My Farmehouse de Saison and Bulk Grain Purchase

This is a picture of my Saison.

The brew date was 03/05/11 and it was kegged on 03/27/11.  It was first tapped in early May.  The ingredients are as follows:

• 6lbs - Domestic 2-row
• 5lbs - White Wheat Malt
• 1lb - Belgium Candi Sugar
• 8oz - Caravienne
• 8oz - Torrified Wheat
• 1oz - Bitter Orange Peel
• 0.5oz - Coriander Seed
• 0.5oz - Seeds of Paradise
• 1oz - Saaz hops
• Wyeast 3942 - Belgian Wheat Yeast

I mashed in at 148F and double-batch sparged.  OG was 1.065 and FG was 1.010 giving me a 7.2% ABV beer.  Primary fermentation was at 62F for  three weeks.

At 7.2%, this is a fairly big beer but deceptively so.  The spices and the fruity esters from the Belgian yeast really hide the alcohol.

I also ordered what should be a years supplies of grains for brewing.  Here is the list:

• 50lbs - Rahr 2-row (Domestic malt)
• 55lbs - Muntons Maris Otter (British malt)
• 55lbs - Weyermann Pilsner (German lager/pilsner malt)
• 5lbs - Crystal 20L
• 5lbs - Crystal 60L
• 5lbs - Special B 120L
• 5lbs - Aromatic
• 5lbs - Roasted Barley
• 5lbs - Carafa III
• 5lbs - Pale Chocolate
• 10lbs - Munich II
• 5lbs - White Wheat malt

For those not familiar with brewing terminology, the 20L refers to the color in degrees Lovibond.  The lower the number, the lighter the color.  Lovibond has largely been replaced by SRM in the U.S. and EBC in Europe.

I still need to do a bulk hops purchase and I will buy yeast as needed.  Tomorrow I'll do another update with my third beer on tap and go over what I have in the pipeline.