It’s no secret that we have a real love for the fantastic Wyeast 3711 French Saison yeast. And making farmhouse style beers in general. So a few weeks ago, when Chris’ friend Mike who is from Muskoka said he was coing down and wanted to do a brew, 3711 was the inspiration for the brew. Also, the fact that Chris had about 10 oz of Nelson Sauvin hops in the fridge. Sort of a Nelson-influenced Belgian IPA with French Saison yeast. French Farmhouse IPA seemed like a fair style for it. And a Belgian-style IPA-ish thing with El Dorado and Nelson Sauvin is too cool for your fixie and beard oil, so Hipster Bitchslap it is (also, because I cracked a joke about it on the podcast, and I like to run with funny bits).
Wyeast 3711 French Saison
Recipe
40 litre batch
OG 1.052 FG 1.000
12.5 SRM
6.8% abv
35 IBU
Fermentables
- Canadian 2-row 8kg
- Rye flakes 2kg
- Wheat flakes 1kg
- Special W (Weyermann version of Special B) 500g
Hops
- El Dorado (13.2%) 2oz 5m
- Nelson Sauvin (11.6%) 2oz 5m
- Nelson Sauvin (11.6%) 2oz 1m
- Nelson Sauvin (11.6%) 3oz 0m
- Nelson Sauvin (11.6%) 1oz dry-hop (24 hrs)
- Amarillo (10.5%) 1oz dry-hop (24hrs)
- Hallertau Blanc (9%) 2oz dry-hop (24hrs)
Yeast
I spun up a starter for the 3711 to get one smack-pack big enough for the 40 litre batch. Woke up bright and early (Mike crashed at my place the night before), and got the water heating. The 2-row was premilled, but we milled the Special W and the wheat/rye (not necessary, but they were in the bag with the Special W). Mashed-in before 8am, and thanks to good calculations, the first mash I measured with my new Javelin probe thermometre was nearly bang-on. Aiming for 146F, I’ll take 144.5F!
Javelin Probe Thermometre
For a good dry beer, we went low and fast so the mash was only 40 minutes long. We started vorlaufing and were immediately impressed by the colour the Special W lent the sweet water.
Great run-off
Vorlaufed for about 5 minutes, then started run-off, while we were heating sparge water to 170F for the fly-sparge. Once collected, we got the fire going, and brought the kettle to the boil. Our plan was to boil for 40 minutes, and start the hop additions at 5 minutes. In went the El Dorado and Nelson, then 3 Nelson Sauvin additions until flame-out. 15 minute whirlpool and 15 minute stand, and we chilled into the fermenters. I took my 20 litres and pitched the 3711 and got it safely tucked away. Mike is going to brew his using a mixed culture of dregs from a few popular funky/farmhouse beers.
Best part: we were on the road before noon, to head to the GTA Brews Big Brew celebrating AHA National Homebrew Day!
24 hours later and the airlock was bubbling like mad. I’m excited to see how this one turns out!
Update 31/05/2016
Took a gravity reading today, and as usual, 3711 had done its thing and the beer was at 1.000, clocking in at 6.8%. So in went the dry-hop (2oz Hallertau Blanc, and 1 each of Nelson and Amarillo; I was out of El Dorado). Tomorrow it will go in the cooler to crash, then bottle on Thursday.