Lemongrass Saison

Last night I brewed a "double batch" of the party-winning Lemongrass Saison. I used Wyeast 3711 this time instead of the 2001 lager strain. I essentially cooked two 4-gallon batches: one was a partial mash, the other was all grain. Both on the stove top.

I won't divulge my recipe but both batches had 7.75 # of grain. I added 3 # of dry malt extract (DME) to the partial mash to attain an original gravity (OG) reading of 1.077. The OG on the all grain was 1.047.

Hopped with Fuggle, US and Czech Saaz, and flavored with fresh lemongrass, these beers will be crisp, spicy, and earthy. I'm very excited to see how the French Saison yeast will affect the final flavor compared to the first batch with the lager yeast. Perhaps a smoother or silkier body.

Here's a couple pictures of the partial mash about 12 hours after pitching the yeast.

The stove top mashes went pretty well. My gravities came out right about where I expected. I had cooked a strong Scotch ale a couple weeks ago, my first partial mash, and had trouble keeping my mash temperature steady and mis-calculated the sparge water volume. Silly things that seem to go awry the first time you're trying something. But this time I definitely felt better about what I was doing and how it went.

I will very soon move to the garage with a nice 10-gallon cooler all-grain system with a 15-gallon boil kettle. The batches will get bigger which means more beer for everyone!! Gotta grow...

Well, my first little blog. More to come!

I'm Proud Of My Beer and Humbled You're Here