Spon Francisco... ish
This is a project that every aspiring funky brewer thinks about doing eventually. Spontaneous fermentation requires a huge leap of faith and a willingness to say "fuck it" over 5 gallons of beer down the drain. It's also something I notice that everyone debates about the "right" way to do it, whether that's turbid mashing, barrel fermenting, starting small with spontaneous captures and building them up vs just going for it. What's lambic, what's not.
I just wanted to try it and hope for the best. So when San Francisco hit a cold snap, I decided to go for it. It was getting down to about 40 degrees over night which was perfect for me. I had picked up 5lbs of aged hops over Black Friday from hopsdirect.com, so it was time.
Grain
8lbs Belgian Pilsner
4lbs Wheat Malt
1lb Flaked Oats
Hops
4oz Aged (Debittered) Hops
Yeast
San Francisco flora
The Mad Fermentationist Saison (more on this later)
It went pretty uneventfully, I mashed high at 158 degrees F to try and have some unfermentables for any sacch but leave more for Brett and whatever other yeast and bacteria filter in
One thing I did was to pull out ~0.5-1 gallon after 10 minutes of the mash and heated it up to boiling. This was due to a comment reddit user /u/MDBrews left about denaturing the enzymes to prevent complete conversion to add a little extra for the Brett to eat. I decided to do that just to see what would happen and because I still haven't quite wrapped my head around the flow of a turbid mash.
After boiling for ~75 minutes I put the kettle on a chair under an overhang in my backyard, covered it with a layer of cheesecloth, and left it out overnight. I also added about 1 tsp of 88% lactic acid; I don't have a pH meter, but I've read that that should be about enough to lower a 5 gallon batch to around 4.5 to 4.8 pH.
In the morning it was down to 70 degrees F, so I racked it into a Better Bottle I had purchased and put it away. Like I said it's been pretty cold, so it has been sitting around 55-58 degrees since I don't have an outlet nearby.
Shame
Finally want to touch on the shame upon my house... I got antsy when I saw zero activity after a week and a half and... I pitched some yeast! I know, I know, this is not the first true Spon Francisco. My impatience got the best of me.
While home from work one day, I spun up a starter of the mason jar of slurry left over from my Mad Fermentationist Saison (which is still in the keg that I'm trying to finish up). I pitched it around 1/19, not sure exactly when, and it started actively fermenting after another few days.
The interesting thing is that one to two weeks later, it still seems to be fermenting! There's obvious krausen that has stayed for a while, so I'm hoping that caught something interesting. I wish I would have stayed the course, I probably will next year, but I'm not too worried about it. Hopefully I will still get a good saison out of it, I've been curious about the impact of aged hops on a beer which has been under some discussion in the funky beer world, and if I caught some cool things, well, cool!
I'll check back in on this in 3 months or so.
Timeline
1/14/2018: Brewed
1/15/2018: Racked into a 6 gallon Better Bottle
1/20?/2018: Pitched starter of Mad Fermentationist Saison blend
Mid-March: Thieved a portion. It tastes VERY bitter at the moment, not very interesting. Will wait. Tastes a little under-attenuated.
4/9/2018: Visually I see Brett/bacteria action starting up. A pellicle has formed. Will wait until June before trying again.
I just wanted to try it and hope for the best. So when San Francisco hit a cold snap, I decided to go for it. It was getting down to about 40 degrees over night which was perfect for me. I had picked up 5lbs of aged hops over Black Friday from hopsdirect.com, so it was time.
Grain
8lbs Belgian Pilsner
4lbs Wheat Malt
1lb Flaked Oats
Hops
4oz Aged (Debittered) Hops
Yeast
San Francisco flora
The Mad Fermentationist Saison (more on this later)
It went pretty uneventfully, I mashed high at 158 degrees F to try and have some unfermentables for any sacch but leave more for Brett and whatever other yeast and bacteria filter in
One thing I did was to pull out ~0.5-1 gallon after 10 minutes of the mash and heated it up to boiling. This was due to a comment reddit user /u/MDBrews left about denaturing the enzymes to prevent complete conversion to add a little extra for the Brett to eat. I decided to do that just to see what would happen and because I still haven't quite wrapped my head around the flow of a turbid mash.
After boiling for ~75 minutes I put the kettle on a chair under an overhang in my backyard, covered it with a layer of cheesecloth, and left it out overnight. I also added about 1 tsp of 88% lactic acid; I don't have a pH meter, but I've read that that should be about enough to lower a 5 gallon batch to around 4.5 to 4.8 pH.
In the morning it was down to 70 degrees F, so I racked it into a Better Bottle I had purchased and put it away. Like I said it's been pretty cold, so it has been sitting around 55-58 degrees since I don't have an outlet nearby.
ShameFinally want to touch on the shame upon my house... I got antsy when I saw zero activity after a week and a half and... I pitched some yeast! I know, I know, this is not the first true Spon Francisco. My impatience got the best of me.
While home from work one day, I spun up a starter of the mason jar of slurry left over from my Mad Fermentationist Saison (which is still in the keg that I'm trying to finish up). I pitched it around 1/19, not sure exactly when, and it started actively fermenting after another few days.
The interesting thing is that one to two weeks later, it still seems to be fermenting! There's obvious krausen that has stayed for a while, so I'm hoping that caught something interesting. I wish I would have stayed the course, I probably will next year, but I'm not too worried about it. Hopefully I will still get a good saison out of it, I've been curious about the impact of aged hops on a beer which has been under some discussion in the funky beer world, and if I caught some cool things, well, cool!I'll check back in on this in 3 months or so.
Timeline
1/14/2018: Brewed
1/15/2018: Racked into a 6 gallon Better Bottle
1/20?/2018: Pitched starter of Mad Fermentationist Saison blend
Mid-March: Thieved a portion. It tastes VERY bitter at the moment, not very interesting. Will wait. Tastes a little under-attenuated.
4/9/2018: Visually I see Brett/bacteria action starting up. A pellicle has formed. Will wait until June before trying again.
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| 4/9/2018 Pellicle formed |
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