It had been a while since I made a fruit beer, so I decided it was high time to brew one up. Truth be told, I was originally planning to make this beer with peaches. I went to my local fancy grocery store and bought the nicest fuzzy organic peaches I could find. Unfortunately after about one day of sitting on my kitchen counter, they were completely bombed with mold, so I went back to the store and begged for my money back. Luckily they were cool, gave me my 10 bucks back, and I decided to spend it on some nice looking apricots that just came in instead. I know it's hard to get anything more than a subtle peach flavor in beer using real fruit anyway. Forget you, peaches.
So now that the fruit situation was settled, I was pretty much good to go. I was excited for this beer because I'm using a new yeast - Wallonian Farmhouse from The Yeast Bay. From the description on their site, they say this is "one of the 'funkiest' clean yeast we have in our stable". They also describe it as imparting a slight earthy funk and tart character. All of that sounds pretty delightful to me. I have read others describing the yeast character as being anywhere from awesome to strange, so I guess we'll see what happens.
For the recipe, I kept things fairly simple like I usually do with most farmhouse-style ales - Pilsner, Munich, and Flaked Wheat for the grain bill and mostly noble hops. I also added some honey to help dry the beer out a bit more and add some complexity. I've learned that I prefer my saisons to have some nice hop aroma and a touch of extra spice, so I went heavy-handed on the hops at the end of the boil and also added some coriander and cumin.
After the primary fermentation had finished up, I chopped, de-pitted, and pureed my 3.25lbs of apricots, moved them into a sanitized carboy, and racked the beer on top. Unfortunately, I didn't leave enough head space, so the next day I found the aftermath of an apricot explosion inside of my fermentation chamber. This yeast doesn't play around. Live and learn I guess.
After a week or two on the apricots, this one will be headed to a keg, so I'm looking forward to trying it soon.
After the primary fermentation had finished up, I chopped, de-pitted, and pureed my 3.25lbs of apricots, moved them into a sanitized carboy, and racked the beer on top. Unfortunately, I didn't leave enough head space, so the next day I found the aftermath of an apricot explosion inside of my fermentation chamber. This yeast doesn't play around. Live and learn I guess.
After a week or two on the apricots, this one will be headed to a keg, so I'm looking forward to trying it soon.
Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (fermenter): 3.10 gal
Estimated OG: 1.046 SG
Estimated Color: 4.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
79% - Belgian Pilsner
10% - Dark Munich Malt
5% - Flaked Wheat
5% - Honey (last 10 minutes of boil)
1% - Acid Malt
Hops:
.85 oz. Saaz (Pellet, 3.1% AA) @ 60 minutes - 17.8 IBUs
.48 oz. Styrian Goldings (Pellet, 3.4% AA) @ 20 minutes - 6.7 IBUs
1 oz. Styrian Goldings (Pellet, 3.4% AA) @ 1 minute - 1 IBU
Other:
.21 oz. - Freshly crushed coriander seed @ 5 minutes
.42 grams - Cumin @ 5 minutes
Fruit:
3.25lbs - Apricots (pureed) - racked onto after primary fermentation
The Yeast Bay Wallonian Farmhouse (.5L starter)
Water:
RO filtered water - added 3 grams of calcium chloride, 2 grams of gypsum, 1 gram of Epsom salt, and .5 gram of baking soda to the strike water.
Mash:
Single-infusion @ 149 degrees (90 min)
Notes:
Brewed on 6/7/15.
6/13/15 - Chopped, removed pits, and pureed 3.25lbs of apricots. Racked beer onto puree. SG was down to 1.004 before racking.
6/14/15 - Opened fermentation chamber to find apricot puree all over because I didn't leave enough headspace in the carboy. Lesson learned.
