So we're fully embracing the brewing of braggots due to our limited boil capacity. Here's one that's intended to be a strong saison, over-hopped to help compensate for the limited boil, with late additions of coriander honey to accentuate the Belgian esters. This is also our first brew with Omega yeast, a new brand that's become available recently and about which everyone seems to be excited.

BeerXML for this recipe, generated by BrewTarget.

I'm calling this batch The Idiot in Rural Society after one of my very favorite Monty Python skits.

Ingredients

  • 6.5 lb. Munich light malt (20°L).
  • 1.5 lb. German Pilsner malt (1.5°L).
  • 1 lb. U.S. Wheat Malt (3.5°L).
  • 2 lb. rye malt (3.7°L).
  • 9 oz. flaked oats (2.5°L).
  • 1 lb. Carapils malt (1.3°L).
  • 8 oz. rice hulls.
  • 3 lb. Kirkland clover honey, at flame-out.
  • 2 oz. Liberty hops (4.8% A.A.) at 90 min.
  • 1 oz. Hallertau hops (3.4% A.A.) at 90 min.
  • 1 oz. Hallertau hops (3.4% A.A.) at 15 min.
  • 1 oz. Goldings hops (6.0% A.A.) at 5 min.
  • 1 pouch Omega OYL-500 yeast (Saisonstein's Monster).
  • 4 lb. coriander honey, obtained from a honey buy through Queen Bee Brews.
  • 1 cup Wisconsin light wildflower honey, added at bottling as priming sugar on 30 September 2019.

Procedure

Mashed in at 170℉; brought temp to 148℉. Added water to total volume of ~4.5 gallons at 152℉. Covered with sleeping bag and mashed for 90 minutes in a bag in 10-gallon brew pot; sleeping bag, it turns out, was not placed to fully insulate pot, which dropped to 142℉ by end of mash. Sparged and proceeded with boil in five-gallon pot.

Boiled ~3 gallons of wort for ninety minutes, not starting the boil timer until the hot break, adding hops according to schedule above; at flameout, added three pounds clover honey, mixed thoroughly, and cooled with immersion chiller. Moved into fermentation bucket, then topped off with water to five gallons and agitated. Whipped the surface extensively with sanitized wire whisk, then pitched yeast at 80℉. Sealed and popped in an airlock.

Brew day: 7 April 2019
Predicted original gravity: 1.1003
Measured original gravity: 1.067
Estimated IBUs: 22.1
Predicted final gravity 1.0151
Predicted ABV: 11.2
Bottling day : 30 September 2019
Final gravity: 1.005
Estimated ABV: 8.2%

Yield: Not measured, alas. 38 bottles: at least 24 are 12-oz. beer bottles; most of the rest are 22-oz. bombers.

Observations

  • 2019-04-08T10:02: Fermentation is already going strong.
  • 2019-04-11: There is already much less carbon dioxide coming through the airlock. Added four pounds of coriander honey to the bucket.
  • 2019-04-14: Fermentation never visibly took off again, but this is in fact the last-resort bucket, which has the suspected-leaky grommet. Leaving it while we head off on the road.
  • 2019-06-04: Racked into new sanitized bucket.
  • 2019-09-10: Began a wine yeast starter (documented in batch 174) for this and two other batches.
  • 2019-09-13: Pitched approximately one-third of wine-yeast starter into bucket.
  • 2019-09-30: Bottled.