The Patriot (Nelson Saison) -- Brew Day

We are hosting Thanksgiving this year, our first one ever, so there's going to be some pretty heavy brewing taking place in order to have some decent beverages lined up for the family coming into town.  For this one, I decided to continue with my infatuation with Nelson Sauvin and do a single-hop beer.

I just picked up another pound of Nelson because its been figuring so prominently in my beers, especially IPAs.  For how much I use it, though, I've never done it in a single-hopped brew to really let it shine.

I had done a bulk purchase of some new, interesting yeast from The Yeast Bay, one of which was a blend of two different saison strains.  Feeling lazy and wanting to try a new recipe, I did a quick search for Saisons featuring Nelson and found that Prarie 'Merica, a delicious beer, is basically a Nelson SMaSH recipe.

Another quick Google search led me to the pages of another homebrew blogger, Meek Brewing.  He had actually reached out to Prarie and asked for the recipe and they happily obliged.  His recipe, which I tweaked a touch for my system, was essentially just Pilsner Malt and Nelson.  Sounds good to me.

The brew day proceeded as normal with my usual BIAB mash coming in on target for efficiency.  My pH meter seems to be busted, probably a bad electrode, so I couldn't check the pH of this one.  I did use my water chemistry spreadsheet and the acid addition were similar to what I normally need to get to a 5.3pH.  I'm going to let the temperature on this free rise to wherever my Belgian yeast wants to take it.  Hopefully this comes out nice and dry.

The Patriot (Nelson Saison)
5.5gal batch -- 90 minute boil
Est OG: 1.060
Est FG: 1.009
Est ABV: 6.67%
IBU: 30
SRM: 4

14.0lb Pilsner Malt
0.50lb Carapils

0.50oz Nelson Sauvin @ 60 min (18 IBU)
1.00oz Nelson Sauvin @ 5 min (7 IBU)
1.50oz Nelson Sauvin @ Steep 5 min (5 IBU)
3.00oz Nelson Sauvin @ Dry Hop 4 Days

1000ml starter of Yeast Bay Saison Blend

Mash @ 148f for 75 minutes.  Allow fementation temp to free rise into the mid 70s.

10/13/2014 -- Brewed by myself.  Efficiency came in at 73%.  Gathered 5.5gal of 1.060 wort and pitched my starter.  Happily fermenting away with a pretty voracious krausen within 5 hours.

10/21/2014 -- Dry hopped.

10/25/2014 -- Bottled and carbed to 2.8vol.  Final gravity of 1.010.  Smelled and tasted great.

12/9/2014 -- Tasting notes.  This wasn't a favorite of mine, but it scored well and other's enjoyed it.