Slamable Saison - brew day

The Brew

I decided after the last brew's low ABV that perhaps this was a good trend. So I am formally kicking off my Summer of Sessions. So every brew I make to drink this summer will be less than 5% ABV. (One exception will be a mid summer Russian Imperial Stout brew, but that one doesn't really count because we won't drink that until Christmas time). So if the Berliner style was the first, then beer number two in this Summer of Sessions is a take on an old favorite from last Spring, a saison made with the fermentation monster Wyeast 3711 French Saison strain.

The Recipe

Grain/Sugars:

4.5 lbs. Pilsner

1.0 lbs. Wheat

0.75 lbs. Vienna

0.25 lbs. Acidulated Malt

0.25 lbs. Flaked Oats

0.25 lbs. Flaked Corn

Hops:

1.0 oz. Willamette @60. (A: 5.1%, B: 3.8%) 20 ibu

1.0 oz. Czech Saaz @10. (A: 3.6%, B: 4.2%) 5 ibu

Yeast:

Wyeast 3711 French Saison

Extras:

0.5 tsp Wyeast nutrient

1 tablet Whirlfloc

Brewday

Brewday was a cloudy Saturday afternoon made available by rained out baseball and soccer. Lemons to lemonade! Setup solo to start it off in the garage. I decided with such a small grain bill to use the BIAB setup today, so i heated up 8.75 gallons of water to about 152F and mashed in for 60 minutes. During the mash got all the boil additions measured and even started on this very write-up.

At 60 minutes fired up burned and started mash-out. Pulled the bag, light squeeze and fired up burner to full. Measured 8 gallons of 1.030 preboil wort. With the high percentage of pilsner malt, the recipe called for a 90 minute boil. Added hops per schedule, chilled, pitched yeast and set to ferment.

WILBiER Weisse - Berliner style ale - brew day

The Brew

All the rage right now in the homebrewing world is a concept called "sour worting". The general idea is to quick sour a beer by pitching a Lactobacillis bacteria into unboiled wort to pre acidify it. One of the more creative approaches to this is to use an alternative source (those other then the standard homebrew yeast producers) of this souring bacteria. The Facebook group "Milk the Funk" (MTF) is a treasure trove of information on this topic and was the inspiration for this brew.

The Berliner Weisse style of beer is a historical style from Germany, more specifically as the name implies, the city of Berlin. It is typically a very sour, sessionable wheat beer. Traditional serving includes adding a sweet syrup at serving time to cut the acidity, however, many now are just drinking it as a straight sour.

Recipe base is from the MTF wiki recipe page for this style.

The Recipe

Grain/Sugars:
 4.75 lbs. Pilsner (DE) [66%]
 2.50 lbs. Wheat (CA) [34%]

Hops:
 0.50 oz. East Kent Goldings

Yeast:
 Lactobacillus Plantarum - Goodbelly JuiceDrink Mango - 1 carton
WLP644 Saccharomyces "Bruxellensis" Trois - 2nd generation repitch

Extras:
 1.0 oz 88% Lactic Acid

Brewday

4/15/2016 Step 1: Wort production and souring phase
The initial wort production was completely standard. With such a small amount of grains and some

time limits I went BIAB. Heated up 6.1 gallons of tap water to 151 F. Doughed in the grains and watched it settle right in at 148 F mash temp. Put the cover on, wrapped the pot in blankets and let it do it's converting. After about 50 minutes pulled and drained the bag, collecting about 5.75 gallons of 1.036 wort. Chilled that down to 100 F as per the MTF recipe (this still seems really hot to me). Added some lactic acid to pre-acidify the wort prior to pitching the lacto bacteria. Rack the wort onto the entire carton of the Goodbelly JuiceDrink. Moved the carboy down to the warmest part of the basement and left it for 3 days. *Unfortunately my PH meter is not working so i don't have measurements.



4/18/2016 Step 2: Pasteurization and saccharomyces fermentation
After the 3 days allowing the lacto to chew on the wort, it had a hint of sour, but not over the top as I was expecting. Schedules being what they are, I had no other opportunity to finish this later, so it was what it was. Transferred the wort back to the kettle. Added in half an ounce of old EKG hops and brought lit the fire. Held temp around 180 for 5 minutes and killed the flame.
Chilled it down and pitched the second generation WLP644 yeast.


After a week in primary on the clean yeast, initial tastings have been very reminiscent of lemonade, not super sour, but a good tart flavor. Regardless, it should be a really easy drinking session-able ale for summer.