Mixed-Culture Saison Recipe and Review

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Nick Ladd

It seems that more and more breweries are beginning to incorporate Brettanomyces into their brewing repertoire. When done well, I’m a huge fan. By and large, my favorites are those that focus on creating a pleasant and complex fruity character rather than a horsey, phenol-heavy Brett character typically produced by many strains. I’m not a huge fan of that type of aggressive phenolic Brett character, which I find to be at times overly harsh and perhaps even biting. I think this is one of the biggest mistakes being made by contemporary brewers trying to make funky beers. Bigger Brett character is not always better.

The key to this beer recipe is the oats which provide a nice silky component to what could otherwise be a very dry, thin beer. Even more important is achieving proper fermentation character. In my brewery, I am achieving this by utilizing a mixed culture which I’ve been propagating over a number of generations. The culture is composed primary of fruit-heavy Brett and Sacc strains, as well as a touch of Lactobacillus, which is kept in check through the IBUs in the beer.

Mixed Culture Saison Recipe

Specifications:
Size: 3.25
Efficiency: 68%
Attenuation: 96%

Original Gravity: 1.052
Terminal Gravity: 1.002
Color: 5.54 SRM
Alcohol: 6.57% ABV
Bitterness: 12.8 IBU

Malt Bill:
5 lb (69.0%) Weyermann Pilsner Malt
.75 lb (10.3%) Briess Flaked Oats
.75 lb (10.3%) Weyermann Pale Wheat Malt
.75 lb (10.3%) Weyermann Munich TYPE I

Mash Profile:
144 °F – 50m
154 °F – 15m
170 °F – 5m

Water Treatment:
Extremely Soft NYC Water
2g Gypsum (to mash)
2g Calcium Chloride (to mash)

Hopping:
6g Centennial (10.5% AA) – 90 m

Kettle Additions:
0.5 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – 15 m
0.5 tsp Wyeast Nutrient – 10 m

Yeast:
1L Starter of my house saison culture. The mixed culture is made up of cultured Saison Dupont dregs, The Yeast Bay’s Amalgamation Brett Blend, and White Labs Lactobacillus Brevis.

Tasting Notes:

Judged as 2015 BJCP Category 28A. Brett Beer.

Aroma (10/12):
This is a very fruity expression of Brettanomyces. The beer’s fermentation character dominates the aroma, imbuing the beer with impressions of ripe fruit — cherry, honeydew, and even some tropical pineapple. A very light phenolic pepperiness is in the background with only the faintest hint of rubber. The malt character is very minimal and clean. There is a light tartness on the nose and just a hint of acetic sharpness. As the beer warms, some hot alcohol comes out which detracts slightly.

Appearance (1/3):
Beautiful deep gold with brilliant clarity. A large fluffy white head forms, but quickly dissipates — likely attributable to the Lactobacillus in the mixed culture.

Flavor (17/20):
The overall flavor is really clean considering that this is a mixed-fermentation beer. There is a touch of a leatherlike earthiness from the Brett, but most of the fermentation character is bright and fruity. The malt is really crisp and nice — like a good German pilsner. The beer is about six months old at this point and only has a hint of the Cheerio character it had exhibited only a couple months ago — something I attributed to THP from the Brettanomyces ferment. There is a touch of acidity to the beer that is quite pleasant — not something I’d consider ‘sour’, but more of a complementary note to the fruitiness.

Mouthfeel (5/5):
The beer is very dry, but there is a bit of roundness to the body that prevents it from being too austere. There is a nice mellow acidity that combines with a relatively high carbonation to give a bright clean finish to the beer.

Overall Impression (8/10):
I am really happy to see how my house saison culture is expressing itself in the beers fermented with it. The Brettanomyces personality of this beer is much more in-line with ripe fruit than the earthy funk that can sometimes dominate Brett beers.

Excellent (41/50)

G.Y.O. – Rare Barrel, Firestone Walker, De Garde Dregs

Posted on December 14, 2015 by Nick Ladd

G.Y.O. – Grow Your Own

Step One: Enjoy sour beer.
Step Two: Propagate live mixed-culture from the sample.
Step Three: Build up the propagated culture, and use it to brew your own sour beers.

Harvesting commercial dregs offers incredible utility to homebrewers of sour beer. By implementing cultured bugs into your recipes, you’re able to add a diversity of characteristics simply not available from commercial lab cultures.

For example, some cultures can produce tremendous acidity without any attenuation (The Rare Barrel). Others are highly attenuative, but only moderately acidic (De Garde). Taking advantage of these individual attributes, I believe it is possible to create custom blends that express the best features of individual cultures. I’ve completed sensory analysis for three sour cultures harvested from some of the best sour breweries in the country. All cultures were stepped up gradually from bottle dregs and allowed to ferment for two weeks before tasting and measuring gravity and pH.

The Rare Barrel – Forces Unseen

The Rare Barrel – Forces Unseen

OG: 1.040
FG: 1.040
Apparent Attenuation: 0%
pH: 2.69

Sensory Analysis Spidergraph

Firestone Walker – Sour Opal

Firestone Walker – Sour Opal (Barrelworks)

OG: 1.040
FG: 1.014
Apparent Attenuation: 65%
pH: 2.91

Sensory Analysis Spidergraph

De Garde – The Duo

De Garde – Duo

OG: 1.040
FG: 1.008
Apparent Attenuation: 80%
pH: 3.01

Sensory Analysis Spidergraph

ProAm Collaboration with Yonkers Brewing Company

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Nick Ladd

Big brewer, tiny mash tun. Doing my fair share of cleaning at Yonkers Brewing Company.

Opening a commercial brewery is the ultimate fantasy for many homebrewers.There is something incredibly thrilling (and cool) about taking a beer that you have conceptualized and crafted and bringing it over to the commercial beer world. This is a big part of the reasoning why most homebrewers jump at the opportunity to have one of their recipes scaled up and brewed on a commercial scale.

This is precisely the spot I found myself in a couple weeks ago when I had the opportunity to brew my Oast House Saison at Yonker’s Brewing Company. All of this was the result of winning the Brewer’s Choice award at the Westchester Farmhouse Ale Competition — not a bad prize!

One interesting thing I have realized over the course of this experience is how non-brewers perceive brewers and the work they do; recipe formulation is viewed as alchemy and something to protect. But I’ve always taken the mindset that recipe is fractionally important compared to the technical skills of the brewer. I think it is somewhat absurd that I have been asked multiple times if I am being monetarily compensated for this recipe being brewed at Yonkers. Honestly, the value in seeing firsthand how a commercial brewery operates is far more valuable than the recipe. The marketing and experiential value has been enormous for me — especially as I consider perhaps one day opening my own brewery.

This was my third time taking a personal homebrew recipe and scaling it up to a commercial batch. This is always a challenge as commercial brewers may not have the same stock of ingredients used in the original recipe. Being malleable is critical for a successful ProAm collaboration. Remain humble and realize that this is a profession for those you’re working with and that there are economic considerations that simply don’t exist in homebrewing. Try to stay true to your vision, but allow yourself to be creative in achieving the same end despite the means. It is important to play the role of the humble homebrewer — these types of collaborations are fun and should be positive for all parties involved. I think we achieved this on all ends of this collaboration.

If the case of my beer, I used a complex mixed-culture of saccharomyces, brettanomyces, and lactobacillus to ferment my beer. This fermentation was critical in achieving the appropriate level of acid and funk in my complete beer, but something that could not be achieved at Yonkers Brewing without running the risk of contaminating their brewery. The suggestion of their brewer was to kettle sour half of the batch and then blend it back with the other half that was cleanly fermented with saison yeast. The idea is that the kettle soured half would bring the tartness exhibited by my homebrew while keeping any souring organisms to the hot side of the brewery where contamination would not be a risk. Additionally, we tweaked the recipe slightly, adding approximately 10% corn sugar to encourage the high level of attenuation exhibited by my homebrew and attributed to the atypical fermentation.

Right now the beer is finishing fermentation and conditioning. Stay tuned. I’ll post details soon about when and where the commercial version of Oast House Saison can be enjoyed.

Brew Day Play-By-Play

: Three-vessel brewhouse fabricated by Portland Kettle Works. Each brew yields 3.5 barrels of wort. Two batches are brewed to fill each 7- barrel fermenter. The brewhouse is a combination RIMS / direct fire system.

: Control panel with set points for the mash tun and hot liquor tank.

: Sensor on mash tun which controls the burner for the recirculating mash.

: Three-vessel brewhouse fabricated by Portland Kettle Works.

: The fermentation cellar.

: Brewsheet

: Heating strike water to mash in.

: Recirculating the mash during its 60-minute rest.

: Checking our mash pH.

: Manway door on the mash tun.

: Mucking out the mash tun.

: Lauter set-up to transfer wort from the mash tun to boil kettle.

: Transferring wort from the mash tun to boil kettle.

: Direct fired boil kettle — not that different than what most homebrewers do.

: First batch coming up to a boil.

: The first 3.5 barrels of wort on its way to the fermenter.

: Rig used to transfer wort from the heat exchanger to the fermenter.

: Inline oxygenation as the wort is transferred to the fermenter.

: Pushing yeast into the fermenter via a pressurized corny keg.

: Checking our wort’s specific gravity.

: Lacto cultures used to sour the second batch.

: Keeping the kettle in the range of 110-120 for lactic souring.

: The day’s spent grain destined for some hungry cow’s belly.

Grow Your Own – Sante Adairius Cellarman

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Nick Ladd

Why just drink sour beer, when you can also grow up the dregs in the bottles, propagate the sour cultures, and then use them in your own beers? This is the premise of my new ‘Grow Your Own’ series. The idea is simple. I’ll be propagating the dregs from some of America’s best sour beers and then do some basic analytic and sensory analysis on the resulting starter beer. My goal is to eventually maintain a library of unique mixed cultures that have data associated with them which can aid in their selection for future beers. I have created an evaluation form for each culture that captures analytic facts such as pH and specific gravity, while also allowing space for notes and sensory data via a spidergraph chart.

Procedure for Sour Dreg Propagation

1. Spray the cap and a portion of the neck of the beer you’re culturing with isopropyl alcohol. Light it on fire and let the flame burn out.

2. Open up the beer and carefully decant into a glass. Save approximately a 1/2″ of beer in the bottom of the bottle.

3. Pour into the beer bottle approximately 200ml of sanitary 1.030 specific gravity wort. Place a sanitized stopper and airlock on the bottle.

4. Let the dregs begin fermenting at room temperature. It may take up to 3-4 days to see much activity. Let the culture do it’s thing for about 1.5 weeks.

5. Prepare 200ml of sanitary 1.060 wort in a 500ml Erlenmeyer flask. Cool and pour all contents from the bottle into the flask. I am starting with a high gravity wort at this point, as I am counting on the contents of the bottle it is combining with to dilute the sugar content. Let the culture ferment out 2 weeks.

5. Prepare 1000ml of sanitary 1.040 wort in an Erlenmeyer flask. Decant the spent beer off the culture and pour into the new starter wort. Let this ferment for a couple days at which time it is ready to be used in a beer.

Sante Adairius – Cellarman

Sensory and analytic analysis form completed for the Sante Adairius culture.

To begin this project, I started with a phenomenal beer call Cellarman from Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in Capitola, California. This was one of my beer highlights of 2015 (thus far), and I’m really stoked to have their culture in my micro-library. The culture was very fresh and took off quickly. While fresh, the beer was able to develop some mild acidity, and lots of spicy and slightly funky Brett notes.

In terms of fermentation, the culture performed well:

Starting Gravity: 1.040
Terminal Gravity: 1.008
Apparent Attenuation: 80%
pH 3.78

You can read the full analytic and sensory analysis for this culture, here.

First Annual Westchester Farmhouse Ale Competition

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Nick Ladd

First Annual Westchester Farmhouse Ale Competition – October 11th in Dobb’s Ferry

Update, Winner! I had a great time serving beers to the thirsty public at the festival. It was great to talk brewing, enjoy everyone’s beers, and eek out one last bit of fall weather. I also managed to take home the biggest prize, the Brewer’s Choice Award! I am collaborating with Yonkers Brewing Company to have the beer brewed commercially. It’s gonna be a blast! Stay tuned for details about where the beer will be tapped in the NYC area.

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Join me on Sunday, October 11th, for the first annual Westchester Farmhouse Ale competition at Harper’s Restaurant in Dobbs Ferry. 20+ homebrewers (including myself) will be pouring ‘farmhouse’ style homebrewed beers. Thirty dollars gives you access to 5 hours of drinking, food, and live music. The grand prize winner will have their beer brewed commercially at Yonkers Brewing Company with additional winners for people’s choice, brewer’s choice, and Harper’s choice.

If you like saison, and the many creative and interesting permutations of the style, this will be a fun event to check out.

Oast House Saison

My entry for this competition is a new take on the prototypical Saison DuPont-esque saison. I’ve taken a base of pilsner malt, added a bit of rye to round the mouthfeel and accentuate the spicy phenolic yeast character, and then added some oats to give what is typically a very dry beer a soft roundness on the palate. I then took the beer and fermented it with a house-mixed culture that originally consisted of harvested Saison Dupont dregs, The Yeast Bay’s Brett Amalgamation blend, and a touch of White Labs’ Lacto Brevis.

I’ve run this culture through a number of trial fermentations and it tends to be very fruit forward with lots of melon and minimal brett funk. There is some tartness that likes to come out in low-IBU beers such as this one, but is pretty much non-existent in beers over 15 IBUs.

Post fermentation, the beer was dry-hopped with a blend of New World citrus-forward hops that play very nicely with the fermentation character and tartness in the beer. The resulting bright and juicy fruit character is amazing — a perfect blend of yeast and hops.

If you come out, please stop by and say hi. I’m very curious to hear your feedback on the beer!

Mixed-Culture Dry-Hopped Saison Recipe:

Specifications:
Size: 5.5 gal
Efficiency: 66%
Attenuation: 88%

Original Gravity: 1.052 (measured)
Terminal Gravity: 1.006 (measured)
Color: 4.88 SRM
Alcohol: 6% ABV (calculated)
Bitterness: 10.1 IBUs

Grist:
9 lb (69.2%) Weyermann Pilsner Malt
2 lb (15.4%) Oats Flaked – added during mash
2 lb (15.4%) Rye Malt – added during mash

Mash Regiment:
147 °F – 40m
152.0 °F – 20m
158 °F – 10m

Water Treatment:
Extremely Soft NYC Water
6g Gypsum (to mash)

Hopping:
8 g Centennial (10.5% AA) – 90 m
1 oz Citra™ (12.5% AA) – dry hopped 3 days
1 oz Azacca (10.3% AA) – dry hopped 3 days

Kettle Additions:
0.5 ea Whirlfloc Tablets – 15 m
0.5 tsp Wyeast Nutrient – 10 m

Yeast:
1L House Saison Mixed Culture