This is a simple plausibly period farmhouse/saison using the Jovaru Lithuanian landrace yeast. The base recipe is built around historical data on grain composition of farmhouse beers in the flanders region, but adapted to use modern malts and brewing.

I'll be adding documentation to this page at a later date. I'll try to include the research around the base beer, however there are scant references to lower-class or more rural saison and farmhouse beer production.

Recipe

Malts and Sugars

• 7# Great Western Pure Idaho Pilsen
• 2# Great Western White Wheat Malt

Hops

• 0.4 oz El Dorado 11.6% - Boil - 30 min
• 0.5 oz El Dorado 11.6% - Boil - 10 min
• 0.5 oz El Dorado 11.6% - Boil - 5 min

Yeast

• Omega Jovaru

Mash

Mash volume 15L Strike temp 159.7 Mash target 149

Sparge volume 17.9L Sparge target 167F

Water Modifications

De-chlorinated by leaving out overnight.

5.5mL of lactic acid was added to the mash water prior to mashing in.

Brewday Notes

1000 Mash started

1030 Mash temp is 151 and mash pH is 5.6

1106 Mash out started

1113 Mash out finished

1118 Sparge started.

1131 Sparge-out started

1141 Sparge-out finished. I realized I didn't have enough fermenters so after sparge-out finished I ran to the brewing store to buy another one.

1222 Fire lit.

1235 Hot break

1350 Heat cut and immersion chillers started.

1420 Wort is now at 82F. It will be racked into a sanitized 6.1 gallon PET fermenter.

1445 Fermenter moved into garage and 800mL starter was pitched. The yeast was from 2024 and spent 18 hours on a stirplate. The garage is 80F.

Fermentation

This will be fermenting in my garage without temperature control. This yeast prefers temps between 80F and 95F.

Jun 17th 0600 Overnight there was a huge krausen that has since dropped. Fermentation is active, though there is very little CO2 movement.

June 17th 1600 Took a temp reading of the beer and it was 84.7F, a bit lower than I was targeting. However, there is noticeable ester formation that smells quite nice.

June 23rd Gravity is down to 1.006 and the beer is starting to drop clear.

July 16th Kegged to take to the vigil of my apprentice sister.

Refractometer Readings

SG: No reading taken

OG: 1.052

FG: 1.006

ABV: 6.04

Tasting Notes

Strong black pepper and spice. It has a very very prominent saison note. The hops are well-balanced and not overwhelming.

I'll definitely be making this again as it is absolutely delicious.