Raspberry Saison
A few weeks ago, we had brewed a batch of a simple extract saison. This was largely to use up the ingredients from our previous all-grain pumpkin saison, the brew process for which bent out of shape so spectacularly that we ended up naming it "The Phumpkin Menace" (it is, however, turning out pretty solid). Our intention was to rack the simple saison onto raspberries in secondary to get a fruity saison ready just in time for what passes for spring in Hong Kong.
This would not be our first shot at using fruit in secondary. Purely for the sake of experimentation, we had earlier infused an amber-brown ale we had brewed in separate carboys with cherries and strawberries/raspberries. The base beer however suffered from too much chocolate malt, which resulted in a prominent acrid burnt note in the beer that did not agree with the fruit. The strawberry batch also seemed to have a plastic/gasoline aroma to it. It was, however, a good learning experience overall.
We cracked open the fermenter to prepare to rack the saison onto secondary yesterday. The gravity clocked in at 1.007, a bit drier than estimated. It was also delicious, with bright spicy notes balanced by a slightly more assertive bitterness and nice roundness. So delicious, in fact, that we briefly contemplated foregoing the fruit altogether and bottling the batch as it was. But then, what to do with these raspberries...
We ended up going with our original plan. Hopefully the raspberries end up playing nice with the saison!
D
Extract Raspberry Saison
Recipe Specifics
Batch Size (Gal): 4.00
Total Grain (Lbs.): 5 lbs.
Anticipated OG: 1.049
Anticipated SRM: 4.8
Anticipated IBU: 23.3
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Extract
3.00 lbs. Briess Golden Light DME (60.0%)
2.00 lbs. Briess Bavarian Wheat DME (40.0%)
Hops
0.50 oz. Styrian Goldings (pellet, 5.40% AA) @60 min
1.00 oz. Cascade (pellet, 5.50% AA) @ 10 min
0.50 oz. Mt. Hood (pellet, 6.00% AA) @ 10 min
Yeast
Danstar Belle Saison
Notes
Brewed 30 November 2015.
Mixed DME into 4.5 gal of filtered water and brought to boil. Topped up with sanitised filtered water post-boil to reach 4.0 gal. Measured OG at 1.050.
Shook briefly to aerate, pitched yeast directly from the package. Chilled to 65F overnight. Vigorous airlock activity began within 4 hours. Allowed fermenter temperature to rise to 74F over the next few days.
15 Dec 2015: Measured gravity at 1.007 (below the expected FG of 1.015). Sample tastes dry and fruity.
21 Dec 2015: Gravity stable at 1.007. Racked to secondary on 3.2 lbs. of frozen raspberries. Fermentation kicked up again shortly after.
31 Dec 2015: Took a sample and measured gravity at 1.005. Tastes drier than prior to the raspberry, with a good amount of raspberry tartness. The beer has taken on a lot of raspberry colour.
6 January 2015: Racked to bottling bucket from below the floating raspberries, collecting around 3.7 gal. Primed with sugar to 3.3 volumes of CO2. Filled 21 bottles.
