Fox In The Hen House Farmhouse Ale - #1

Fox In the Hen-house Farmhouse Ale - 2/15/14

This was my first attempt at creating MY OWN BEER, no kit, no extracts, just all grain the way I wanted it. So what was it I wanted? A saison! Not just any saison though; I wanted to create a saison modeled after my favorite go to beer, Boulevard's Tank 7. After three beers under my belt, this beer tested my abilities to successfully brew what I think to be an excellent beer. In the end it wasn't quite Tank 7 but something original. Who would have thunk it!

The base was about 10 pounds of 2 row with a bit of malted wheat and a few pounds of flaked maize. For hops I used magnum at the beginning of the boil, two additions of Falconer's Flight at 20 and 10 minutes, and later dried hopped with Amarillo. I had sent this grain bill on to a couple of guys from my local club and the only thing they say was, “That's a weird grain bill.” Whatever!

I figured now was a good time as any to experiment with multi-step temperatures during the mash. I did three: 143 for 45 minutes, 154 for 15, and 163 for 15. Now you are probably asking what I gained from this? I don't know. I just wanted to try it. At this point I really didn't have a great grasp of rests during the mash and what affect they had on the overall flavor and consistency of my beer. It apparently worked fine though I think my efficiency was somewhat affected.

I went through the 60 minute boil, the cool down in a tub of ice (because it would be another 7 months be for I got wise and bought a wort chiller). Little bit of advice: don't skip out on this priceless piece of equipment. Chilling down wort in an ice bath is a pain in the ass and it takes too long. You risk off flavors in you beer if you don't get that wort down below 90 ASAP.

I decided to use Wyeast #3724 Belgium Saison. Now, when purchasing this again I didn't look much into it. It just seemed like the better choice over the French Saison. My friend Caleb always seems to know when I was doing something different or interesting to my beer because he will always call or text to see how it is going. I told him I was using this yeast and he quickly told me that this was a bastard of a yeast. Apparently it would tear through a wort no problem until it hit about 1.030 and then it would stall. I took this into consideration and did some research. Guys on blogs were suggesting that you crank up the fermentation temperature to NINETY DEGREES! When I told Caleb this of course his reaction was, “Its going to taste like hot phenol alcohol!”

Did I listen? NO! So I had been fermenting this pretty hot, probably upper seventies or low eighties, and sure enough after a couple of weeks at exactly 1.030; it stalled. So I pitched some yeast energizer; jacked up the temp to 90; and a gave it a good shake every other day. About 3 ½ weeks into the fermentation it got down to about 1.010. I pitched an ounce of Amarillo to dry hop for about 5 days; let it condition for another week; and then bottled. It brought grown men to tears....not really, but everyone dug the hell out of it! Caleb who had just got back from Belgium said it tasted better than any saison he tasted while there. I'm not yanking my own chain and I hope he meant it because I myself (even with extreme bias) thought it was fantastic.

Also, after reading WildBrewsby Jeff Sparrow, he discussed the DuPont saison strain which is kin to the Wyeast #3724. It is a descendant of a wine yeast that is very hearty and is able to withstand high fermentation temperatures and high alcohol levels. So after reading this, I was totally comfortable in cooking the hell out of this brew.

When you make something that is a hit; you just hope you can do it again. I have tried twice and both times something different has happened. However, with each time it has been something very good! I have found that if you expect disaster; your beer turns out to be something unique and delicious. If you expect it to be an award winning hit; chances are, you will be a little underwhelmed. Perhaps its psychological but no matter what my expectations are I get very good complements on the brew. So I guess that's something.