This recipe was kindly given to us by Burning Sky Brewing, it was one of the first beers that they released, its has a link to many of their other beers in that many of those which followed took learnings from it in terms of the ingredients and processes.

Houblon is a crisp modern Saison loaded with beautiful noble hop varieties for enlightened refreshment and maximum drinkability. This beer really is highly drinkable, delicate yeast flavours, and subtle hopping, really refreshing but watch out it is one of those that hides its strength really well and it could catch you out.

Please note yeast is not included with this kit. We chose to make it optional due to how personal the style of yeast used is to Mark at Burning Sky and this gives you the chance to experiment with the recipe to find your favourite style.

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Ingredients Included

Crisp Lager Malt (Europils)
Crisp Pale Wheat Malt

4940g Total Grain Bill

Centennial – BarthHaas® Pure Hop Pellets (26 grams)
Celeia – BarthHaas® Pure Hop Pellet (52 grams)
Strisselspalt – T90 Hop Pellets (25 grams)
Saazer – BarthHaas® Pure Hop Pellet (52 grams)
Celeia (Styrian Goldings) Whole Hops 100g (1 pack)
Strisselspalt – Whole Hop 100g (1 pack)
Hallertauer Magnum – BarthHaas® Pure Hop Pellet (6 grams)

Yeast is optional to give you the choice of strain and so you can experiment with the learns we gathered and shared on YouTube

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Method

Beer Style (main): Belgian/French Ales
Beer Style (sub): Classic French & Belgian-Style Saison
Batch Size: 23
Original Gravity: 1.042
Final Gravity: 1.001
ABV %: 5.4
IBU: 37
Mash efficiency: 70
Brewing equipment: G40

THE MASH
Temperature °C (Step 1): 64
Length (mins) (Step 1): 60
Temperature °C (Step 2): 75
Length (mins) (Step 2): 10

THE BOIL
Boil time (mins): 60

Hop / kettle additions and timing:

FWH – 6g Magnum

16g – Strisselspalt Whole – 55min
16g – Celeia Whole – 55min
5g – Strisselspalt Whole – 45min
5g – Celeia Whole – 45min

Whirlpool / hop stand:

62g – Strisselspalt Whole
62g – Celeia Whole

25 Minute Hop stand at 85c.

It is worth noting that the brew takes 50 minutes to transfer and chill, so there is a longer period of contact than it will take to transfer on a home brew scale, so you may wish to increase the stand time to adjust for the shorter transfer time.

Yeast: French Saison
Fermentation temperature/steps: Pitch at 21c, allow to rise to 24c no higher.

Secondary additions:

52g Saaz T90
25g Strisselspalt T90
52g Celeia T90
26g Centennial BarthHaas BBC

See notes for dry hop timing information

Comments:

To stay true as possible to recipes from Burning Sky we are including a mix of whole leaf hops and pellets hops.

 

Fermentation control is important in this recipe, you need to ensure that you keep the yeast under 24c so as to not over flavour it.

These are the brewery in tank processes and timings, use as a guide for when it is ready to dry hop and package:

At 1.006 allow pressure to rise to 10psi if using pressure vessel
After 48hrs at stable final gravity crash to 15c, add clearing agent
Day 1 & 2 Dump Yeast for 2 consecutive days
Day 3 dry hop, rouse 3 bursts
Day 4 rouse 3 bursts
Day 5 rouse 3 bursts, drop to 0c
Day 6 add brausol, gas on at 27psi to carbonate if you have a pressure vessel

In addition to the awesome information Mark shared with us in the video we also asked him to share a bit more about how they treat their brewing water and this was what he shared with us:

We use our base water which is hard, with a Carbon filter to strip out Chlorine. We then reduce our alkalinity with a mix of Phosphoric and Lactic acid(s). We think using both (at various points) is a good way of adjusting the PH throughout the process without risking flavour development that might come with using one of the two. This may not be relevant if you’re blessed with soft water/ using a de-mineraliser but it’s an important part of our process. We monitor and adjust the PH throughout the wort production and cellaring using these two acids.

With our saisons the finished beer ionics tend to be:

Calcium (ppm) – 70

Chloride (ppm) – 240

Magnesium (ppm) – 70
Sulphate (ppm) – 200

Sodium (ppm) – 25

In terms of how we achieve this mineral profile, most of our Chloride and the Sodium is derived from our malt selection and base water. We then use Calcium Sulphate, Magnesium Sulphate and Calcium Chloride as mash salts to achieve the rest.

Be sure to check out our YouTube channel where you will be able to find the 2 films about Burning Sky and be sure to subscribe so you can see our attempt at brewing this recipe in the coming weeks.

You can also find beers from Burning Sky in our online beer shop Indie Beer Fridge for your enjoyment at home.