The Lake Arrowhead Brew Festival is around the corner, and I’ve promised to bring some beers for my club’s booth. A nice saison seems in order–it’s the same recipe I brought last year, with only a minor change for the pilsner malt variety (Barke instead of Château Pilsen). I really liked this beer, and it went over well at the festival, too. I guesstimated on the hop alpha acid, following that from last year’s laboratory-verified measurements.
Thumbspike Saison 2.2
- 9.25 lbs. Barke Pilsner malt (Weyermann)
- 0.75 lbs. Munich I malt (Weyermann)
- 0.75 lbs. white wheat malt (Great Western Malting Co.)
- 0.8 oz. Carafa Special II (Weyerman)
- 1 oz. whole wild hops (est. 5.8% alpha), 60 minute boil
- 0.5 oz. whole wild hops (est. 5.8% alpha), 10 minute boil
- 1.5 oz. whole wild hops (est. 5.8% alpha), 2 minute boil
- 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
- 1 pkg. French Saison Ale dry yeast (Mangrove Jack’s M29)
Target Parameters
- 1.056 o.g., 1.003 f.g., 6.9% abv, 25 IBU, 6 SRM, 5.5 gallons into the fermenter
- 60 minute mash at 150°, batch sparge, 60 minute boil
Procedure
- I mashed in with 1.5 gallons of RO water and 2.2 gallons of Claremont tap water (3.7 gallons total) to hit a mash temperature of 150°. I added 1 tbs. of 5.2 pH stabilizer. The mash was down to 147° after 60 minutes. At this point, I batch sparged with 1.2 gallons of water (10 minute rest after addition, vorlauf, collect runnings) and 3.5 gallons of water (10 minute rest after addition, vorlauf, collect runnings).
- In total, I collected 6.75 gallons of runnings at a gravity of 1.044, for 74% efficiency.
- I brought the runnings to a boil, adding hops per the schedule.
- After cooling, I transferred to the fermenter and pitched the yeast.
- Starting gravity was 1.055, pretty much right on target.
- I brewed this beer on 7 July 2018, and am fermenting it at 75°.