Raspberry Dream | Raspberry Saison 6%-7%
First brew of 2026 and second in Florida. I’ve brewed this several times before, and it went over great. Hope this one is a hit as well. This is the first session using the Blichmann brewing controller.
Grain Bill
19lbs Pilsner Weyermann
1lb 1.5ozs Vienna Malt Weyermann
1lb 1.5ozs Pale Wheat Malt Weyermann
8.8ozs Caramunich I Weyermann
7.3ozs Munich Malt Weyermann
4.5oz Styrian Goldings hops @ 45mins
1oz Fuggle hops @ 15mins
10 pints or 1.3lbs raspberries were washed, cooked down, and added to the fermenter
Mash temp 148F
Sparge temp 168F (this was the target, but I made a mistake and ran it at 152F)
3 packs / 300B cells of Wyeast 3711
Water
First time adjusting water using the eXact iDip. I adjusted the mash and boil separately.
Mash: 1.46g gypsum and 3.8g epsom salt
Boil: 1.57g gypsum and 4.09g epsom salt
Target Profile: Ca: 53.8 ppm, Mg:54.4 ppm, Na: 61.0 ppm, SO4: 58.3 ppm, Cl: 95.0 ppm.
Brewing Notes
Not much to tell… I made a mistake adjusting for the offset in my HLT Mash temp setup, which resulted in running the sparge much lower. I also noticed the RIMS offset adjusts the boil temp, which makes no sense. Will need to sort this out with Blichmann.
Label
Need to come up with something…
Juicey Brucey
The brewery has been offline after moving out of Boston. Last year, I did get things sort of set up in Florida and brewed once. This year I made more progress and planned 2 brews for the weekend. This brew is my Double Down, after Dianne reminded me it was the anniversary of my dad’s passing. These will likely be the only two sessions I do as we return to Nantucket in April. Since I no longer have my walkin refridgerator, I purchased a KOMOS double-wide kegerator with a 6-tap T-Bar tower. Really excited for this to show up. Not so excited about the shipping cost.
Grain Bill
25lbs 2-row Pale Malt
3lbs Wheat Malt
2lbs Flaked Wheat
1lb 8ozs Flaked Oats
.75lb Table Sugar (Added with dry hop)
1lb rice hulls
1oz Amarillo @ 30mins
1oz Amarillo @ 15mins
1oz Citra whirlpool for 15mins @ 194F
2ozs Galaxy whirlpool for 15mins @ 194F
6ozs Amarillo whirlpool for 15mins @ 194F
4pkgs (8 billion cells) Juice yeast
5ozs Citra dry hopped
4ozs Galaxy dry hopped
2ozs Amarillo dry hopped
Water
Added all the salts to the mash. Back in Weston the town produced monthly detailed water report. Down here in Vero, you cannot get this, so I am learning how to do this myself using the eXact iDip.
Added: 4.9g of gypsum, 0.7g salt, 5.6g epsom salt, 9.6g calcium chloride.
Target water: Ca: 105.4 ppm, Mg:56.9 ppm, Na: 65.8 ppm, SO4: 97.8 ppm, Cl: 172.0 ppm, HCO3: 0.0 ppm.
Brew Notes
This is the second time I used the Blichmann Brewing Controller. Still have some kinks to work out as the RIMS offset also impacts the boil temp. I also need to refine my overall setup for the controllers (too many cords and plugging and unplugging). Last year, when I brewed the same beer, I had issues with brewhouse efficiency, and I had the same issue this year on this beer (ran at 45%), but not on my raspberry saison (ran at my normal 68%).
