Ultimately, I'd like to get to all grain brewing. I might change my mind depending on how much of a pain it is, but I ended up buying equipment to support that (I hope). Most importantly a giant 7.5gal stainless steel kettle and a propane burner to use in the garage. I like the idea of making my own recipes, but that's for another time.
Since I have a biochem degree and enjoy a little DIY, I chose a slightly more challenging first time brew, but I felt the directions detailed everything out pretty well. I weighed the ingredients using my trusty old Ikea scale. I didn't have enough bags for the two kinds of hops and the spices, so I made makeshift tea bags out of coffee filters and string.
 |
| Janky makeshift hops bags |
I deviated from the recipe by adding more orange peel, coriander, and bird of paradise. I figured I'd use up what came in the kit and I do enjoy these flavors in other saisons (hello Hennepin!). I also began with all five gallons of water instead of adding the rest at the end of the boil. Unfortunately, I didn't account for evaporation, so my end wort was under 5 gal - it was actually 4 gal - but I didn't want to add unsterilized water to the mix before fermentation. Instead of using the provided honey, I was also able to use a friend's homemade honey. I'm pretty excited about that, and really hoping this turns out well so I can share it with them.
I had two minor disasters. My primary carboy shattered all over the garage while sterilizing. Oops. It won't break my heart to buy a new and larger one, so that will be alright. Also, I had a terrible time reading the temperature as it cooled down after boiling. Note to me: buy a wort chiller or at least a couple giant bags of ice for cooling. I dropped the thermometer INSIDE the carboy. Gah! Hopefully it was sterilized well enough because I'm leaving it in there during fermentation.
There are a few things I was a real stickler about when buying equipment and planning this out:
1- Stainless steel and glass all the things. Due to the ability to be well-cleaned and sterilized that was a big sticking point for me. Aluminum can't be sterilized as well and I just get a little creeped out about plastic. Definitely do not want any opportunity for contamination. This leads me to point 2.
2- Distilled water! After listening to a very enjoyable and informative Beersmith podcast, I learned the ins and outs of cleaning and sterilization. It was an interview with the head chemist and president of Five Star Chemicals. They basically conveyed all of the technical stuff I had been dying to know. Being a professional chemist sounds like a great gig. The chlorine and calcium content in my water is pretty significant. Not only will it affect the taste of the final product, but it will create nasty scale that can make cleaning difficult and lead to bacterial buildup in the carboy. Another big one - hard water is alkaline which makes Star-San ineffective. Kind of a big deal. So dH2O FTW.
After that interview, I think I'd find it hard to use anything other than PBW and Star-San for cleaning and sanitation respectively. They sound like awesome products and the president really knows his stuff. I'm also really impressed by his own real interest in home brewing. Now, I need to do a bit more research to see how best to sanitize plastic - for my tubing, buckets, thief, etc. This time around I used PBW & Star-San on them.
On a funny note, I left those big, foamy Star-San bubbles without rinsing when I poured the wort into the carboy. I felt like such a science rebel. How exciting! Saison du Mont updates to come...
The temperature is definitely not too high.
