7/28/2021 10:23 PM over 2 years ago
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+0 |
Brew Day Complete |
1.039
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9 Liters |
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7/28/2021 10:49 PM over 2 years ago
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I brewed this beer with Jay tonight.
The OG came out at 1.039, several points lower than expected even after I lowered the efficiency from 78% to 76%. Hmm. I suspect it was because we mashed in a couple of degrees higher than planned (no particular reason why), and possibly not extracting as many sugars from the 40% wheat malt.
We also left the mash on the stove for half an hour, by which point it had dropped to 63.4C. We put it in the oven at 90C which kept the mash around 63.5C for the rest of the hour.
The boil, surprisingly, was more vigorous than ever. We heated to a boil with the lid on, cracking the lid for the boil. The boil foam really shot up at several points.
Regardless of the above, we still came out with 9L+ of wort instead of 8.5L. This may also help explain the lower OG.
We may be looking at a 4.5-4.9% saison, which is not a bad thing.
We left the kettle in the bath for around an hour, intending to get the wort down to around 26C for pitching yeast. The wort got down to around 22C so we attached the heat belt, let it heat up to 24C before pitching the yeast. We pitched a full pack (dry) of MJ M29 French Saison yeast.
The Inkbird is set to 26.2C in the brew fridge.
The Tilt was originally reporting 1.039 OG and now 1.040-41 OG. A hydrometer sample confirmed 1.039 OG. |
7/29/2021 1:28 PM over 2 years ago
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+1 |
Other |
1.029
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7/29/2021 8:14 PM over 2 years ago
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2:30pm
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The gravity had already dropped 5 points overnight, so fermentation is well underway already.
There is a slight leak in the FV lid - you can hear air coming out when pressing down on the lid - so the airlock isn't quite getting to the point where it will bubble. The 15L bucket has a terrible flimsy lid with a poor seal unfortunately.
The fridge smells great! Still fermenting at 26C; will start to increase the temperature later on tonight or tomorrow, depending on how much the gravity drops further. |
7/29/2021 8:14 PM over 2 years ago
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+1 |
Other |
1.022
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7/29/2021 8:14 PM over 2 years ago
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8:30pm
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Increased Inkbird temp by 0.5C, from 26.2C to 26.7C. The airlock liquid is still pushed forward but fialing to bubble thanks to the small leak. |
7/30/2021 8:59 AM over 2 years ago
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+2 |
Other |
1.012
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7/30/2021 8:59 AM over 2 years ago
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Raised temp by 0.5C from 26.7C to 27.2C on the Inkbird.
Important to note that the Tilt always shows a higher temp than the Inkbird.
I have also removed two boxes of cherries from the freezer. They will defrost over several hours, and then depending on how the gravity is looking today will be hit with Campden for 24 hours before being added to the beer. Must also remember to add 10g of Saaz dry hops too. |
7/30/2021 4:02 PM over 2 years ago
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+2 |
Other |
1.007
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7/30/2021 4:03 PM over 2 years ago
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Raised temp by 0.5C from 27.2C to 27.7C.
The cherries have almost completely defrosted so I've chucked them into a sanitised mixing bowl with a whole crushed Campden tablet, stirred and covered with a muslin bag. |
7/31/2021 9:53 AM over 2 years ago
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+3 |
Other |
1.006
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7/31/2021 9:58 AM over 2 years ago
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Increased temp by 0.5C from 27.7.C to 28.2C. |
7/31/2021 3:41 PM over 2 years ago
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+3 |
Sample |
1.005
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7/31/2021 4:01 PM over 2 years ago
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Added the cherries to two muslin bags which had been weighed down with marbles. Both bags sank to the bottom of the FV which is great. Added the rest of the cherry juice in as well.
I added 10g Saaz dry hop straight from the freezer as I had almost forgotten they were needed.
A hydrometer sample confirms the gravity to currently be 1.005.
The saison is tasting good so far! It's incredibly pale thanks to the wheat, and already has a lemony flavour which if I remember correctly from the Sorachi Saison last year will eventually peter out a lot. I've not used Saaz before so will be interesting to see what the dry hop adds.
The FV is currently at 28.2C so it smells a bit on the funky side. The krausen had dropped completely, with the Tilt having a small ring of crud around the top side of it.
The beer is currently at 4.46%.
GRAVITY ADJUSTMENTS
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This calculator claims that the beer will increase by 0.49%, which is what I was going to hazard a guess at either way: http://blog.craftbeertraders.com/fruit-gravity-alcohol-calculator/
The result was reached by converting 9L beer and 1kg cherries/juice to lbs and US gallons.
I have noticed that since adding the fruit and juice, the Tilt is now reporting SG of 1.008 instead of 1.005/1.006 earlier. This will be from the sugars in the juice. There will be even more sugars in the fruit so the estimate of 3.75 gravity points increase from the calculator seems about right. |
8/3/2021 3:32 PM over 2 years ago
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+6 |
Other |
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8/3/2021 3:32 PM over 2 years ago
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The pressure in the airlock has pretty much leveled back out again, implying that fermentation is (nearing) done.
Tilt is still registering 1.005, which means 5% ABV including the additional 0.5% from the fruit addition. |
8/4/2021 9:44 PM over 2 years ago
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+7 |
Other |
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8/4/2021 9:47 PM over 2 years ago
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10pm - Unplugged the heat belt to allow the beer to fall to an ambient temp from 28.2C. |
8/7/2021 10:50 PM over 2 years ago
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+10 |
Other |
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8/7/2021 11:08 PM over 2 years ago
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Just got home from Hop City and the Vennart/Sabbath gig. Knackered!
I was just about to cold crash the beer when I noticed the Tilt has been sitting at 1.003 all day. It's dropped a point. Sometimes this can happen when the temp falls, which it has been doing gradually since I unplugged the heat belt.
I'll leave it at least another day before crashing. The cherries have been in for 7 days now. |
8/9/2021 2:21 PM over 2 years ago
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+12 |
Other |
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8/9/2021 2:21 PM over 2 years ago
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10:30am
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The beer hasn't changed since 1.003 overnight so I set the Inkbird to 0.5C to crash. We're away in Wales for 2 nights now so it's a good head start on the cold crashing. |
8/11/2021 8:46 PM over 2 years ago
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+14 |
Other |
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8/11/2021 8:46 PM over 2 years ago
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8pm - Home from Wales. Brought crash temp down from 0.5C to 0.1C. |
8/18/2021 6:41 PM over 2 years ago
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+21 |
Other |
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8/18/2021 6:41 PM over 2 years ago
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6pm
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Moved FV from the fridge onto the kitchen counter.
For the first time ever I've noticed the S-shaped airlock actually has liquid sucked all the way back into the very bottom of the tube (past the 'S'). Hopefully this will start to get pushed forward again as the beer warms up and off-gases Co2. Either way, the airlock liquid is vodka so all good. |
8/19/2021 8:09 PM over 2 years ago
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+22 |
Fermentation Complete |
1.002
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8/19/2021 8:56 PM over 2 years ago
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Hydrometer looks like 1.002-1.001 so I've called it at 1.002. Tilt was reporting mostly 1.002 at room temp since removing the FV from the fridge.
ABV = 4.86% + 0.5% from fruit = 5.36% |
8/19/2021 8:18 PM over 2 years ago
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+22 |
Packaged |
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7.11 Liters |
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8/19/2021 8:18 PM over 2 years ago
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Packaged 17 x 330ml bottles and 3 x 500ml bottles. All 330s have 1 x Crafty Fox carb drop and all 550s have 2.
The first 6 bottles (330ml) belong to Jay.
The last bottle contains some small fruit bits so I will use this as a tester. |
8/19/2021 9:02 PM over 2 years ago
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+22 |
Tasting Note |
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8/19/2021 9:02 PM over 2 years ago
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I was a little disappointed with the beer at first. Very thin at 1.002, with only a subtle cherry flavour and a very muted saison funk. Both flavours did come through more as I got further through the ~300ml sample from the bottling bucket dregs.
The beer has almost an almond aroma to it which I think may be the saison aroma mixing with the cherry.
I think this will make for a nice refreshing summer beer once it's carbed and cold. |
8/27/2021 8:05 PM over 2 years ago
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+30 |
Tasting Note |
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8/27/2021 8:05 PM over 2 years ago
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Cracked open the tester bottle (last of batch) which had been conditioning for 8 days.
A very small hiss upon popping the cap, followed by extremely low carbonation. This was one of the four BA bottles we got from Farmyard Ales during lockdown 2020, and I'm not entirely sure it was 100% sealed well.
I had fridged the beer for 3-4 hours before opening. The bottle had been left out of the fridge for maybe 20-30 minutes.
At first I was a little disappointed for the same reason as I noted at bottling; there's not quite enough saison and not quite enough cherry. Aroma is 40/60 saison/cherry, so pretty good.
The beer really picks up around 1/2 way down the glass, with the cherry coming into its own more. It's very easy drinking. I am surprised just how much saison esters can be knocked out by fruit, though. I remember the same happening to Jay's raspberry saison.
I feel carbonation will be key to bringing this beer to life. Only another couple of weeks to go. |
9/9/2021 7:30 PM over 2 years ago
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+43 |
Tasting Note |
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9/9/2021 7:30 PM over 2 years ago
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Had one of these last night in Scotland, straight from the fridge.
Carb is too low. The flavour improves as you get into it (and as it warms a little) but it's still lacking something, same as I thought previously. It's decent but a slight disappointment in a way. |
9/17/2021 4:22 PM over 2 years ago
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+51 |
Other |
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9/17/2021 11:24 PM over 2 years ago
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Moved 3 bottled to the fridge. All other bottles are still in the dining room cupboard at room temp. |
9/19/2021 10:03 PM over 2 years ago
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+53 |
Tasting Note |
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9/19/2021 10:03 PM over 2 years ago
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Had one of the 330ml bottles from the fridge.
It poured with a minimal head which dissipated immediately. Tasting note same as previous bottles, with low but detectable carbonation. |
10/6/2021 9:23 PM over 2 years ago
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+70 |
Tasting Note |
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10/6/2021 9:23 PM over 2 years ago
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Jay got in touch yesterday to say that Becky loves the beer and that he really likes it. He said it just needs 50% more cherries to be spot on. I don't disagree. |
2/21/2022 10:07 PM over 2 years ago
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+208 |
Tasting Note |
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2/21/2022 10:07 PM over 2 years ago
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Had a 500ml bottle last night. It's improved so much.
The carbonation was still relatively low for a saison but the beer is at its best. It's a lot less "cherry sweets" than when it was first bottled. The saison flavour is finally coming through more too. |
4/18/2022 9:29 PM over 2 years ago
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+264 |
Other |
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4/18/2022 9:29 PM over 2 years ago
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This was a great beer. I gave the last bottle to Kev several weeks ago who said it was fantastic. |