I have been reading more about Saisons and I thought I would post this recipe. Bière de saison looks to be the original homebrewer’s beer. It is a style that comes from the beers farmers would brew in the French speaking part of Belgium known as Wallonia.

Because the beers were brewed by different farmers, the style is hard to characterize. I think that’s great…it gives us more freedom to create interesting beers.

BYO has a great article on the style by Horst Dornbusch and I made this recipe based on his thoughts and other information I read on the style.

Spices could be added to this beer, but I think I am going to follow Horst’s lead and try to get a good Saison spicy flavor from the yeast and the hops.

Fermentation will definitely be on the warmer side, probably in the 75 degree range. After primary, I will let it condition for a few months and pop one open in late spring/early summer.

Brew On!

Ingredients:

10 lbs. Belgian Pils
12 oz. German Munich Malt
2 oz. Belgian Special B Malt
6 oz. Belgian Aromatic Malt
10 oz Belgian Wheat Malt
1.0 oz. Sterling (Pellets, 7.50 %AA) - boiled at 60 min.
0.50 oz. Saaz (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) - boiled at 15 min.

Yeast - White Labs WLP565 Belgian Saison I

Stats:

Original Gravity: 1.058
Terminal Gravity: 1.011
Color: 11.21 °SRM
Bitterness: 35.0 IBU
Alcohol: (% volume) 6.2%

Here is the follow up recipe to my American Brown Ale Recipe.    I wanted to brew a single hop pale ale using an abundance of Cascade Hops that I had tucked away for a rainy day.  I also wanted to get a feeling for how my roasted malts really tasted versus some pale ale type base beer.  Hence this pale ale recipe is very similar to my American Brown expect no roasted malts.  I hope to brew this one soon.

(If you are following along at home as a devoted Brew-Dude reader, you’ll remember my previous post about this recipe which you can find below this one.  I modified the recipe as a result of my desire to compare the Brown Ale character malts to the underlying base malts/pale ale like grain bill. )

Check it out!

Malts
10.0 lb American 2-row
1.0lb    Crystal 15L
0.25lb  Crystal 125L
(Mash temp 155F)

Hops
1.5oz Cascade pellet 60min
1.5oz Cascade pellet 10min
1.5oz Cascade pellet 1min

Yeast
I hope to pitch the cake from the American Brown ale which is a blend of US-05 and S-04 dried yeasts.

Stay wired in for when this brew gets done and we do a side by side tasting.
I am very excited about these two beers.  Maybe we’ll call them the twins if all works out (one Blonde and one Brunette)  I’ll post my actual OG and IBU data when i brew it up.

BREW ON!

Original Cascade Pale Ale post (6/2008)

I have an “overstock” of Cascade pellets that I need to use up so I was thinking that a couple single hop beers were in order.  Looking at my American Beer series line up, I think I will substitute this Cascade Pale Ale for the American Wheat.  (I have other plans for a wheat series later this month, so stay tuned).

Here is my Cascade Pale Ale recipe. Let me know what you think. I was keeping it simple to be a clean drinker but still showcase the Cascade hop.

Cascade Pale Ale

10-A American Pale Ale

Size: 6.0 gal
Efficiency: 65%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Original Gravity: 1.050 (1.045 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 - 1.015)
Color: 8.3 (5.0 - 14.0)
Alcohol: 4.87% (4.5% - 6.0%)
Bitterness: 38.87 (30.0 - 45.0)

Ingredients:

12.0 lbs 2-Row Brewers Malt
1.0 lbs Crystal 15
0.6 oz Chocolate Malt
1.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
1.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1 min

1.0 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05
1.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15 min

Mash at 154F for 60 minutes.

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.29

The Friday after Thanksgiving I got up before the sun on that cool autumn morning and fired up the kettles to make this starting attempt at an American Brown Ale.  I had over half a pound of Cascade hop pellets (5.8%AA) sitting around which I used exclusively.  My main reason for this was that I have an single hop American Pale Ale I want to make in a manner very similar to this brown ale just without the roast.
The other unique part of this brew was that I had two packets of dried yeast that I were close to their expiration date.  So I re-hydrated both and pitched them in.  That doesn’t sound very novel does it….well one packet was US-05 the other was S-04.  So this brown has a yeast blend of my favorite American yeast and my favorite English yeast.  More on yeast blending in another post…

Here is the recipe:

Malts 
10.0 lbs  American 2-row
1.0 lbs    Crystal 15L
0.25 lbs  Crystal 125L
0.5 lbs    Special Roast
0.75 lbs  Chocolate Malt
2.0 oz    Roasted Barely
(Mash temp 155 F)

Hops
1.5 oz Cascade pellet 60min
1.5 oz Cascade pellet 10min
1.5 oz Cascade pellet 1min

Yeast
1 packet US-05 (Fermentis)
1 packet Safale-04 (Fermentis)

I made this as a 6 gallon batch and my OG was riding a little higher than I wanted at 1.055, so I diluted it out to 1.048 with some cold water in the fermentor.  (Total fermentor volume was 5.5 gallons)  I anticipate the IBUs at ~43, a little high for my tastes but it think it will work well with the crystal and special roasts in the grain bill… and the other hop heads in my life.

Keep you eyes peeled for my Cascade Pale Ale recipe which will eerily mirror this one just minus the roasted malts.  I hope to use the cake from this brew to ferment the next!

BREW ON!

Check out our other homebrew recipes.

This weekend I plan to brew up the dark English Mild recipe that is in Brewing Classic Styles, by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer.

I love English Brown Ale and brewing a Mild has been on my check list for quite some time.

Here is the recipe:

Dark Mild

11-A Mild
Oringinally formulated by Jamil Zainasheff

Size: 5.5 gal
Efficiency: 70%
Attenuation: 70.0%
Original Gravity: 1.037 
Terminal Gravity: 1.011 
Color: 18.71 SRM
Alcohol: 3.4% ABV
Bitterness: 20.7 IBU (tinseth, 10% pellet adjustment)

Ingredients:

7.0 lb Maris Otter
0.5 lb Crystal Malt 60°L
6.0 oz Crystal Malt 120°L
2.0 oz British Black Patent
0.25 lb Pale Chocolate Malt
1.0 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1 tsp Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 20 min
Safale S-04
Mash In - Liquor: 2.58 gal; Target: 154 °F

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.0

I wrote recently about my best beer ever brewed so here is the recipe.  It’s very simple, which is one of the reasons it’s so good. It’s also cheap on ingredients too.

Far from ordinary this beer provides a great malty flavor and plenty of classic English hop character.  This beer goes down smoothly and has a low ABV, so you can enjoy quite a bit of it with out getting blitzed.  You’ll find some recipes for this style using a little more darker crystal malts, I liked mine a little drier than that and lighter in color.  I also like the reinforcement of the nutty biscuit flavors so I use a good dose of victory malt also.

Brew this one in good health! I may need to go brew this one this weekend!

Pub Bitter

8-A Standard/Ordinary Bitter

Size: 6.5 gal
Efficiency: 70.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Original Gravity: 1.037
Terminal Gravity: 1.009
Color: 9.75
Alcohol: 3.63%
Bitterness: 29.6 (tinseth formula, 10% pellet hops adjustment)

Ingredients:

8.45 lb English 2-row Pale (Marris Otter or Golden Promise)
0.65 lb Crystal Malt 40°L
0.65 lb American Victory (or English Biscuit malt if you can get it)
1.95 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.3 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 2 min
White Labs WLP002 English Ale (or Safale-04)

Mash

Mash Temp = 154F, 60 minutes

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.0

With Autumn on the way, I thought I would post a recipe for the season. This is a nice, smooth drinking, Brown Porter. I am following a partial mash procedure for this brew.

Ingredients:

3.5 lbs. English 2-row Pale
3 lbs. Dry Extra Light Extract
4 oz. British Black Patent
5 oz. English Chocolate Malt
2 oz. Crystal Malt 60°L
2 oz. Crystal Malt 120°L
0.6 oz. Northern Brewer Pellets boiled 60 min.
0.5 oz. Fuggles Pellets boiled 15 min.
0.5 oz. Fuggles Pellets boiled 1 min.

Yeast: White Labs WLP005 British Ale

Mash the grains at 152F for 60 minutes. Boil wort for 60 minutes, adding hops in at the times specified above. Add the extract with 15 minutes to go in the boil. Cool the wort to 68F and ferment for 2 weeks.

Original Gravity: 1.047
Final Gravity: 1.011 
Color: 23.99 °SRM 
Bitterness: 26.5 IBUs
Alcohol: (%volume) 4.8 %

Related Posts

Here are some other recipes for Fall:

Octoberfest Ale Recipe

Doppelbock Recipe

Maple Porter Recipe

After putting together a Baltic Porter style profile, I thought I would create a recipe for it too.

This is an all grain recipe. 

Ingredients

12.5 lbs. English 2-row Pale Malt
0.25 lbs. English Chocolate Malt
1 lbs. Crystal Malt 60°L
1 lbs. Crystal Malt 120°L
0.25 lbs. British Black Patent
1.5 oz. Fuggle (Pellets, 4.75 %AA) boiled 60 min.
0.50 oz. Fuggle (Pellets, 4.75 %AA) boiled 15 min.
0.50 oz. Fuggle (Pellets, 4.75 %AA) boiled 1 min.
Yeast: Wyeast 2112 California Lager

Predicted Results

Original Gravity 1.075 
Terminal Gravity 1.019
Color 25.19 °SRM
Bitterness 30.0 IBU
Alcohol (%volume) 7.4 %

I guess I could have added in some other additives like brewer’s licorice…but I think I am focused on all-malt brewing these days. 

I am sure I could have added more crystal malts or some Munich…maybe even some Special B.  I thought I would keep it simple and English.

For the yeast, I thought I would use a strain that kept lager characteristics at 58-60 degrees Fahrenheit.  It apparently can handle up to 9% alcohol by volume.

Check out our other homebrew recipes.