Sunday 31 July 2011

Still saisoning but with a wild twist

Hi all,

We've just returned from a fantastic 3 week chill at our apartment in Turunc South West Turkey (see the link top right of page, Cath & Joe's place in the sun). Catherine & i went down to the market while there and bought some cherries to adapt the wild batch of  Frabjous Saison.

The cherry idea came from Cantillon Brewery in Brussels. I tried one of their Krieks when i was over on a Winter holiday a couple of years ago. It was nice to sample it in the brewery. Incidentally, the tour was me rocking up introducing myself and then they let me wander round the brewery and ask daft questions!


A very nice lady sold me a kilo of outstanding cherries for 5TL(£2). They came home to Inverurie the next day. Gave them a quick wash and removed the stalks.


Check out the colour!

As we are aiming for a wild beer i decided not to boil the cherries to sterilise. Again the influence came from Catillon brewery. If they can go with local microfauna so i can i!

 

Here's a shot after the cherries went in, note the colour of the beer.


I hope you can see the change in colour, very apparent in reality.


This shot was taken after 4 days in the fermenter. Its slightly disconcerting as it has an organic look to me!



So there we have it. This started off life as a simple saison. Its since been infuenced with citrus fruit, belgian candi rocks, Turkish chilli, Brett C wild yeast, Turkish cherries & with a bit of luck some wild Turkish Microfauna. Beermaking eh? Its all boring beards and sandals isn't it? :)

Bjorn's update!

The saison is continuing to ferment, almost all colour has now been stripped from the cherries and the beer coninues at 20 degrees. With some luck this lower temperature will inhibit the remaining Saison yeast and allow the Brett C to do its job. Nice sharp smell from fermenter and i could almost say that there is a hint of pineapple when i give the fermeter its twice daily swirl.

Assuming this beer doesn't dip below 1.000 gravity i should end up with a 6.6%ABV beer. The champagne yeast is on stand by for its role at a later date.


blog counter

Wikio - Top Blogs - Wine and beer

Wikio - Top Blogs

3 comments:

  1. Looks interesting. Came here via your HBT thread. Where does this beer stand now? Still fermenting?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just having your Saison, very refreshing, subtle notes of cherry, very nice beer :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad you liked it Ade, Its now an officially endangered beer species! I am waiting until April before delving further into the samples you sent. Offshore again until then!

    ReplyDelete