I went to the More Beer site and put in an order for the ingredients that I need for the Saison.  They have a good selection of stuff.  I also picked up a few pieces of hardware, namely the false bottom for my 10 gallon cooler.

The bad part about the site is that they are constantly temporarily out of stock of certain items.  I wasn’t able to buy any Munich malt because it is out of stock - for now.

Selling out of stuff and not having it available for some time is a good business problem to have…as business problems go, but it’s still a problem.  This isn’t the first time I have run into this issue.  I wanted to buy a false bottom from this site a month ago but it was out of stock when I checked.

Now I will probably buy the Munich somewhere else.   Just saying is all.

I did get free shipping out of the whole order, so I have that going for me.

I bought a ten gallon cooler for a mash tun.  I decided that the 5 gallon cooler just wasn’t cutting it with the bazooka screen.

The next step is to buy a false bottom with some tubing and a 3/8 to 1/2 fitting to connect to my ball valve spigot.

Then, I should be on my way to brewing that Saison I have been writing about for weeks.

Long week.  Can’t wait to go home and have a homebrew drinking Friday night.  I have a 9 month old hard cider that should be interesting to taste.  Plus, a few Irish Red warmed to about 55°F will be nice as well. 

I’ll take some photos of the pints if they last long enough.

Update: No photos.  Pints disappeared too quickly.

All right.  Time to rock the Saison recipe.  I have the hot weather to promote some high fermentation temperatures.  Now I just need to buy the stuff.  I am going with More Beer this time around.  I need to buy a false bottom to go along with the 10 gallon cooler I am going to purchase.  With that, some plastic tubing, and a special fitting, I will (should?) finally have my all grain shiznit together. 

No more stuck sparges - is the goal.

Other than that, it’s all about the ingredients:

Belgian Pilsner malt

Munich malt

Wheat malt

Noble hops (Saaz or Tettnang) 

Saison yeast

Not sure I need all those specialty malts.  I will probably add a pound of table sugar to the mix to dry it out, but I don’t need to buy that.

My brother “acquires” items from time to time.  I saw him yesterday and he gave me something he thought I could use.

A quarter keg:

I had some hesitations but took it anyway.  He said he was going to throw it out if I didn’t take it.  I just couldn’t see something like this go to waste.

My main hesitation in taking the keg was how to properly clean and sanitize this quarter keg for dispensing homebrew.   I have not done much investigation into it, outside of reading some posts that confirmed my fears that this thing is hard to clean and sanitize. 

What do you think?  Is there a way that I can use this for storing and serving homebrewed beer? 

Should I just open up the top and make it a secondary kettle?

What are the options?

This is a pretty new variety - it was just named in 2002 by Charles Faram & Co Ltd. Its working title was S24 with a nickname of Ros. The name Pilot was picked from 100 entries in a contest. It appears to be still a hedgerow variety so probably won’t see a wide distribution of it yet.

Here is some more information about Pilot hops:

Origin: UK

Aroma/Flavor: Mild herbal, lemon hints, fresh mowed grass

Alpha Acid: 8.0 - 12%

Typical Usage: Bittering

Beer Styles: Bitters. Could be good in some APAs.

Here is a English variety for you to try out: Challenger hops.

They are bred from Northern Brewer from our friends at Wye College in England. They were developed orginally as a Goldings replacement with the thought that this new variety would be more resistant to downy mildew. What they got instead was a good dual purpose hop. From what I read, their really sweet spot is to be used as a bittering hop with other English hops that are primarily used for aroma/flavoring such as East Kent Goldings.

Origin: UK. Released in 1968 but I think made available in the US in 1972.

Aroma/Flavor:  Refined spicy notes, fruity, more orange or tangerine than

Alpha Acid:  6.5 to 8.5%

Typical Usage:  Dual purpose, but use as a bitter hop along with other British aroma hops.

Beer Styles: All English Ales.