmeddler]

Sounds like a wonderful plan! Cheers.

[floydmeddler]

Hi Lugsy,

Where did you source your apricots? Pretty damn expensive... looking at around £10 for 1.5kg.

[Lugsy]

Hi Floyd

I got my first batch from an Asian supermarket for about £2 per kilo, just picked up another load from a fruit and veg stall on the market for the same price. The supermarkets are really expensive for them and I think they're coming from further afield this late in the year so they're not getting any cheaper. Keep your eye on your local market stalls and you might find some at a decent price - good luck with them!

[floydmeddler]

Cheers Lugsy.

[far9410]

are they fresh apricots?

[jmc]

Thinking of trying this soon but with dried apricots and maybe swop pepper for grains of paradise.

Do you think that would work?

[Lugsy]

Sorry for the late reply jmc, only just seen the question - yes, I'm sure dried apricots and grains of paradise would work out nicely

I was going to use dried apricots originally but by the time I'd got around to brewing this fresh apricots were available at a decent price. I think the fresh taste came through pretty well in this initially but it was quite short-lived and faded after a month or so. Grains of paradise will add a bit of interest too, another flavour that you won't get with black pepper. I brewed another saison a while back with habanero chillies in it, I was supposed to add mangos to it later but life got in the way so it was just the chillies in the end. I used two de-seeded chillies in a 5 gallon batch and I was worried they'd over-power it but it's a nice subtle hit, a really mild burn right at the end when the other flavours have subsided.

Oh, and the gallon I bretted with orval dregs? I tried a drop out of the demijohn the other day and it was superb! The apricot flavours have been accentuated really well by the brett, it's MUCH fruitier than the original was when fresh. I can highly recommend giving this a go if you try the recipe, I'm so impressed with it that I think I'll brett the whole batch next time. I just have to pick up a nice 5 gallon glass carboy first (and half a dozen bottles of Orval!) but it'll be well worth it

[jmc]

Thanks for reply. Looks like I'll try this for AG70

No fresh apricots available this time of year.
Would you recommend tinned or dried aprocots?
(59p / 411g, 4-5 tins?)
(£1.17 / 250g, 3 bags?)

I'll think I'll follow your lead & experiment in demi-john secondaries where I'll add fruit and various brett beer dregs (Orval and Cantillon)

[Tom_D]

Oh, and the gallon I bretted with orval dregs? I tried a drop out of the demijohn the other day and it was superb! The apricot flavours have been accentuated really well by the brett, it's MUCH fruitier than the original was when fresh

Man that sounds amazing, the apricot flavour was excellent in the original so can only imagine what the brett has done. Just want to go on record here and say to anyone thinking of brewing this... do it! It was a fine beer indeed.