I brewed up a couple of recipes from the May/June 2008 Zymurgy today.  Saison Èté and Saison d’Hiver.  The former is a traditional saison while the later is a dark, chocolaty version more like a Christmas beer.  I came really close on my efficiencies this time; I’m taking more care in precision to bring my brewing to the next level.  Here’s the final product ready to begin fermenting:

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As the current hop shortage has made acquiring whole leaf hops almost impossible, I’ve had to adjust my filtering to accommodate hop pellets.  While some have luck with the whirlpool thing, it’s never really worked for me.  What I do now is after I cool my wort down to about 75 F, I first pour the wort into a sanitized bucket through my large 10″ strainer wrapped with a large nylon straining bag.  From there I pour the bucket directly into the sanitized carboy through a large funnel that has its own straining screen.  I found that the straining screen in the funnel just  didn’t strain any of the fine hop pieces from pellets and/or it would clog easily, making filling a carboy a laborious process.  What I’m doing now seems to be the quickest way to get the majority of the particulate crap out of the wort while providing an added bonus of helping to aerate the wort while pouring from one vessel to another.  I still shake up the carboy for a few minutes after pitching the yeast, but a little extra help can’t hurt.  Here’s a pick half way through the process:

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