Cabernet Franc barrel Flanders Red

Even though our lambic from last year is nowhere near finished, we had so much fun brewing a barrel's-worth of beer last winter that we decided to fill another barrel this year. After tossing around some ideas, we settled on a Flanders red.

My first experience tasting a Flanders red was a disaster called Duchesse de Bourgogne. Man, that beer sucks. Between the intense salad-dressing balsamic vinegar aroma and the sickening saccharine-sweet finish, I was convinced I'd never have another Flanders red again. But after trying some of the different Rodenbach blends, and more importantly, Cuvee des Jacobins, I realized that not all Flanders reds were sweetened vinegar-bombs, and had huge complexity: malty, funky, dry, and sour. A red-wine barrel seemed like it would complement this style nicely so we acquired a used Cabernet Franc barrel for this brew.

Compared to a lambic, which typically involves a turbid mash, spontaneous fermentation, and a multi-year residence in a barrel, brewing a Flanders red should be a cakewalk. Typically, Flanders reds are brewed with mostly-malt grain bills (some recipes include flaked corn or wheat), with a standard single-infusion mash, and a controlled inoculation of microbes. Unlike a lambic, which derives most of its acidity from Pediococcus, Flanders reds get theirs from mainly Lactobacillus. Thankfully, Wyeast offers their Roeslare blend year-round now, which is supposedly an approximation of the blend that Rodenbach uses, and it seems that homebrewers have good results using this blend.

We used a pretty complex grain bill, kind of a hybrid between the recipe in Brewing Classic Styles and the one over on Mad Fermentationist. Ten gallons were brewed ahead of time to build up yeast and microbe numbers. Overall we wound up with about 58 gallons of 1.060 wort - a little high for the style, but whatever. This thing will probably be sitting in oak for 2 years before bottling, so a little extra gravity will probably be a good thing.

Flanders red v1

60 gallon batch (brewed 10 gallons or so at a time)

brewed 1/1/2011

34.4 lbs Munich malt (Weyermann type I)

34.4 lbs French pilsner malt (Malteries Soufflet)

34.4 lbs Vienna malt (Weyermann)

4.7 lbs Aromatic

4.7 lbs Caramunich (56 L)

4.7 lbs Wheat malt

4.7 lbs Special B

9.5 oz EKG @ 60 minutes

cast out ~56 gal @ 1.060 (approx 76% brewhouse efficiency)

Barrel full of wort, chugging away!

UPDATE:

- Bottling and first tasting (12/28/2011, 12 months old)

How to Make Bacon

Bacon is one of the best tasting things on Earth, yet its identity is shrouded in mystery. What is bacon? How is it made? How long does it take? Can you make it at home?

Yes, you can indeed. Here is the basic process:

1. Get a pig belly
2. Apply a dry cure for at least a week
3. Rinse off salt
4. Hang to dry for a day or two
5. Cold smoke ~12 hours
6. Slice, fry, eat

As you can see, bacon is indeed labor intensive, requiring at least 10 days to make. But homemade bacon has several advantages over store-bought bacon:

1. No nitrites. Commercial bacon is cured with 'pink salt' which preserves color and helps protect against botulism, but also has been implicated as a potential carcinogen. Unless you are eating your bacon raw, botulism is not really a concern here as the toxin is destroyed during cooking. According to the World Health Organization, 5 minutes at 185 F destroys botulinum toxin, conditions easily achieved during pan-frying.
2. Will keep very well and for a long time
3. Can cut into any shape and thickness desired (great for soups and chilis - can cut into large cubes or strips which maintain their texture far better than sliced bacon)
4. Superior flavor and 'cookability'. Commercial bacon is typically injected with cure then injected with water to increase weight. With homemade bacon, being dry-cured then hung to dry, the bacon comes out far less 'flabby' and doesn't spatter nearly as much in the pan since the water content is so low.
5. Cheaper than commercial bacon.
6. Impress your friends.

Step 1: Get a pig belly

Pig bellies can be found at most self-respecting butchers. At the very least they can order you some. I would recommend doing a big slab (maybe 10 lbs at a time or more) because making lots of bacon is the same amount of work as making a little. Also, it keeps forever and makes a great gift. Sometimes pig bellies are also called "rib-sides" - these are actually from the tips of the ribs to the nipple-line, and I've found they aren't quite as fatty (and therefore not as good for bacon) as the center of the belly. What we are looking for in bacon is the abdominal oblique muscles surrounded by fat.

Some bellies will still have the skin: whether you want to leave this on or trim it off is a matter of preference. I prefer to trim it because a) the cure and smoke will penetrate better, and b) it can burn and get hard when you fry it.

Step 2: Dry cure

The goal of the cure is to draw water out of the meat and to preserve it by introducing salt. Most bacteria don't have a chance in such a salty environment. I like a ratio of 2:1 salt to sugar. For a 10 lb slab, 2 cups kosher salt and 1 cup brown sugar is plenty (in fact, perhaps overkill- you might try 1.5 cups salt to 0.75 cups sugar). Too much sugar and the outside could burn when you cook it. Pack the belly in the cure and stick it in the fridge. It will give off lots of liquid in the first couple days. Ideally you should keep the belly above this liquid, but I've left it submerged in the liquid for 2 weeks with no ill-effects.

As for curing times, I'd recommend at the very least 1 week, ideally two weeks. I've cooked up samples at only 4 days in the cure, and they still act like regular pork at this stage. By two weeks, the meat is thoroughly salted the texture has changed to a firm, dense, ham-like consistency.

Step 3: Rinse salt

I like to 'freshen' the bacon. This will pull out some salt that has penetrated the meat. This sort of step is typical in the production of lox - you want to cure the fish but don't want it to be overly salty. You will want to soak the bacon in a few changes of fresh, cool water - I'd recommend at least a couple hours. If you don't freshen enough and your bacon is too salty, it can still be rectified immediately prior to cooking by soaking the slices for about 30 minutes in fresh water, so don't worry if your bacon comes out too salty.

Step 4: Hang

This is where you allow the outside to dry and form a pellicle. This is an important step that really helps develop the texture of the meat and helps during the cold-smoking process. Smoke doesn't 'stick' to wet surfaces very well so you need to dry your bacon. Hang the freshened meat somewhere with low humidity. A fridge is perfect if you have the space. In a fridge it will take about 24 hours. You could also do it in a basement or something and aim a fan at it and do it for a little less time. Basically you want the outside to be tacky to the touch so the smoke will penetrate the meat.

Step 5: Cold smoke

Cold smoking is a process where you apply smoke to a food but no heat. This maintains the texture of the meat, and, more importantly, you can apply smoke for a much longer amount of time than hot-smoking. In hot smoking (which is basically barbecue) you cook and smoke simultaneously. I can cold-smoke a bacon for 12 hours (or longer), but if I were to hot-smoke for that long I would have rendered most of the fat and burned most of the meat.

Making a cold smoker is easy and cheap. You will need a cardboard box, a soldering iron, a tin can, and some wood chips. Below is a photo of my cold-smoking rig. Basically you just want to fill the can with some wood chips, stick in the soldering iron, and put this in the box along with your meat. The soldering iron will smolder the wood slowly but produce almost no heat. Also, because of the very limited oxygen in the can, the wood will not flame up and burn (which would also create heat and bitter smoke). In general my smoker will run about 10 degrees F above ambient, so ideally you would do this when it is cool outside.

Hang the bacon in the cardboard box, and let it smoke for about 10-12 hours. Big fatty slabs of pork can take this level of smoke-abuse. You will need to give the can a shake every hour or so, and every couple hours you might need to change out the wood chips. My favorite wood for bacon is hickory, but feel free to experiment with other woods (oak, applewood, pecan, etc. should all be good choices). I strongly recommend you soak the wood chips in water prior to use: this will tame the harshness of the smoke and create a slow smolder. If you smoke with dry wood chips, the smoke will be harsh and sting your eyes - not what you want on your food.

Step 6: Eating

Now that your bacon is cured and cold-smoked, it is ready for frying and eating. Slice it however you like- I find it is easier to make thin slices if the bacon is partly frozen first.

Anyways, that's it. Now you have 10 lbs of slab bacon that you can cut however you want. Large cubes are fantastic in soups, beans, pasta, chili, etc.

Robust Brown Ale

There are few styles more appropriate for the Fall season than English Brown ale. But, I am frequently disappointed by many commercially-available Browns, often being too thin and lifeless, and not very Fall-like at all. This recipe is an answer to that: I wanted to brew something that was identifiable as an English brown, but also robust and satisfying, with plenty of toasty notes and a solid bitterness. To achieve this, I decided to use fairly high proportions of brown malt and pale chocolate malt. I really liked what the pale chocolate contributed, kind of a muted roast, faint chocolate, deep toast character.

One trick we used for this beer was to make our own brown malt. Using the guidelines from the "All Things Homebrewing" blog, we got really close to real brown malt (we had a reference sample on hand), although ours seemed to be a bit more aromatic, doubtless because of the fact it was freshly toasted.

Old Toasty

Northern English Brown ale

5.5 gal batch, brewed 9/5/10

9 lbs Maris Otter

1 lb Crystal 60

1 lb homemade brown malt (made from Maris Otter)

0.5 lb Pale chocolate malt

1 oz Northern Brewer (8.1% aa) 60 min

1 oz Northern Brewer 20 min

1 oz East Kent Goldings (5% aa) 3 min

1.055 OG

1.017 FG

5.0% abv

45 IBUs

Yeast propagation: Wyeast 1968, used 3/4 cup slurry from previous batch (a bitter)

Water profile: "Mosher's Ideal Mild ale" (Ca++ 83 ppm, Mg++ 12 ppm, Cl- 92 ppm, SO4 112 ppm, Na+ 38 ppm, carbonate 106 ppm)

Single infusion mash at 156.5 F

Cast out 5.5 gal, 71% brewhouse efficiency

Fermented at approx 69 F

9/5 Brewed

9/11 at 1.020, got roused a bit

9/19 at 1.017. Bottled to 1.9 vols CO2

Review (10/23, about a month in the bottle)

Aroma - Toasty, light chocolate, light roasted. A little sour tang, almost like sourdough.

Appearance - Deep chestnut brown, ok clarity (not great), head small but retains, no lacing.

Flavor - Toasty malts, chocolate, hint of smoke almost. Robust malty body, some caramel sweetness. I'd say the malt bill is about perfect for what we were going for. Lasting bitterness which may be out of style, but is enjoyable.

Mouthfeel - Most of these bottles got overcarbonated, and I'm not totally sure how or why. I knocked out some of the carbonation in this sample by first pouring it vigorously into a pyrex glass. When the carbonation is knocked-out a bit, the mouthfeel is full and rich. Great.

Overall - When properly carbonated, this beer is awesome. Robust and satisfying but still very much a brown ale. Could reduce the IBUs to around 35 and maybe take the pale chocolate down to about 0.4 lbs. A little diacetyl might be nice in this beer, possibly try a different yeast strain (1084?).

English Bitter

Session beers are getting a lot of attention these days, which seems like a good thing. To be honest I've never really had any session beers, mostly because the vast majority are made in the UK, and very few make it over here to the US. Still, from a brewing perspective, cramming lots of flavor into a small beer presents a challenge, but there are a few tricks that I've gleaned from books and forums. First is to use an expressive yeast strain and ferment at somewhat elevated temps (fusels aren't a huge concern at such low starting gravities). Second is to use relatively high percentages of crystal malts. Third, a beer like this requires richer base malts like Maris Otter, although next time I might try to use Mild malt as a base.

I hadn't really planned on brewing any low-abv beers till I tried an English Bitter brewed by my friend Tommy. It was flavorful, hoppy, had a firm malt backbone, and weighed in at less than 4% alcohol.

Cami's Bitter

6.2 gal batch, brewed 8/28/2010

6 lbs Maris Otter

1 lb Crystal 40

1 lb White wheat malt

1.75 oz Fuggles/EKG mix (4.5% aa) 60 min

1 oz Fuggles/EKG mix 20 min

1.25 oz Fuggles/EKG mix dry hop, last 4 days of fermentation

1.041 OG

1.010 FG

4.0% abv

35 IBUs

Yeast propagation: Wyeast 1968, 1/2 gal starter.

Single infusion mash approx. 152 F

cast out 6.2 gal, 85% brewhouse eff.

fermented at 68 F first 4 days, let rise to room temp (75 F) last 4 days.

carbed to 1.2 vols CO2

8/28 Brewed

9/6 Down to 1.010

9/7 Bottled

9/12 Bottles have cleared up and are carbonated nicely.

Review (9/14, one week in bottle. served at ~50 F)

Aroma - Musty fruit, earthy. Hops pretty faint. Maybe an apricot/peach note. Caramel.

Appearance - Polished orange, exceptionally clear. Moderate white head which retains throughout, good lacing.

Flavor - Sweeter caramel malt up front, some faint toastiness in the background. Finish has a long, lasting bitterness which is really nice. Needs a little more in the way of biscuity/toasty flavors. If there is any diacetyl I can't really pick it up.

Mouthfeel - To me, perfect. I thought it might be too thin at 1.010 (we were aiming for 1.012) but it isn't. Creamy & full, carbonation level is perfect and it just glides across your mouth.

Overall - Good, solid brew, especially for the abv. Lasting bitterness brings a lot to this beer, otherwise it would be too 'drinkable' in the sense that sips might go down unnoticed.

Next time try to get more biscuit flavor in it. Could try to a) add some amber or biscuit malt, b) use an English crystal malt rather than Briess, c) use some (maybe half) Mild malt as a base. I think b & c together would improve this beer. The yeast is a winner, don't change that. Dry hops might be unnecessary. Either ditch, or use leaf hops, as Tommy's version seemed to have more aroma. Corey mentions it tastes like 'tea'; to me it is ok but it sounds like we might have sparged too hot. With such a small grain bed, we should sparge with 170 F water next time.

First lambic tasting - 8 months old

Just this past week we decided to get together and draw the first sample from our lambic barrel project. Part of the reason we wanted to do this was because we are impatient and excited, but the main reason was to decide whether we want to brew another barrel this winter so we have stuff to blend. Based on the results, I would totally be down for brewing another barrel, but it might also be interesting and fun to try something different like a Flanders Red.

So far our young lambic seems to be showing some promise, but the acidity isn't there yet. It has come down to 1.011 (from 1.058, so it's at 6.1% abv right now). Here is a review of the 8-month old sample we took (keep in mind it was flat as it came straight from the barrel):

Aroma - Seriously potent stuff, we could smell it across the room. Big, bretty nose wafting everywhere. Sour fruits, bready, lemon, and some cider/apple juice. The nose is really fantastic and definitely getting within the ballpark of how a lambic should smell.

Appearance - Well, it's totally flat, but it is extremely clear. The clarity was a little surprising as we used lots of raw wheat. I guess the Brett has really been going to town. The color is much more pale than I had anticipated, paler than any Belgian lambic I've seen.

Flavor - No sourness. Drying oak finish, but faint and not overpowering at all. Certainly some chardonnay character (no surprise as it came from a chardonnay barrel). Light malt. A little sweet. Overall pretty bland.

Mouthfeel - Flatness aside, the mouthfeel is thin, maybe too thin. Hard to judge with no carbonation and no acidity, as dryness with no sourness just leaves a thin and lifeless beer.

Overall - So far so good. Was a little surprised at the lack of acidity, but this beer is still very young, and we are hoping it will develop given time. It seems that the Pedio hasn't done squat yet, so I am thinking it might be wise to pitch a couple more packs, as the conditions should be ideal now (low pH, low oxygen environment).

Filling the Barrel

Our barrel-fermented lambic project is underway! The two-day brew day took place on Dec. 26th & 27th. It was a hell of a lot of work considering our system can only put out about 12 gal of wort at a time, which meant we needed to brew at least six 10-gallon batches over 2 days to fill our 60 gallon chardonnay barrel.

The actual procedure deviated slightly from our original brew plan. During our first attempt at batch #1, after we doughed in the wheat at 140 F, it promptly burned on the bottom of the pot when we were raising it to boiling. So, rather than having to sit there and stir constantly for an hour as the wheat boiled, we just got our water to boiling, doughed in the wheat, brought it back to a low boil, then let it rest for 30 min. This seemed to work pretty well, as the resulting liquid was very gummy and starchy, and we got excellent conversion in the subsequent mash.

Sacks of wheat and barley. Got a great deal on this thanks to The Tap in Haverhill, Mass.

Crushing the grains. The wheat was a real pain and seized up the drill many times. We eventually had to open the mill gap and double crush.

Below I have detailed the specs on each batch, but here is a general run-down on our whole procedure for a single batch:

1) Bring 8 gal water to a boil. Dough in 8 lbs of raw wheat, 1.5 lbs of the US 2-row, and 1 lb of rice hulls (glad we had these on hand as our runoff got a bit sticky). Return to a boil over low heat and constant stirring. Rest 30 min.

2) Add boiled wheat mixture to mash tun. Mix in 1.5 gal of cold water and 12.5 lbs 2-row. By doing this we usually hit a sacch temp of 155-165 F (high, yes, but our extraction efficiency remained very high). Rest 90-120 min.

3) Lauter, batch sparge with a total 6 gal water (2 rounds of 3 gal, resting 15 min). Sparge water was hot, about 200-210 F.

4) 60 min boil, chill, whirlpool 10 min, siphon into barrel.

We wound up with approx. 65 gal of wort at an estimated 1.059. Eight gallons are currently fermenting in buckets as we didn't want to overfill the barrel during primary fermentation.


Batch 1:
Hit ~150 F on mash-in, used 1 gal boiling water to get mash temp to 160 F.
Preboil: 14.5 gal @ 1.051, mash efficiency 93%
Post boil: 13.3 gal @ 1.053, cast ~12 gal, brewhouse eff ~80%

Batch 2:
Hit 160 F spot-on in mash
Preboil: 14 gal @ 1.051, mash eff 91%
Post boil: 11.8 gal @ 1.060, cast ~10 gal (left about 2 gal of trub in pot, next wort went on top), brewhouse eff ~75%

Batch 3:
Hit 158 F in mash
Preboil: 15.25 (some was from prev batch) @ 1.055, subtracting prev wort, mash eff was around 95%
Post boil: 14.2 gal @ 1.060, cast ~13 gal, brewhouse eff ~99% (this was high from previous wort being left behind, if you average the last two batches, each had a brewhouse eff of about 87%)

Batch 4:
Mash came in a bit high at 160-165 F
Preboil: 14 gal @ 1.050, mash eff 89%
Post boil: 11.5 gal @ 1.058, cast ~10.5 gal, brewhouse eff ~77%

Batch 5:
Mash came in a bit high at 165-170, cooled with a bit of cold water. Mash lasted about 2 hr
Preboil: 13.25 gal @ 1.056, mash eff 93%
Post boil: 11.75 gal @ 1.061, cast ~10.5 gal, brewhouse eff ~81%

Batch 6:
Only had 6 lbs 5 oz of wheat and 11.75 lbs of barley. Used only 6 gal for sparge. Hit 160 F in mash.
Preboil: 11.5 gal @ 1.055, mash eff 97% (awesome!)
Post boil: 11.25 gal, forgot to take grav reading but estimate is 1.056. cast out about 8 gal into two buckets, brewhouse eff ~69%

Summary:

total preboil volume	82.5 gal
overall preboil gravity	1.053
overall mash efficiency	91%
total postboil volume	73.8 gal
overall postboil gravity	1.058
total wort produced	64.5 gal
barrel starting gravity	1.058
overall brewhouse efficiency	79%

inoculation schedule:
12/26, 11:30 pm: pitched 3 packs US-05 into approx 35 gal wort

12/27, 9:30 pm: pitched 2 packs US-05 into barrel (approx 57 gal currently in barrel), and split one pack of US-05 between the two buckets which contained 5.5 gal and 3 gal of wort. Also pitched into the barrel: 2 packs Wyeast lambic blend, 1 pack Wyeast Pediococcus, 1 pack Wyeast B. bruxellensis, 1 pack Wyeast B. lambicus,

Also pitched the following dregs:

1 750 ml Cantillon Classic Gueuze
2 375 ml Cantillon Iris
2 375 ml Allagash Gargamel
2 750 ml Cantillon Grand Cru
1 750 ml Lindemans Cuvee Renee
3 375 ml Girardin 1882 Black Label Gueuze
2 375 ml Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus
1 750 ml Drie Fonteinen Oude Gueuze
1 375 ml Drie Fonteinen Doesjel







UPDATE:
- First tasting (8 months old)
- Second tasting (24 months old)

Funky, sour Saison

Saisons are an old style, traditionally brewed to have a relatively low alcohol content and provided for Belgian seasonal farm workers during summer months. According to Phil Markowski (Farmhouse Ales), historical saisons usually had a bit of tartness, unlike most modern examples (with some exceptions, e.g., Bam Biere).

This represents our fourth attempt at a Belgian saison, but our first attempt at a wild beer. Our previous saisons never had enough yeast character, so for this one we decided to go with one of the most expressive yeast strains out there, Dupont. According to 'Farmhouse Ales', the Dupont strain may actually be 4 different strains, so rather than going with the commercial version we decided to culture up the dregs from a bottle of Avec Les Bons Voeux. The Dupont strain is very unique in that it can ferment well into the upper 80s and lower 90s (and in fact, below 80 F and fermentation seems to stall out) without producing many fusels.

In addition to the Dupont character, we were looking for a bit of funk and acidity. Jolly Pumpkin makes my second favorite saison (after Dupont), Bam Biere. At only 4.5% abv, Bam gets a ton of character from the wild yeasts and bacteria JP has in their oak barrels. For this we cultured up dregs from two bottles - Oro de Calabaza and Noel de Calabaza. After a few weeks, the Oro starter didn't taste that great, but the Noel starter showed some promise. So we dumped the Oro starter and used the Noel starter for our beer. And we also threw in some Orval dregs for good measure.

The recipe for this beer is simple, as most of the character for a saison comes from the yeast. The grain bill is mainly Belgian pils and a bit of wheat for head retention and a little bug food. Hops are kept to a low level to make sure the bugs in the JP could thrive (I was mainly concerned about the welfare of any Lactobacillus).

Finally, a word about the fermentation plan. Since we were going to be fermenting at around 90 F for the first 1-2 weeks, we decided to pitch the JP dregs at the end of the primary. Who knows what JP dregs would do at 90 degrees. Farmhouse Ales talks at length about the Dupont fermentation schedule - they rack to a secondary after 10 days, even if primary fermentation is not complete. I guess the thought here is that 90 degree heat may seriously increase the risk of premature autolysis. There is still plenty of yeast in suspension to finish the beer.

-----
Saison v4 aka "Snake Spit"
6.2 gal batch, brewed 1/25/09

11 lbs Belgian Pils
1 lb Flaked wheat
0.5 lbs Wheat malt

1 oz Strisselspalt (2.6% aa) 90 min
1 oz Strisselspalt 40 min
1 oz Saaz (3.2% aa) 20 min

1.054 OG
1.005 FG
6.4% ABV
20 IBUs

Water profile: from Farmhouse ales (pg. 154)

Yeast propagation: Dregs from Dupont Avec Les Bons Voeux, stepped up to a 750 ml starter, made 20 days before brew date. A second culture was from the dregs of Jolly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza, about 2 cups in volume. Orval dregs were not stepped up, we just threw them in straight from the bottle.

Mash: Step mash, rest #1 for 90 min at 146-147 F, 1.25 qt/lb; rest #2 for 30 minutes at 154 F (achieved via small decoction). Batch sparged w/ 3 gal water at 180 F (2 rounds, 1.5 gallons per round, rest time 15 min). Preboil 5.7 gal @ 1.061 (had to top up since we came in low volume-wise)

Brewhouse result: 6.2 gal cast-out, 1.054 OG, ~75% brewhouse efficiency

Fermentation: Pitched Dupont dregs at 73 F, quickly raised this temperature to about 90 F for primary fermentation (made a hot water bath for the carboy using a large cooler and an aquarium heater).

1/25/09 Brewed, began fermenting at 90 F
1/31 Racked to secondary, pitched JP dregs. Let secondary cool to room temp (70 F) over the course of about 4 days.
2/5 Pitched Orval dregs
2/14 Noticeable Lactobacillus skin forming on top of beer
2/15 gravity at 1.008, getting sour!
2/28 down to 1.006, tastes surprisingly like lambic
3/17 1.005, bottled at 3.0 vol CO2.

Review (5/23/09, in bottle for about 9 weeks)

Aroma - Plenty of citrusy, lemony funk. Tons of yeast character. A little white-wine aroma. Maybe a few odd, funky aromas - try to store at a cooler temp as it seemed cleaner a few weeks ago.

Appearance - Pale yellow, good clarity if yeast isn't poured. Spritzy, pours with a large white head but retention isn't great and no lacing present.

Flavor - Big tartness up front. Some grape-like flavors. Clean, dry finish, with a solid sourness. Malt and hop flavors aren't really noticeable (which is fine with me).

Mouthfeel - Prickly carbonation, crisp, thin, and tart. About perfect. Carbonation could maybe be even higher.

Overall - Our best saison by far. Very distinct and refreshing. Maybe try mashing even lower (or give it more time in the secondary) to get this thing to really dry out. Keep secondary and bottle-conditioning temps a little lower (upper 60s?), but age longer. Only change to the recipe would be to use a bit more flaked wheat.

Note: Tasted our last bottle on 12/24/09, almost a year old at this point. Carbonation has increased and is about right for the style. Funk seems to have increased too, in a good way. Acidity may actually have mellowed a bit. No real signs of oxidation - this beer could probably age for a while and not deteriorate.