Home brewing for the wedding
Back in December or so, my friend Tom and I were enjoying some beers post-work and got to thinking about brewing a beer for the wedding. I've never home brewed before, but understand some of the basics. Tom on the other hand has been brewing for years and is a master, competing in local competitions and doing quite well.
With the wedding set in late August, we aimed for a beer thats lighter and palpable by a larger audience (sorry IPA / Sour fans). We opted for a traditional Saison. For those that don't know its history or haven't enjoyed a Saison, it origins from the farmlands of Belgium in an area called Wallonia. The beer currently has a huge range of styles, but is typically lighter and crisp. Some shared commonalities are a rustic quality, dryness from high attenuation (conversion from sugar to alcohol while fermenting) and quite importantly yeast-driven complexity.
1. The yeast starter on a stir plate, prepped the night before, helps get the yeast primed for perfection before being added to the wort.
2. Consulting the web for exact temperatures, measurements, pre-brew.
THE RECIEPE - SAISON CLASSIC - 5 GALLONS, ALL GRAIN
Grain
- 5 lbs Belgian Pilsner malt (sub German Pils if Belgian not available)
- 4 lbs Belgian Vienna malt (sub German Vienna if Belgian not available)
- 1 lb Wheat malt
Hops
- 1.75 oz East Kent Goldings
- 0.75 oz Styrian Goldings
Yeast
- We pitched Wyeast 3711 for its ease-of-use and high attenuation
Additional Ingredients
- Coriander
- Oranges
- Lime
Mash & Sparge - Just added the grains to boiled water, with the grain starting to turn into sugar water. Upper container is the sparge, pushing the sugar water into the pot below.
THE PROCESS
Prep
- Make a yeast starter prior to brew day
- On brew day, collect strike water and heat to approx. 175°F.
1 . Mash & Sparge
- Add all grains to strike water and mix to achieve a uniform temperature of approximately 148°F.
- Rest the mash at this temperature for 60 minutes.
- While the mash rests, collect and heat sparge water.
- When the mash rest is complete, heat it to 170 F for mashout.
- Sparge and collect the wort in the boil kettle.
Boil: Just added the hops and now adding the coriander, crushed oranges, and limes to the boiling wort.
2. Boil
- Bring the wort to a boil.
- Add 1 oz East Kent Goldings hops and 1/2 of batch ingredients coriander, dried crushed oranges and lime when the wort begins to boil
- Boil for 60 minutes.
- Add 0.5 oz of East Kent Goldings and 0.5 oz Styrian Goldings and remaining 1/2 batch ingredients coriander, dried crushed oranges and lime 15 minutes before the end of the boil.
3. Cool it - Wort Chiller
Cool it: The wort (all ingredients before the yeast gets added) cooling thru a copper wort chiller. Cold water in one end of the copper pipe, spins thru the wort, cooling it, and emptying out the other end of the chiller.
Fermentation: The chilled wort being filtered and transferred to the fermenter.
4. Fermentation and beyond
- Transfer the cooled wort to a sanitized fermenter and aerate well.
5. Pitch yeast plus yeast nutrients.
- We're currently fermentation to a temp around 70°F, and possibly even above 80°F
- Primary should be completed in 7 to 30 days.
OUR SAISON WILL BE READY TO DRINK AS SOON AS IT’S CARBONATED WHICH IS TYPICALLY ~60 DAYS. HAVING BREWED ON 5/22, WE SHOULD HAVE IT BOTTLED AT THE END OF JULY AND EASILY READY FOR THE BIG DAY, 8/29.
Pitch the Yeast: The final step. Yeast being added to the wort. This is the only way to get alcohol into the beer at this point, with the yeast turning sugar into alcohol.