Batch 017: Wench Saison

This is Xenia's first extract kit brew, using Northern Brewer's Don't Be Mean to People: a Golden Rule Saison. I switched out the Danstar BelleSaison ale yeast included with the kit for a liquid vial of White Labs WLP568 saison yeast, purchased during our recent trip to WL's excellent tasting room near San Diego. I'm thinking about at least adding some spices in secondary to customize it more.

We're going to call batch 017 Wench Saison.

Brew date: Aug 9, 2016.

Ingredients

• 3.15 lbs Maillard Malts Pilsen malt syrup
• 3.15 lbs Maillard Malts Munich malt syrup
• 1 lb Maillard Malts Pilsen dry malt extract
• 1 lb Maillard Malts wheat dry malt extract
• 2 ounces of Hoptimus Rex (Northern Brewer) Sorachi Ace hops
• filtered tap water to 5 gallons
• 1 vial of White Labs WLP568 Belgian style saison ale yeast blend

Yield:

• 18 x 12 oz. bottles
• 6 x 500 mL bottles
• 11 x 22 22 oz. bottles
• Total: Approx. 4.4 gallons.

Boiled 2.5 gallons of water and briefly pulled the pot off the burner to add the Pilsen malt syrup and Pilsen DME, which resulted in much foaming. Added half an ounce of Sorachi Ace hops and began the 60-minute boil, stirring every few minutes. At 45 minutes, added the Munich syrup and wheat DME and inserted the wort chiller to sanitize. Once 60 minutes were up, I took the pot off the heat and began running water through the wort chiller to cool the wort to 170℉, a task complicated by our new thermometer being generally wonky and producing extremely inconsistent and occasionally obviously wrong results. Once the wort had plausibly reached 170℉, I added the remaining 1.5 ounces of hops for a 10-minute hop stand, then continued cooling the wort to 80℉. While this was going on, I kept filtering water and adding it to the brewing bucket.

Poured the must into the plastic brewing bucket, then added the rest of the water to bring the total volume up to 5 gallons. Aerated by stirring vigorously for about 8 minutes, then pitched the vial of yeast straight in and sealed the bucket with a fermentation lock.

I realized too late that I completely neglected to check gravity, but the recipe informs me it should be about 1.060.

Final gravity: 1.002.
Estimated ABV: 7.6%