10 – Ginger Saison

This is a placeholder for our upcoming 10th recipe, our first try at a “ginger saison”!

Here is my recipe

grains…	lbs	ingredient details	potential SG	points
67.86%	9.5	belgian pilsner malt	1.036	342
17.86%	2.5	flaked rye / malted rye	1.036	90
14.29%	1	Belgian-ish candi sugar (*attempt 1)	1.036	36
100.00%	13			468
hops/additions…	ounces
60, first wort hops	1	hallertau
15 mins, ginger	4	peeled, washed, frozen, grated
15 mins,sugar	16	belgian candi sugar
15 mins, hops	1	saaz hops
15 mins	1	add 1/2 whirlfloc tablet
2 weeks out, hops	1	saaz hops
2 weeks out, for 2 days, ginger	0.5	peeled, washed, sliced thin
yeast…	package
1 package	1	WYeast 3711 French Saison
water…	gallons
strike water	8.5	BIAB starting volume
ending volume	5.75	yeast pitching volume

Depending on how much of the candi sugar I decide to use, am shooting for an OG of 1.061 to 1.065 which may result in a 6.7% to 7.2% ABV beer. We’ll see how it goes!

Also this will be my second batch ever to be kegged, and first time skipping conditioning and force-carbing the beer as soon as it cold crashes. Also I never have cold crashed before, so will try to do that in my finally-completed keezer right before ramping up the CO2.

Brew day notes…

Brewed this beer on Saturday, October 1 2016. Started around 12pm.
First time ever, I burnt a hole in one of my two BIAB bags, and had to spend almost an hour straining out the mashed grains before heating up to a boil. Wow that sucked, but glad I didn’t ruin the batch.
My ghetto volume measurements along the way seemed to indicate my boil off rate was faster than 1 gallon per hour, I initially was going to do an 80 minute boil but shortened it to a 60 minute boil. That made my 60 minute hop addition a 45 minute hop addition in reality.
Added my belgian candi sugar at abut 5 minutes left in the boil in a muslin bag. Found it was not really melting quick at all, next time might try adding it much earlier.
I am tired of straining the wort (slowly) on way to fermentation vessel, I think I’ll put even pellet hops in muslin bags from now on. That or resume using my bazooka tube.
Even with volume worries, I ended up about 5.8 gallons in the bucket with OG of 1.065. Ah, right about perfect so fingers crossed for a great outcome here.
Finished about 6pm, and the next morning was bubbling away. 24 hours later it was still bubbling pretty fast. This 3711 yeast is a monster!

Secondary notes…

Took my first sample from the brew bucket on Sunday, 10/30/2016. Wow that thing makes it so easy!
The gravity looked lower than 1.000, guessing 0.998 or 0.999, making abv 8.78 to 8.92.
I put the 1oz of secondary hops into the wort, and also 2oz of cleaned, skinned, sliced ginger.

Kegging day notes…

Daily tastes helped find when the ginger character was really coming through, thanks to that brew bucket spout!
Transferred this batch from the brew bucket to the keg on Monday, 11/7/2016.
First time transferring from the brew bucket, omg i love that thing. Perfectly left behind trub with minimal effort.
Got 2nd CO2 line connected to the keezer, used it to purge the keg.
Put 2nd keg into the keezer, was quite a PITA actually. Hoping the 3rd one will fit when the time comes.

Photos of this beer recipe…

Taking a gravity reading during secondary additions. Looks like 0.998 or 0.999!