Monday, August 5, 2013

Saison/Cucumber Saison Brew Day

Well with this latest brew day and what I have planned for the next week, I am going to have too much saison on my hand.  What I am trying to say is, does anyone want some saison?  I find bribery is the best way to cultivate friendship.  I was interested in doing this beer after hearing about Cigar City's Cucumber Saison.  I am not even really a big fan of cucumber, but I have found it to be refreshing in light amounts when placed in drinks (I ordered some cucumber soda/pop from Glaco's Soda Pop Stop in LA a couple of years ago and was surprisingly impressed).   As a result, I thought throwing some cucumber from the local farmer's market could be refreshing in a saison (like a cucumber in water).  Decided to base this off the base beer the mad fermentationist he did for his hoppy saison as I was looking for something a little lighter than the saison I previously brewed.

Batch size: 5 gallons
Original gravity: 1.052
Final gravity:
Boil time: 90 minutes
Mash time: 90 minutes

9.25 lbs Belgian pilsener
1.25 lbs White wheat

1.75 oz Saaz @ 60 minutes
0.75 oz Saaz @ 0 minutes

1.0 tsp. Irish moss

Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison

Water Profile: Chicago

Mashed in with 4 gallons of water and came out at around 149 degrees F.  Allowed the mash to sit for 90 minutes in order to ensure full conversion.  Flyed sparged with around 4 gallons of water at 170 degrees.  Collected a little over 7 gallons of wort.

Brewed: 7/27/13

Chilled to around 74 degrees F and pitched a yeast start I made the night before.  Around a week later the yeast is still working.  Was hoping that it would have knocked down the gravity a little faster.

Secondary: 8/21/13 Racked onto around 2.75 lbs of frozen and sliced cucumbers.  Looking back, it may have been easier/a better idea to cube the cucumber.

Bottling:


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