After a very long brewing hiatus, I'm back. Just bottled and kegged the last of the lagers: schwartzbier, vienna and a pils. It's hot out and according to Wyeast, here's a yeast that can take it: Saison. I'm having a little nosh here, Saison Dupont and a Vermont camenbert style cheese. And the wort is chilling as I write. I went with a 60/40 blend of Belgian pilsner and Vienna malt for a base. Some acidulated malt and white wheat from Briess. 1/2 lb. of cara-red. I think I nailed the orange color pretty well. This Dupont is a little more golden/orange than I think mine will be. I hopped it with all East Kent Goldings. 4 ounces got me to 42 IBU's. Starting gravity should be about 1.063. I had a pound of light candi to throw in, but the gravity is high enough. I mashed @ 149/150 so I hope this ferments down nice and low.
It feels good to be brewing again....even though it's a hot day. And I'm planning the next brew. It's going to be a repeat of a 10 gallon partial mash Flanders red ale. We'll do a sour mash all night and hopefully get it good and sour. The last time I did this, about 3 years ago (maybe longer?????) it came out great. We added peach influences to one batch and blackberry to the other. We are still playing around with ideas for this one.
