I bottled the 8% Saison on Tuesday, May 27th. Since it had been in secondary a good while I decided to help it along with some 1007 German Ale. It was very bright! The flavor was great and had plenty of grassy hop nose from both Saaz and Spalt. There was some late heat in the back of the throat, but the whole beer seemed fairly delicate and not one of substance. So, it's OG was 1.063 and the TG was 1.003. I know. It is hard to believe, but look at the record! Anyway, that's 95% apparent attenuation and a solid 8% abv. I noticed when I took the MarsBiere down to the lagering freezer yesterday, that the other half of the 8% had been down there since May 7th? It's already been 3+ weeks? I remember when I used to keep better records. Now I have to decide whether I should put a potentially lethal 8% Saison on draft? I dunno. I guess I'll think on it. Whaddaya think?

Biere de Mars (Biere de Yard? OG 1.056) terminaled at 1.006... with 5% crystal malt! and no sugar in the kettle! That's still 89% AA and 6.6% abv. Maybe this is the yeast for the 100% Crystal Malt beer we've talked about. CaraFoam anyone? =)

I drank some Belgian Pale today. We finished the keg with the 1214 strain. It was good. Estery and more earthy than the one we have now. Currently on draft is the Belgian Pale fermented with the 3944 Belgian Wit strain. It's very different. The emphasis seems to be more so on the malt and hops. At least in this case. I can get the Styrians in the aroma. It has phenols, but I think those have become more background to malt and hops. It's balanced, dryish, slightly malt emphisized. Biscuity from Castle Biscuit and grainy from the GW 2-row. The aftertaste is fully grainy 2-row. I thought that I liked the 1214 half more, but now I'm not sure. They were both good. I should have them next time side by side.

My next task is to buy a bag of Gambinus Pale malt and compare it with GW 2-row.

We created a biere yesterday. Bier #6 on the year. (Boo yah, in yer face, etc.) I'll be calling it a Biere de Mars even though it's just a Saison with more color and a bit more maltiness than most others I've made. Ingredients include:

19# Castle Pils (the last available from Olybrew at present time... economic downturn, etc.)
1# Wagner Wheat
1# Castle Aromatic 20L
1# Weyermann CaraHell 9-12L
2oz Weyermann Carafa Spcl 425L
2oz US Northern Brewer 8.1% aa (75 min)
1oz Kent Golding 6% aa (KO)
1oz Bavarian Spalt 2.9% aa (KO)
Wyeast 3711 French Saison





I got permission to split my nearly 1 quart of Slurry from the previous two batches into 2 seperate biers. One portion of pitch 3 was on a 1.090 Super Saison made at Big Brew on May 3rd. That bier has finished, or nearly so, at 1.008 for a whopping 11% abv. But enough about that. The Current Biere de Mars is humming along at a comfortable 74-76F. I plan to lager one half for 3-5 weeks and bottle the other half with bugs from the Yard City Sour w/ Lambic Blend in the style of New Belgium's old Bier de Mars.

On brew day I ran out of Propane -both tanks! And ran down the street to steal some from an unsuspecting neighbor. I also ran out of oxygen! Fortunately I made it to Kitsap Lumber 15 minutes before closing time. It was a lengthy late day but at least I got to see The Posies live in BREMERTON!

Holy double rewards, Batman!

Today I racked the Saison II to secondary and retrieved a boat load of slurry from the carboys. It is tasting nice and pineappley. It finished at 1.003. That's 95% AA from the 1.063 where it started and 8% alcohol by volume. This yeast is crazy. I'm beginning to think that the next beer with it needs 5% or less of sugar. I was going to use 20%! Doh! The next beer will be a super saison with a high gravity of 1.095. So, I think I'll have to tone dow the sugar to 5% or under. Maybe no sugar. Maybe all Pils.

I also racked the Tannum to a keg and carbonated it at the appropriate PSI (25) at the dispense temperature (52F) to equal my desired volumes of dissolved CO2 (3.0ish). This might work. It seemed good on first pour, but maybe most things do. We'll see. I've always had trouble dispensing Belgian's because of how much carbonation I want from them.

The first pint of Tannum tastes good. It has a light and bright character. The bitterness hit differently. Some bright grapefruit. Lemony, maybe?