Scrappy Hound House Saison #1

First up in my recently dubbed Scrappy Hound House Beer quest is a Saison.  My ultimate goal would be something similar to a Hill Farmstead beer, but he seems to be in a unique situation to produce such amazing beers.  I would be ecstatic if I could get something like Wicked Weed.

My perfect saison: big, billowy head.  Estery nose.  A little funk if possible.  Taste is light, complex, moderate high carbonation, medium to big bubble feel (weird descriptor, I know).  Tastes lightly, threshold spiced, but it’s not.  Not belgiany.  Clean, dry finish.  Abv ranges from 5-6%.  Versions include dry hopped, fruited.  Can sour mash it.

With that being said, I’ve put together a simple saison recipe.  Looking back I might need to add munich or Vienna but I’ll do that if needed in iteration 2.  I chose Wyeast 3711 because it’s a beast from what I can her and produces excellent dry saisons.  I might blend with another strain in the future.  I know Saaz is the classic hop used, I’ll look into changing from Tettnang in the future.

Scrappy Hound Saison #1

3 gallons

70% efficiency

60 min boil

5 lb Belgian Pils (91%)

0.5 lb White Wheat (9%)

0.5 oz Tettnang (60 min)

0.5 oz Tettnang (15 min)

Wyeast 3711 @ 64F ambient.  Mash at 152F.

OG 1.047 | FG 1.006 | ABV 5.5% | IBU 24

Ca 79 | Mg 1 | Na 46 | Cl 54 | SO4 94 | HCO3 132

12/11/14: Brewday.  I somehow hit 90% efficiency so had to add water to get my gravity down.  ~1 gallon total.  OG: 1.048.  Mash pH hit on the nose 5.4 with 3 mL addition of lactic acid (spreadsheet said to add 4).  Made 1L starter, decanted, made another 1L starter, cold crashed, decanted and pitched at 9PM after saving some.  8 AM the beer was actively fermenting.
12/16/14: Gravity down to 1.004.  This yeast is awesome.  Big flavor already developed.  Might look to bottle soon.
12/21/14: Gravity down to 1.001.  Bottled.
12/29/14: First tasting.  Gorgeous murky yellow.  White head that recedes quickly.  Nose is fruity.  Taste follows the nose.  Very fruity/estery with some spice.  I'm not sure I'm in love with the taste.  Goes down dangerously easy, it's good, but not exactly the funky/sharper taste I want.