Steam powered Mash/ Farmhouse Saison

Inspired by the Thread about steam heating the mash tun and after a few experiments ( thanks Bobsbeer also for starting it off )
My stuff ordered from The Malt Miller arrived today ( what a swift service Ace :thumb: )

Been wanting to do something Belgian for a while and had a pack of the Danstar Belle Saison yeast in the order not knowing what the hell I was going to do with it .
Anyways trawling the web I found this recipe and thread http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f71/cottage-house-saison-254684/
so based my brew vaguely on this one

Cottage house Saison
Saison

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 23.0
Total Grain (kg): 7.012
Total Hops (g): 100.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.069 (°P): 16.8
Final Gravity (FG): 1.015 (°P): 3.8
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 7.11 %
Colour (SRM): 5.7 (EBC): 11.2
Bitterness (IBU): 39.5 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes): 90

Grain Bill
----------------
4.000 kg Pilsner (57.05%)
1.000 kg Maris Otter Malt (14.26%)
0.800 kg Honey (11.41%)
0.728 kg Wheat Malt (10.38%)
0.242 kg Caramalt (3.45%)
0.242 kg Flaked Oats (3.45%)

Hop Bill
----------------
50.0 g East Kent Golding Leaf (7% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes (First Wort) (2.2 g/L)
25.0 g Saaz Leaf (3.6% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Aroma) (1.1 g/L)
25.0 g Saaz Leaf (3.6% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (1.1 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------

Single step Infusion at 66°C for 90 Minutes.
Fermented at 20°C with

Notes
----------------
Stepped mash to test the steam heating of the tun

mash in at 50 c settled at 44 c after 20 mins
raise temp to 50c and rest for 20 mins
raise temp to 60c and rest for 20 mins
raise temp to 65 and rest for 30 mins
raise temp to 70 and rest for 20 mins
raise temp tp 78 eand rest for 10 mins

Sparged at 78c and collected 33 litres finished sparge gravity 1010 temp corrected.

Boiled for 90 mins


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

OK so bear with me I picked up the temps and times from all over the place
There is lots of different advice on the web so its hard to find what is correct and hopefully I have not ruined a brew.

some pics of my brewday

Grain bill


and mash in


followed by the first temp increase with a lot of stirring



next temp step I used a cordless drill and whisk


this was repeated for all the steps

I took approx 4 minutes for the temp increases in the early stages and increased to 6 mins later on with the 70c to 78c taking around 8 mins.


Then some spargeing





First wort hops 50g EKG


and the boil starting this frothed up more than I have ever seen before.



Its been cooled and is settling while I have my evening meal




went 1 litre over on the volume @24 l and OG was 1 point up on Brewmates calc @ 1070
pitched the Belle Saison at 17.5 c and tucked it up in the cupboard and will let it do its stuff as per the instructions

Well done. How did the mash efficiency compare with what you expected? Certainly didn't look like the steam killed off the mash activity.

bobsbeer said:

Well done. How did the mash efficiency compare with what you expected? Certainly didn't look like the steam killed off the mash activity.

Click to expand...

Everything went smoothly with out a hitch (which surprised my greatly )
I usually end up with a couple of litres under volume and also a few points under the expected gravity
so maybe efficiency is up a tad ????
no discernible plastic odours of tastes in the raw wort
and I hit the temperatures bang on each time by switching the steamer off .2 of a degree down on the target
Well chuffed with the first part on the brew :

Did you use the steamer to hold the temp as well or just raise and whack lid on? Did you notice any discernable volume increase?

I first used the steamer to preheat the tun
then only to raise the temp each step and whacked the lid on there was no measurable loss when re opened

yes it did seem to increase in volume a little it used 2.5 litres of water in the steamer to do all the steps

Good result. Certainly easier and cheaper to set this system up than a HERMS if you already have a wallpaper stripper, and even if you don't you get a dual purpose unit.

I was impressed by how easy it was to hit the temps bang on

I might make a steam powered paddle with an insulated handle and give that a try sometime

one thing I will do for sure is move the on off switch closer to the tun or grow another arm .

So how did this come out? Good, bad, indifferent? Hope it worked as I see no reason it shouldn't have done.

bobsbeer said:

So how did this come out? Good, bad, indifferent? Hope it worked as I see no reason it shouldn't have done.

Click to expand...

Its in its bottles and has worked great I have tasted a bottle and its certainly funky , the beer has cleared to crystal clear somewhat out of style for a Saison . :wha:

I have also done 3 other brews using the Steam method and found it to be very easy to hit the step temp in a plastic mash tun my steamer raises the temp at 1 degree per minute for a 6 kg grain brew .
I did do a Smoked Wheat beer with a 5 step mash and hit each temp spot on and bottled it last weekend so to early to say what its like
but a successful brew in all stages just the taste test in a few weeks :

OK I am no expert brewer but will certainly be using the steam injection in future brews as its so easy
only hard bit is stirring the mash

That's a cool way of heating your mash! Would be interesting to compare KWH for the steamer vs kettle element. T

Glad the results look promising. After my initial trials I have put it back on the back shelf as I have been so busy. But I do see this as a good way to control the mash. I just need the time to do a brew, never mind a step brew. But like all things new I doubt it will become the norm as it is different.