Archive for the ‘Brewing’ Category

Buddha Nuvo

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Jason Yester: 2/1/11 10:47am

hey guys,

Trying to push this brew forward a little bit and start trying to take action on planning.  I’ve spoken to most of you about the brew… but not everyone.  Jim had come up with the idea to do a collaboration batch saison for the Saison fest.  The plan is to do the brew at Rockyard.

Spoke to Thomas Larson of ska this morning, and if we were able to schedule the batch for Fri. Feb 11 he could make it too.

The Idea is to brew a huge 12% ABV Blonde Saison, age it on Chard barrels, spike the barrels with Brett, and age the beer on a rare zest.  I can source Buddha Hand for zesting, hence the proposed name.  But, the list of possible zests or combinations are: citron, Pummelo, Kumquat, Daidai, Orange/Tangerine Blossoms ?

Jim, is the 11th a possibility ?

Jim Stinson: 2/1/11 11:51am

I could make Friday the 11th work.
For a 12% beer we’ll have to top out the mash tun with 1100+ lbs and knock out about 9-10 bbls. Unless we suplement with sugar in the kettle. Then we could yield a bit more.
Jason Yester: 2/1/11 12:59pm
I’d say let’s brew a 7% beer then bump it with sugar/syrup or whatever at the end of boil… that way well still get a low terminal gravity. 

I guess next we need to figure out ingrediants….

1.  Hops:  Kent/Styrian Goldings, Halls,Saaz ???

2.  Grain: Weyerman Pilsen 100% ?

2.  Spices: Grains of Paradise, white/red/pink/green pepper corns ? ….Fresh Buddha Hand Zest in Barrels

3.  Fermentation Yeast: all saisons blended from BSI with 3-4% Chico

4.  Barrel Yeast: Troy’s Cantillion Brett, I have a 4 Brett Blend, Chad do you have any special bretts to bring ??

5.  Barrels: Jim, if you can’t find any then maybe we could post on BA forum ?

If anyone has further ideas, please post them 🙂

Chad Yakobson:2/1/11 1:34pm
How many Chard Barrels are we looking at? 

I have 8 FRESHLY emptied Raumbauer Chardonnay barrels I could lend to the cause as well as a nice Brett strain which develops citrusy type aromas we could throw into those barrels. I’d just like to get the barrels back after the brew.

They are 2008 American oak, Peter came over yesterday and brought his barrel tools showed me how to pop the heads off and work on the barrels. The Chard barrels smell amazing and the inner staves are still moist from the wine. With that said at 12% abv and buddahs hand, I think its the right amount not to overpower but still shine through in the beer as characteristic.

Jim Stinson 2/1/11 1:56pm

Sweet! How big are the barrels (volume, and dimensions)? I need to clear a space for them.
Jason, my barrel spot is holding at about 60-65*F. Is that warm enough?

Jim Stinson

Chad Yakobson: 2/1/11 2:01pm

60-65*F is what I’d recommend, althought the Brett would prefer 70*F, it will be good.

I’ll get you some dimensions shortly here, what is the brew size going to be?

Cheers,
Chad

Jim Stinson: 2/1/11 2:07pm

Working that up now. I have a 15bbl system, so we can yield 15 depending on how high we want the alc% to go based on grains in the mash vs. sugar in the kettle.

Jim Stinson

Jason Yester: 2/1/11 2:42pm

That sounds just about perfect for what we need 🙂 … let’s go with the barrels you have … that Bretta sounds perfect for this project

5:16pm

For fermentation it’d be best to blend all of these… we’ll need the blend to consist of 3-4% chico to ensure attenuation…. the rest, just use how you would like the profile to come out… but I always blend them all for saisons this big. 

a.3711 French Saison –   Very aromatically citrus, Spicy no earthiness,
low phenolics,  Attenuation (77-83%).  Ferm Temp 18-25 oC  (65-77oF).

b.  3726 Farmhouse Saison- Very Earthy and Spicy/Peppery,
slightly tart.  Attenuation (74-79%).  Ferm Temp
21-38 oC (70-100oF ).

c.  WL 565 –  Classic Strain from Wallonia.  Earthy and Peppery,
with slightly sweet esters.  Attenuation (65%-75%).  Ferm Temp
20-24 oC  (68-75oF).

d.WL 566-  Produces fruity esters, and is moderately phenolic.
Clove like and plum sweetness. Attenuation (78-85%).
Ferm Temp 20-26 oC (68-78oF ).
e.  Helper yeast: Chico
5:19pm
Let’s toss about 175 lbs of pumpkin pie filling in the boil
8:57 pm
1. buddha’s hand 

2. green, pink, black, white peppercorns and grains of paradise

3.  the bretta from peter’s berliner wiess is at bsi, and we’ll need it for the barrel addition

4.  spelt… I’m pretty sure we still get this from Denver, but it is special order.

9:06pm
Hello Everyone 🙂 

Jim Stinson and I decided to get a communal Saison going, and everyone is invited to join in on the collaboration.  I think most of you are aware of this, but  for those of you who are not this is your invite to the brew !

Specifics:

1.  Rockyard (castle rock) is hosting the brew on Friday Feb 11th with the mash in starting at 9am

2.  Brewers Confirmed: Rockyard, Black Fox, Crooked Stave, AC Golden/Coors, Funkwerks, Strange Brewing, Ska Brewing, Trinity Brewing.

3.  We will be bottling part of the batch, so if you can not make Feb 11th, there will be another opportunity likely in March to bottle.

4.  We would still love to see some ideas, input, inspiration for the recipe.

5.  These collaborative projects are FUN AS HELL

Buddha Nuvo. The communal spirit that Saison has roots in, inspired us to make recipe by combining some of most progressive minds in Colorado brewing.  The inspirations of several very talented regional brewers evolved into one to create this special collaboration batch.  Our malt bill consists of a complex blend Weyerman Pilsen, Vienna, Rye, and spelt for a golden color yet vinous body.  Pumpkin was added in the boil for the smooth textures dancing over the palate.  Several varieties whole peppercorns were added to the boil to further reinforce the expected spiciness of this Saison.  In fermentation, we mixed 5 distinct yeasts creating a spicy and fruity ester profile.  Post fermentation the batch ages on American Oak Chardonnay barrels, 6 varieties of Bretta, and the rare fruit known as Buddha’s Hand.  12% ABV.

Cheers all!

Darren Baze: 2/2/11 10:07am
Jim, 

I get spelt from a place down here called Harvest Mountain Foods that gets trucks in from LA daily so I can usually have it in about 2 days.  The sales rep is Don (719-532-1115).  If you place the order I am happy to pick it up.

I’m not sure of the extract value, but it is about the same size as the barley.  It is a little harder to crack, so I try to mix it in with the barley by hand in the mill.  You shouldn’t have to adjust the mill.

Jim Stinson: 2/2/11 10:39am
Weyerman has a malted spelt. Do you want to stick with the unmalted? Seems more Saison-like.

Jim Stinson

Jason Yester: 2/2/11 10:44am

unmalted is what will give us that cool vinuous texture akin to saison

Jason Yester
Jim Stinson: 2/2/11 11:07am
30 BUs. Is that going to be too bitter for a beer that finishes around 2*P?

Jim Stinson

Jason Yester: 2/2/11  11:55am

A lot of my saisons are above 30 IBUs… there’s a lot of flavor to compete with and the goldings are soft, so they don’t seem to ever come out over bitter.  I was also assuming we would lose some IBU’s during the entire aging process as it looks like this beer wouldn’t really come out till about april.

We can always go lower to focus more on the spice profile if you’d like.

I also took a look at my ‘peppercorn’ spicing …. we’ll need anywhere between ~48-58 tsps of peppcorns the last 15 min of the boil…. just mix all the colors up and we’ll get some complexity?

Jim Stinson: 2/2/11 1:11pm

Jason, here is my proposed brew sheet. If you zero out the corn syrup in the Grain Bill section you can see that we start with a 17*P wort before the syrup.
I’ve added calcium chloride and phosphoric acid to bring the mash pH down to 5.4 or so.
Simco for 60 minutes with my hop efficiency to get 30 BUs and peppercorns at whirlpool to maximize the aroma.
I’ve got the pumpkin going in at beginning of boil, we could throw it in at first worts and let the enzymes work on it a bit. Whenever I do a pumpkin beer, it never whirlpools out and ends up plugging the heatx. So I usually knock out into the fermenter hot and let the glycol chill it overnight, then pitch and aerate in the morning.

Jason Yester: 2/2/11 1:41pm

This looks good, but I normally drop moss out of boil when using spelt

Should we go for 25 IBU since simcoe is more resinous than ekg ?

Peppercorns:

1. 5 tsps black pepper corns
2. 12 tsps (ea) pink, green, white, grains of paradise

Peter Bouckaert: 2/3/11 2:4pm

First of all, I will be late, probably only 2PM if all goes well with travel.

What about next year we brew at New Belgium?  It’s going to be boring like hell, since you only have to push the mouse bottom to add the hops, but hey we have beer too.

Peter

David Mentus: 2/3/11 6:39pm

I am bummed to miss this gathering of the “super saison friends league.” My future brewer(baby) is due any day and if he decides come out sooner then later it is a maybe. I agree, a large saison is in order!
I like Peters idea for next year, only because it allows more sampling? Or is he talking about a saison with mice in it? Maybe it is “real”  traditional Belgian Farmhouse ale he is talking about? 😉
Anyway, I look forward to seeing you all at the fest in April.
Cheers