Nelson's Mad as a Meat Axe Plum Saison

[mashani]

For 5 gallons.

Kiwi hops?! Plum juice from the big LAFS I end up at 2x a week these days?! A slightly buzzed brewer drinking the last of his saison from last year?! A holiday about revolution?! All things combine into...



Did a partial mash of:
1# White Wheat
1/2# of Carapils

To that added stuff I needed to use up... namely:
3# MoreBeer Extra Light LME (which was a bit old so not quite so light, but Bella will chew it up anyways)
2# MoreBeer Pils LME

Did a 20 minute boil total.

1oz Nelson Sauvin (11% AA) @10
1oz Nelson Sauvin (11% AA) @5

48oz Plum Juice @flameout

Let the hops stand for 30 minutes

Cooled, split between 2 LBKs, and pitched Bella Saison.

I'm hoping there is a little bit of residual sweetness left from something, but probably won't be, which is why I didn't use any true bittering addition. I'll get at least 20 IBUs, and APA levels of flavor/aroma from what I did anyways and this will likely ferment out to 1.002 or something dumb like that. Probably closer to IPA levels of aroma/flavor, totally wrong for a classic saison, because Nelson is intense and I put all of it in late and hopstanded it and threw it in the fermenters commando.

OG was 1.050, but it will likely end up at 6.2% ABV or so due to hyper attenuation.

It will be very winey. That is all I know. I've used this much (proportionally) Nelson in a Saison with Bella before and loved the result. Because in the summer some of my saisons sub for APAs/IPAs in my rotation. This would be one of those. I don't see how it can go wrong, unless you hate white wine like flavors and plums and some citrus and spice behind them.

I may add a tincture of a bit of ginger and/or chamomile to it depending on how it tastes when I pull a sample. Either to enhance the spiciness, or to help mellow a flavor if it's too much. Both go nicely with plums, so we will see.

[mashani]

So, it's like 1.001, and it's been there for days. It also lighter then I expected, since the extra light LME wasn't as extra light as normal.

It tastes pretty rad, like dry white wine crossed with dry plum wine, with some fuzzy tropical fruit funk on top.

It's somewhat tart, and not something folks would think of as "beery".

So I decided to carb it aggressively, so it will be like pouring some bubbly. Because why not, it's pretty rad already, may as well go all the way.

So, may as well call it 6.6% ABV or so after the priming.

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[mashani]

And this is super yummy and radically different then anything you can buy in the store.

It's got all the nelson grape, tropical fruit, and the plum in the background. It comes across as much like sparkeling wine as beer, but that's kind of vibe that I was going for. Might not be everyone's thing, but I am going to love drinking this.

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