Recipe #31: Galaxy Saison with Blaugies Yeast #3 – Hop Stand (Batch #2014.26)

This post was accidentally released before it was ready, sorry for the confusion to the few of you that saw it in the incomplete state.

Still working on this one, even though it is probably getting incredibly boring. I’m returning to the recipe I used in Recipe #19,This will be the last one of these Galaxy saisons in the near future, as I want to work on a few different beers in the coming months and not this one.

The big difference here is that I introduced a hop stand step at the end of the boil. I’m trying to up my game when it comes to fragile hops, get a process down to minimize the light struck, oxidation of hop products in beer. I’m lazily moving toward. I’ll post a long update in January or February about my new way to make hoppy beer their hoppiest. This version suffered from my confusion and I introduced some oxygen after fermentation was over but have now taken steps to avoid that in the future. Well onto the brew.

Batch # 2014.26

5 Gallon Batch
Brew date: November 2, 2014
Bottling date:
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.010
ABV: 5.5% (estimated)
SRM:  4 (estimated)
IBU: 35 (calculated)

Grain-bill:

80% Pilsner Malt
10% Wheat
10% Flaked Rice

Mash Conditions:

Grain was mashed at 150° F in about 4 gallons of water. pH stabilizer was added to the mash water. Sparge was done at 170° F with about 5 gallons of water. Both the mash and the sparge were vorlaufed until they ran clear. About 8.5 gallons was collected.

Brewing Procedure:

Wort was brought to a boil quickly, unfortunately it did boil over. I stopped the boil over and continued for 75 minutes. About 6 gallons was left over after the boil was done. Rather than chill immediately, I didn’t turn on the water for the immersion chiller for 30 minutes while the last hop addition (added at flame out) sat there. The temperature of the wort after the 30 minutes about 175° F.

Water Chemistry:

I didn’t do any calculations for the water on this one (still working on my spreadsheet) but I added a teaspoon of gypsum to the boil, a whirfloc table and to the mash some pH stabilizer (pH 5.2). I will be doing a better job with the water chemistry stuff in 2015, that is my New Year’s resolution.

Hop Schedule:

2 ounces Galaxy 15% AA for 10 minutes

2 ounces Galaxy 15% AA hop stand (flame out without chilling for 30 minutes)

2 ounces Galaxy 15% AA dry hopping in a keg

Fermentation Conditions:

Fermented with 20% Rye Chinook Saison yeast cake, about 1/3 of the yeast cake. The fermentation took off after 12 hours and finished nicely after about 2 weeks. Beer was transferred to a keg for dry hopping.

Notes:

There are a few notes for this beer since I sort of messed this one up in more than one place. First, I sent the flaked rice through the mill…which I never do…does anyone? I realized I never critically evaluated my own practice here but after looking it up online, it seems that very few people do this and it is preferred to not do this. I didn’t run into any problems but still I won’t be adding this to my practice.

Second, I dry hopped this in a keg. I thought it would be better to do this so the light wouldn’t have access to the beer…generally a good idea but the problem was I had a hard time transferring the beer out of the keg into the bottling keg without getting a lot of hop material, so I ended up clogging the dip tube of the bottling keg.

I ended up transferring the beer TWICE after dryhopping with an auto-siphon. This is not a good idea. I definitely introduced oxygen and that’s the flavor I get in the beer. It is mild but this beer has a shorter shelf life because of it. I’ve taken steps now since this mistake to prevent it from happening again, a longer post about that in the future.

Tasting Notes:

 

Beer served in a tulip glass. Beer is yellow with a slight haze and a soft white head of small bubbles, decent retention, nice lacing.

The aroma is sweet, passionfruit, peaches. There is a slight hint of oxidation (darn it). It isn’t bad, overall the level of the aroma is nice.

Beer is light and effervescent. It is mildly bitter on the finish, overall a thin beer with a clean finish. I’m really getting close on this. There is a slight oxidation likely from the multiple transfers but overall a nice beer. This beer deserves better water chemistry and that will happen. I’ll have no problem giving this beer to people or drinking the two cases myself. Overall a great beer.

Possible improvements (for future batches):

This beer is approaching perfect, the only thing I might do with this version is to increase the chloride in the beer slightly and make sure there isn’t a point where I have to introduce oxygen into the beer. This beer deserves some  This was just a pure fuck up and I’ve already taken steps to prevent that from happening in the future. More on that later. I think this is a good beer now and I’m going to stop messing with it.

Upcoming brews:

There is a write up for a Waktu saison, a Brett stout, a Moteuka abbey ale, a barrel aged Russian Imperial Stout, and a Chinook wet hop saison…and so on, all coming up soon. I’m developing recipes for an Old Ale (to replace the RIS in the barrel), and a series of witbiers and 2015 will see my return to my brewing roots with a series of IPAs and DIPAs. I don’t want to tease more than that, but I’m back to brewing a couple of times a week and there are plenty of posts coming. Stay tuned.

 

“Change begets change as much as repetition reinforces repetition.” –Bill Drayton