2022 Melting Stream Spring Saison (Batch 309)

Spring has sprung here in the Front Range of Colorado.

Here ... that means a few nice sunny days in the 50's, 60's, or 70's followed by a couple cold snowy (or rainy) days followed by more sunny warm weather.

Because of this spring cycle ... melting snow from the mountains makes its way into streams. Rivers flow down into the high plains by Denver and to the East.

I love the image of the melting snow filling up the streams during this time of year.

This is what inspired the name for the SheppyBrew Spring Seasonal Saison ...

Melting Stream Spring Saison

Last weekend, I brewed it again. I've been brewing these Seasonal Saisons since 2014, and this is the 8th time I brewed Melting Stream.

If did the math and it seems off ... I skipped the Spring season in my first year of Seasonal Saisons, so I've brewed it one less time than the others.

Anyway ... I started on Saturday by making a starter of the French Saison Yeast (WY3711) that I had sitting my fridge since my Winter Saison. 

Then, I set the Anvil Foundry to heat the strike water, and mashed in right before bedtime.

I was up and started "brew day" on Sunday morning by 5:30.

I pulled the malt pipe up and set the heat to 200 degrees (water boils at a lower temperature here in Denver than most places in the U.S.)

At 120 volts, it takes quite awhile to heat the water up from 145ish (which was about what the mash settled at overnight) to 200. About an hour.

So, I was boiling around 6:30 AM.

My pre-boil gravity was high.

I should remember to increase my expected Brew-house efficiency for these beers that I do overnight mashes on.

But, it was easy to dilute a bit. I also reduced the boil time by a few minutes.

The boil went well. Chilling went quick. 

I was actually racking to the fermentor before 8AM. I was pretty much cleaned up by 8:15.

2.75 hour brew day (if you don't count the overnight mash).

With the active starter, the wort was bubbling away by early afternoon. On Thursday, I added the dry hops.

I've taken a couple of samples over the past week, and am really loving the saison flavor.

I expect I'll be kegging soon.


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Go Rockies!