2019 Arctic Vortex Winter Saison

Here it is. Winter again.

Among other things, winter means that it is time to brew Arctic Vortex Winter Saison.

Yum!

As you probably know if you follow SheppyBrew Brewery, we brew at least 4 saisons every year.

Winter Spring Summer Autumn.

I call them my Seasonal Saison series of beers.

The Arctic Vortex Winter Saison happens to be a black saison, because winter is generally dark ... and it would be boring to make all my saisons look the same.

This weekend, I brewed this year's Arctic Vortex Winter Saison.


I intended to make a yeast starter on Saturday, but never got around to it. I'm getting lazy in my old age. Generally the WY3711 yeast does well even when I don't make a starter.

I got started a little earlier in the morning than my past few brew days. It was 4:30 when I got up.

Obviously, it was dark at this time of the day.

I heated the strike water inside the house this time.

When I mashed in, my temperature was a bit low at 140. No problem, I added boiling water to bring the mash up a bit.

I love thermodynamics!

I got through the mash, sparge, and had even started the boil before sunrise. My pre-boil gravity was very close to where I wanted it.

The boil was uneventful. I added more saaz hops than usual for this recipe. Should be yummy.

Chilling went fine. I had the beer racked to the fermentor before 9AM.

The yeast was pitched around 9:15 at 65 degrees.

I was all cleaned up before 10:15, which allowed me to concentrate on playoff football.

Unfortunately, the Bears clanked their last-second field goal to lose to the evil Philadelphia Eagles. There's always next year ... right?

At least I have beer.

As always, you can always keep an eye on the regular SheppyBrew Channels to see what is happening with beer and other things: SheppyBrew's Facebook Page; Sheppy's Twitter Feed;SheppyBrew's Instagram Page; and SheppyBrew's Website. Of course, don't forget to visit this blog often as well!