Posts Tagged ‘fermentation’
The Cross Channel Ale Progress
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
The active open fermentation with saison yeast
Fermentation of our hybrid Biere de Garde is progressing nicely after a slow start. It’s a very different fermentation than I’m used to with my English Ringwood yeast. The Ringwood produces a thick yeast head, maybe a foot in depth with large bubbles of carbon dioxide evolving from the surface. The saison fermentation is very different. The head is thin and looks like, well, like creme brulee (!) with the rapid evolution of many tiny gas bubbles. The yeast is comfortable at relatively high temperatures and our fermentation is holding steady at 76F. The gravity has fallen from the original gravity of 1.058 to a current specific gravity of 1.014. Unlike a Ringwood fermentation, which I would crash cool at about 1.012 promoting flocculation of the yeast and gradual cessation of the fermentation (the yeast head then being skimmed from the surface for use in the next fermentation), the saison yeast will be allowed to run it’s course. Once a constant final gravity is reached the brew will be crash cooled but, because there is no real protective yeast skin in place as is the case with the Ringwood fermentation, we will minimize any further time it spends in the open fermenting vessel.
note the CO2 bubbles rising from the surface
The thick yeast head of a Ringwood yeast fermentation
The fermentations pictured here are similar in that they both started at comparable original gravities and are both now at the same specific gravity. However the Ringwood fermentation has slowed dramatically and shows little sign of active fermentation (very little CO2 being released, a 1 degree gravity drop overnight) and is ready to be crash cooled and skimmed. The saison fermentation is still very active with a lot of CO2 being released and a 7 degree gravity drop overnight. The saison fermentaion will take about 8 – 9 days to reach completion whereas the Ringwood fermentation typically takes about 4. The phenolic aromas of the early saison fermentation have dissipated now and our taste tests of fermentation samples get a big thumbs-up! I’m particularly excited about all of the cask variations that we’ll be able to do with this beer and 7 of the 14 barrels produced will be cask conditioned. We will be dry hopping casks with a single varietal that was used in the brew’s late hop grist ie casks with Czech Saaz, casks with Kent Golding and casks with Bramling Cross as well as a cask dry hopped with a mix of all 3 hops. Of course we’ll also be cask conditioning with French Oak as well as American White Oak and I know that Brian has some ideas for using herbs/spices.
Don’t forget that tonight Max’s Taphouse will be featuring a couple of unique casks of Brian’s Stateside Saison at the Beer Social from 6pm, definitely not one you want to miss.
Cheers
Steve