AG#42 - Apricot Pepper Saison

[Lugsy]

Cheers Tom! I found the apricot flavour died off pretty quickly so if anyone does brew this then I'd recommend drinking it in the first couple of weeks. Next time I'll up the amount of apricots, luckily I have 3 kg in the freezer for trying it again before the season starts

jmc - I have no idea, my gut says tinned but dried might be better, just look out for preservatives especially with the dried ones. You should definitely do a split and let us know how it goes. I'd go with a tin for one demijohn or half a bag of dried. I've not tried Cantillon dregs yet but the Orval has worked superbly in mine. By my reckoning, I'd say you need 6 demijohns to try all the combinations - dried or tinned with Orval, Cantillon or no brett. Oh, and I'd happily double the pepper. Go for it!

[jmc]

Planning on trying a tweaked version of Lugsy's receipe soon. Hopefully this weekend.
(Online version here)
Grain bill was modified to use what I have in stock and try out Palm sugar to see if that adds
anything. Black pepper replaced with Grains Of Paradise too.

Apricot / Brett experiment
Planning on splitting brew to 6 demijohns at secondary stage and trying out permutations below:
D1 - 1 x Tin Apricots (411g)
D2 - 1 x pack dried Apricots (250g)
D3 - 1 x Tin Apricots + dregs Orvall
D4 - 1 x pack dried Apricots (250g) + dregs Orvall
D5 - 1 x Tin Apricots + dregs Cantillon - Gueuze 100% Lambic
D6 - 1 x pack dried Apricots (250g) + dregs Cantillon

Can anyone see problems with recipe below?

Apricot Saison #1, Gyle Number: 70

Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Pilsner Malt - Dingemans 2.5 EBC 4 lbs. 6.5 oz 2000 grams 38.5%
Pilsner Malt - Weyermann 4 EBC 3 lbs. 4.9 oz 1500 grams 28.8%
Flaked Rye 6 EBC 1 lbs. 1.6 oz 500 grams 9.6%
Flaked Wheat 0 EBC 0 lbs. 8.8 oz 250 grams 4.8%
Acid Malt 2.5 EBC 0 lbs. 7.0 oz 200 grams 3.8%
Munich Malt 20 EBC 0 lbs. 8.8 oz 250 grams 4.8%
Sugar Palm (block) 10 EBC 1 lbs. 1.6 oz 500 grams 9.6%


Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Aramis Whole 8.9 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10 grams 16.7%
Northdown Whole 8.4 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10 grams 16.7%
Aramis Whole 8.9 % 20 mins 0 lbs. 0.7 oz 20 grams 33.3%
Aramis Whole 8.9 % 5 mins 0 lbs. 0.7 oz 20 grams 33.3%
Grains Of Paradise Ground n/a 5 mins 10g


Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.055
Final Gravity: 1.009
Alcohol Content: 6% ABV
Total Liquor: 35.6 Litres
Mash Liquor: 16.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 78 %
Bitterness: 31.5 EBU
Colour: 9 EBC

Yeast: WLP585
Belgian Saison III starter 500 cc

[Lugsy]

Looks great to me

I love the idea of the multiple splits, can't wait to hear how they all turn out. The palm sugar should add a nice flavour too - I used jaggery goor in my latest saison but it's only been fermenting for 5 days so it's a bit early to comment on its effect. I've not used WLP585 but I think you need to get the temperature up with that one. I went pretty high with the WLP566 in mine but subsequent brews with it have attenuated to over 90% even at room temperature and still gave a good flavour profile. I think my FGs have all been around 1.005 give or take a point so be prepared for a lower finish than your predicted. Not that that's a problem

Looking forward to reading about this one!

[jmc]

Apricot Saison brew planned for tomorrow. WLP585 starter going well.
Still not sure what temperature to let this rise to.
I'll probably rise 20 to 24C over 4 days then switch off cooling circuit on fridge and see where it wants to go.

BTW I saw this article and was pleased to see the positive vote for WLP585

The highlight of the conference for me was a seminar given by Drew Beechum, President of the Los Angeles’s Maltose Falcon’s titled, A Saison for Every Season. Beechum, whose love of Saison’s seems to exceed mine (and I love Saisons), focused on what in my opinion makes Saison’s one of the most interesting beer styles: the yeast. Beechum brewed a fairly basic Saison recipe at Eagle Rock Brewery in Los Angeles and then separated the wort into different carboys pitching different yeast in each. All told about thirteen different yeasts were used and during the presentation we got to taste seven of them. With the only difference between each sample being the yeast, it was pretty striking how different from each other each was. My favorite, and according to a show of hands the favorite of many other people was the sample fermented with White Lab’s WLP585, it had a big ginger and citrus flavor and was pretty tart.

** edited typo

[jmc]

Hi Lugsy

I added pics of my Apricot Saison brewday here. Brew is going well

Thanks again for inspiration. ATB John