Soma recipe: my 2013 NHC 1st place Saison

This is the recipe for my saison that took 1^st place at the final round of the National Homebrew Competition in 2013. In many respects the recipe is similar to the beer I entered for the first round (which snuck me into the final round by placing 3^rd in the Seattle regional judging center), but I feel that the final characters of the two were very different. I much prefer this version and it seems to have worked out well for me. The key difference between these two beers is the yeast strains, but there was also a bit of influence from the pre-fermentation wort treatment.

I feel that one of the defining character of this recipe is the use of a blend of Wyeast 3724, the notoriously finicky Belgian Saison yeast strain, and 3711, the attenuation workhorse French Saison yeast strain. The idea originally came to me from (the unfortunately short lived) Odonata Beer Company saison, which I thought was pretty solid. Some details of the Odonata saison are discussed in this Brewing Network podcast (check about 1 hour and 36 minutes in for the yeast info). I prefer the flavor of 3724 but the reliable and extremely high attenuation of the 3711 strain really helps out saisons. So I think a blend of the two, favoring the 3724, is a great idea. And I know of at least one other commercial brewery out there doing this now.

Soma Recipe

Style-Saison

Batch size: 5 gallons (US)

OG: 1.053

FG: 1.002

ABV: 6.7%

IBU: ~ 27

Grist:

90% Franco-Belges Pils

10% Vienna

Hops:

3oz German hHllertau Mittelfruh Pellets (4% aa)

2oz Czech Saaz Pellets (3.2% aa)

-see boil for addition amounts and times

Yeast:

A blend of Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison and Wyeast 3711 French Saison. Roughly equivalent to 2 vials/smack packs of yeast and the blend was something on the order of 70% 3724, 30% 3711. I had starters of each going and poured off from at high krausen. In subsequent saison batches I've let the starters ferment out and cold crashed them, and then split into patchable amounts in mason jars in the fridge. I either blend the strains at this point or blend at pitching. I prefer blending cold yeast slurries (either before storing or at pitching) because I think it gives me better control of the pitch rate. And I like to grow up the two strains in individual starters to allow me versatility in using the strains individually and to control the blend proportions. In the future I'd like to experiment with repitching the blend but for now this is easier and the results are reasonably consistent.

Other:

½ tab whirlfloc

½ tsp wyeast nutrients

6.5g CaSO₄ added to the mash

The base water profile for Victoria is a Pilsen/nearly distilled oriented water.

Mash:

Sour Mash- Pils comprising 10% of the total grist was sour mashed for ~24 hrs. I did a standard sacch rest (~152-154F) with the sour mash portion for 60 minutes. Then I raised the temp to 170F and let it cool to 120F with minimal mixing to keep out O₂. At 120F I added ~1/3 handful of acidulated malt and ~1/3 handful of Franco-Belges pils to inoculate with lacto. A lower pH and the absence of O₂ helps a sour mash be successful and avoid gnarly off flavors. I sealed the top right at the liquid line with saran wrap to keep out O₂. Then I floated the sour mash pot in a rectangular cooler with hot water and a floating dairy thermometer to watch temps. I would regularly pull water out of the cooler, boiled it and added it back to the cooler to keep the temp between 100F and 120F. The temp would definitely drop overnight and while I was at work, but I was able to keep it in this range well enough. It was a bit of a pain overall and I tried this sort of thing with acidulated malt to achieve a similar acidity, but it was missing complexity and the mouthfeel wasn't as good. In future sour mashed batches I may let it go 36-48 hours. If the mash gets too sour you can always add only a portion of it. I added the sour mashed wort to my main mash runnings by pouring the pot with my mashed grains (and inoculation grains) through a large grain sack, the sort you would use for steeping and brew in a bag.

Soma 2 step infusion mash.

Main Mash- 2 step infusion. 45 minutes at 147F, and 20 minutes at 153F (see graph). I mash in a 10 gallon stainless pot with a false bottom. The advantage of this is that I can heat my mash with my burner. The disadvantage is that it doesn’t hold temperature super well so I pretty much always have to heat my mash at least once, especially in winter.

Boil:

2 hrs. Was planning on 90 minutes but my gas tank ran out in the middle and as a result the boil was weak for a reasonable length of time, so I added 30 minutes to hit my target gravity and volume. Hops were added 30 minutes (0.75 oz Saaz, 1.25 oz Hallertau), 5 minutes (0.5 oz Saaz, 0.75 oz Hallertau) and 0 minutes (0.75 of Saaz, 1 oz Hallertau) left in boil. Most of my saisons follow this backbone grist and hopping regime. I prefer hoppier saisons, and as it is a relatively low IBU style I like to derive all of my bitterness from ‘flavor’ and/or ‘aroma’ additions.

Fermentation:

Fermentation schedule

The graph at right details the fermentation schedule. I pitched at 68F and kept the beer at 68 for the first day, then raised to 80F over the following 2 days. I held it at 80F from day 3 until day 9, then the temperature was smoothly lowered to 71 by day 11. Finally I chilled it reasonably quickly to ~58F until bottling. I racked to secondary after 15 days. This was more out of needing to free up a carboy than desire to do a secondary, and I usually avoid transfer to a secondary (and advocate that others do so as well) in a beer of this nature (meaning no long term bulk aging). I controlled fermentation temperature with an aquarium heater in a tub of water. I like this method as it gives me good control of temp throughout fermentation by simply turning the dial on the heater and the water bath acts to cool the beer temp if fermentation is producing too much heat. I don't have to worry much about cooling the beer more than that. As it was winter and I like the cold, the conditioning temp between active primary and bottling was the ambient temp of my room (58F).

Bottling:

There was one month between brew day and bottle day. I primed the beer to ~2.7 volumes of CO₂. My experience with 3711 leads me to believe that this yeast slowly works on more complicated sugars over time so carbonation probably was more like 3+ vols. I’ve talked to commercial brewers and yeast company folks about this and have heard mixed answers. Whatever the case, 3711 attenuates REALLY well and even if I let a beer finish out, over time in the bottle the carbonation seems higher than what I primed it to.

Other thoughts:

There was about 5 months between brew day and judging day (4 months between bottling and judging). I set aside bottles for judging in the fridge for about the last 1.5 months before shipping the beers to Philadelphia. It probably took about 1.5 months in bottles before the beer was where I wanted it to be. I’ve noticed that with a number of my saisons, even when I condition them relatively warm, it takes a good bit of time in the bottle before the beer is where I want it to be. And many of them throw off diacetyl in the early stages in the bottle. So a saison that is diacetyl free at bottling might have diacetyl and near-final carbonation at 2-3 weeks and then will have no detectable diacetyl at 4-6 weeks. This isn’t always the case, but I do see it happening fairly often.

Here's a writeup of  how I now grow up yeast for blending.