Ted Beer’s Sauvin Saison
Saison ale brewed with New Zealand Nelson Sauvin hops.
So, our kitchen is also home to my homebrewing hobby, so I thought I would share details of a brew I did recently.
This is a Saison-style ale, which originates from Wallonia. It was traditionally low in alcohol, dry and refreshing, but now stronger variants have become more typical. I have brewed 3 saisons this summer, all from a single vial of White Labs’ WLP565 Belgian Saison yeast. The first 2 were much lower in alcohol, and used Pale Ale malt and some different hops - Jester and Huell Melon. This beer recreates a successful experiment from last summer, and features Bohemian Pilsner malt for a very light colour, and Nelson Sauvin hops for an incredibly fruity, white-wine like flavour. This one is strong, with an estimated finishing ABV of 6.5%.
Saisons were originally brewed to be enjoyed during the hot summer months, but I choose to brew them during summer. The main reason for this is I don’t have any refrigeration for my brewing process yet, and as Saison yeasts work happily at higher temperatures than other ale yeasts, I can brew during the summer, typically between 24-27oC. This brings out fruitier, pepper-like flavours from the yeast, which are common in saisons. In fact I have tried saisons with farmyard and old leather flavours, so for some the weirder the better!
For 23L of beer I used:
36 litres tap water, left overnight to allow chlorine to dissipate
5kg Bohemain pilsner malt
250g torrified wheat
220g acidulated malt
1 tsp Irish moss
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
100g Nelson Sauvin hops
The torrified wheat is to establish a fuller, longer-lasting head on the beer, and acidulated malt to bring the mash pH down to create a more balanced beer (not overly malty or bitter). I did also add some chemicals to alter the water profile, but these are only relevant to my own tap water.
The day before brewing I began by crushing the grains in my new grain mill. This took about 20mins to do by hand. I extended the container for my mill as you can see here...
On the brew day I heated my water to 74.4oC, then transferred 15.4L to my mash tun (a converted cool box). I gradually added the crushed grains and stirred them well so there were no dry clumps left, then put the lid on and left for 10mins for the temperature to settle. I checked the temp after this and, when I was happy it was roughly 64.4oC through most of the mash tun, I put the lid back on, wrapped in a blanket and left for 75mins to mash.
64.4oC and a long 75min mash helps to get lots of sugar from the malted grains, and will create a light body and higher ABV in the finished beer, which I wanted for this style.
After 75mins I removed the lid and checked the temperature, and was happy it had fallen very little throughout the mash. Then I started the sparge. This was a fly-sparge, which involves trickling the remaining water heated to 80oC from the boil kettle onto the grains while simultaneously draining the sugary wort from the mash tun. The aim is to do this slowly and carefully, so you don’t disturb the grain bed and release maximum sugars from the grains. I collected about 30L of wort, and when I checked the gravity it was slightly above my estimated boil gravity at 1.046, meaning the mash had worked well.
I next had to transfer the collected wort back to my boil kettle. Olga wasn’t around to help me lift the full kettle, and it is a struggle to lift it to the top of my oven on my own. So a bit of brewing inventiveness, and my trusted auto-siphon, helped me complete this task...
Next step was to bring this wort to a rolling boil. I boil with the copper wort-chiller in the pot so I don’t have to add it later, and I use a home-made ‘hop-spider’ which I boil my hops in to keep the gunk contained so it doesn’t block the filter in my boil kettle.
I measured out the hop additions - 2g for 90mins boil, 8g for 5mins and 40g to steep in the wort after I turn the heat off after 90mins. The aim here is to add most of the hop bitterness late in the boil, and extract as many flavours and aromas from these incredible hops as possible. To be honest I don’t go in for overly-bitter beers, and find that as saisons finish dry, the bitterness can get really harsh. So I aimed for about 25IBUs here, which is low-medium for the saison style.
10mins before the end of the boil I added the Irish moss and yeast nutrient. Irish moss is a seaweed, and helps create a clearer beer...
So once the 90mins was up, I turned off the heat, added the last 40g of hops and let it sit for 30mins. As soon as this was up, I started running cold water through the wort-chiller to bring the temperature down as fast as possible to a good range for the yeast - about 24oC. This uses a lot of water. so I collect as much as possible. The hottest water is for cleaning all the brewing equipment. Then I collect a big bucket of water for my fish tank. Then lots of small bottles that Olga uses for watering the plants. Only after I have filled everything I can do I let cold water run back into the sink, as you can see in this picture...
Once the wort is cooled, all that needs doing is to transfer it to the fermenter. This is my first time using my new stainless steel Brew Bucket. I run the cooled wort from the boil kettle tap, letting it splash as much as possible to add oxygen for the yeast. I also use a large stainless steel whisk to stir the wort as well, creating as much foam as possible. I found that 23L is a perfect amount of wort for my 26L fermenter, but the foam was too much, spilling over the sides! Once it had settled a bit though I sealed the lid and let it sit for a moment.
Now all I needed to do was add the yeast. I collected a jar of WLP565 yeast from my previous brew, so I only had to open the fermenter again and pour the yeast in.
Then I waited for fermentation to start - indicated by carbon dioxide being forced out of the airlock...
So that is the main brew day in some detail. Now the beer ferments until gravity has dropped sufficiently, then is allowed to rest and clear for a few days. When fermentation seems to have finished, I will add 50g of Nelson Sauvin hops to the fermenter to ‘dry hop’ for 4-5 days. This should add loads of nice fresh aroma and flavour from the hops without extra bitterness. This whole process will take about 3 weeks, then it will be time to bottle...
