Tasting : Saizacca (Oxbow Grizacca clone)

I'm writing this post while the pain is still fresh in my heart.

Let me say that I really loved how this beer, my clone attempt of Grizacca from Oxbow in Maine, came out. That's correct, I'm using the word "love" in the past tense, even though the beer has only been kegged and carbonated for a few weeks at the most. When I started drinking it, I was quite impressed with what Azacca brought to the beer. Sure, I threw in a bit of Simcoe, too, but I could tell this was something I hadn't had before. I wish I was better at describing different fruity characteristics... but I'm not. It just had a very over-ripe fruit aroma to it (but not in a bad way), that followed in the flavor; a friend insisted it reminded him strongly of clementines. Combined with the Saison yeast fruity/spicy flavors and aromas, it was a really interesting combination.

I even took a trip to Portland last weekend, and went to Oxbow's new "Blending and Bottling tasting room". Very cool spot; something like 6-7 of their beers on tap, lots of swag for sale, a couple of bottles, growlers, etc. Very large warehouse-like area that had the tasting room on one side (picnic benches and a bar, basically), and a whole lot of barrels on the other. There was also some brewing equipment over there as well...? Not sure what they have planned for the future. We were able to try several new Oxbow beers (to me) on tap, and I of course had Grizacca again. I thought it tasted quite similar to my clone, but theirs was definitely smoother and more-refined, I'd say. I had bottled some of my clone before the trip to drop off for owner/brewer Tim Adams, at his request. I'll be interested to see what he has to say about it. (UPDATE ALREADY: He said he and some other employees really enjoyed it...)

SO. When I got home, I checked on my keezer and hooked up the beer line for my Brown IPA that I had brewed and started carbonating. I tested it out, and that was that. The next afternoon, I decided to go down and pour myself a Saizacca. The towel on the floor, beneath the taps (a temporary drip-tray, I guess) was sopping wet. It was not like this the night before. When I opened the keezer, there was a good inch of beer on the bottom. Crap. Crap. CRAP. I don't know how I knew, but I pulled the Saizacca tap, and only CO2 came out (with a bit of beer left in the line).

Some slight cursing may have followed.

You know what's REALLY frustrating about all this? It's not just that there was still more than half the batch left (I had only poured/sampled it seven times myself), it's not only that I really liked this beer (more than the other 2-3 beers on tap at the time), it's that I still have no idea exactly what happened. I tested the keg for leaks, it's fine. I filled it with hot water and ran it through the same line, the same tap, the same QD, everything shortly after... and there was no leak. And I hadn't opened that tap before the leak began, either. One homebrewer suggested that when I hooked up the beer QD to the Brown IPA, maybe something jostled against the Saizacca beer QD, and it started a slow leak? I dunno, maybe; that's as good an explanation as any, other than there's an evil beer fairy who hates me.

Therefore, please excuse the lack of a photo of the beer in this post (the first time I've done that). Instead, I'm including a couple of not-fantastic-quality pics from our visit to the Oxbow tasting room in Portland. Luckily, I DO have my tasting notes on the beer. And also-luckily, I picked up a pound of 2014 Azacca hops on the trip, that I had ordered a few weeks ago. Maybe this is a sign?

Oh, and don't ever let anyone tell you that kegging is always better than bottling.

Appearance: Pours with a medium-sized, white fluffy head that shows some good retention. The body is a pale yellow color, and quite hazy.

Aroma: Huge ripe (over-ripe?) fruit aroma... really nice. Very up-front. A few more sniffs shows a bit of Belgian phenolic character coming through; very familiar to me after using this yeast many times.

Taste: Again with the ripe fruit. There's a lot going on here, I'm just not eloquent enough to say exactly what it all is; but there's lots of citrus and tropical fruit. Kind of reminds me of Nelson Sauvin, but it becomes clear after many sips that it's set apart from Nelson. Finishes with a moderate bitterness; perhaps a bit too much, and definitely more than the commercial beer has.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light bodied, with moderate carbonation.

Overall: It was a very nice beer. If I brewed it again, I'd cut back on the IBUs for sure. Definitely gives me a very good idea of what Azacca brings to the table; I'd like to use it in a beer with a more-neutral yeast, maybe an APA or IPA. I think it would pair nicely with other hops, as well.

Brewing an Oxbow Grizacca clone (No. 5 in the Maine Beer Clone series)

It occurred to me a while ago that I hadn't brewed any Maine beer clones lately; my last one was the delicious APA, MO, from Maine Beer Company, back in early January. So, naturally that got the idea in my head to brew another... and I'm telling you, there's a lot of good options. It never ceases to amaze me how many awesome breweries that Maine has. Some obvious beers that would be great to "clone" came to me: Maine Beer Co. Lunch, lots of beers from Allagash, and one of the most highly-sought-after beers in the state, The Substance, a fantastic American IPA from one of Portland's newest breweries, Bissell Brothers.

BUT. I was in Portland for one of my beer trips in June, and I had a lot of fantastic beers there, as always. Maybe my favorite was one from the farmhouse brewery, Oxbow, in Newcastle. The beers coming out of this little brewery are pretty awesome; I attempted a clone of one of their Freestyle series beers, No. 5 (a "Black Wheat Saison"), almost two years ago (my recipe here, along with more info on Oxbow). That was actually my first beer in the Maine Beer Clone series, and I had a lot of help from Oxbow co-founder and head brewer Tim Adams.

Oops, I'm digressing. Anyway, this awesome beer I had from Oxbow was Grizacca. I didn't know anything about the beer at the time, other than it was a ~5% ABV Saison-type beer. It was really delicious, and smelled fantastic. Light and easy-drinking, it was a very pale-colored beer, pretty cloudy. Strong on both Saison yeast character, and hops. Very "ripe" and fruity, I swore to myself that it must be heavily-hopped with Nelson Sauvin. Obviously, I was paying absolutely no attention to the actual NAME of the beer. Now that I know more, I can elaborate. Grizacca is a Grisette, heavily-hopped with Azacca.

First, some info on what a Grisette is/was. Thought to originate in the Hainaut province of Belgium in the late 1800s, Grisette was brewed for miners with the intention of being a dry, refreshing, and sessionable beer, similar to Saisons being brewed for farmers. Indeed, Grisette is very similar to the Saison style... at least, how Saison originally was: a low-alcohol, light-bodied golden ale. With a grist usually made up of a healthy portion of wheat, the beer was only lightly-hopped. According to "Farmhouse Ales: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition", by Phil Markowski, only a single brewery in Belgium markets the name grisette: Brasserie Friart, better known now as Brasserie St. Feuillien. 

So, Oxbow took a mostly-diminished beer style (although, to be honest, it seems to me that a lot of today's low-alcohol Saisons could be considered Grisettes as well), and made it their own... by hopping the hell out if it with one of the newest, hottest hop varieties out there right now - Azacca. An American variety, I believe the 2013 crop was the first time Azacca was released commercially under that name (previously, it was known as ADHA 483; not quite as catchy). Like a lot of hops, it has many descriptors, including tropical fruit, citrus, pineapple, grapefruit, orchard fruit, and pine, among others. Already, there have been a lot of experiments with single-hopped beers with Azacca (especially among homebrewers; check out those by Derek at Bear-Flavored and Chris at Lewy Brewing).

Due to the generous information I was given for my last Oxbow clone, I decided to try emailing Tim Adams again to see if he'd be willing to help out a bit with a clone for Grizacca. Luckily for me, he was once again quite forthcoming. Here's his email response...

Use some good pils. 1/2 the grist should be a blend of malted wheat and and spelt.  Again, use the good stuff! Shoot for 4.5-5% abv. Blast your whirlpool with Azacca but save some for dry hop!  You might wanna dry hop twice, and you might wanna thow in one more hop varietal ;) Saison yeast of your choice, just make sure it does a good job!  We shoot for about 1.002 final gravity. You want that shit dry!

He was even nice enough to apologize later for being "cryptic" about the second hop variety; totally unnecessary, but still great of him! I felt this was plenty of information to go on, and could at the very least set me on the right track. 

I started by, of course, putting the recipe's grist together. Spelt is an ancient type of wheat that is high in protein (~17%) that is starting to see more use in brewing. I knew right away that I wouldn't be able to find any spelt from my LHBS. However, a friend here in Fredericton is the owner/brewer of a fairly-new Belgian-style brewery (Grimross Brewing), and he normally uses spelt in one of his flagship beers. Unfortunately, it had been hard to come by lately, so he was fresh out. Tim had actually told me that if finding spelt was an issue, to substitute in flaked wheat, which is what I ended up having to do. Otherwise, the rest of the grist was easy... I added a bit of Acid malt for pH reasons, and some rice hulls to help prevent a stuck sparge. I aimed for an OG of about 1.042 to get to ~4.7% ABV... I thought getting down to 1.002 for a final gravity may be pushing it a bit on my system at this time of year (summer would have been another story), so I figured 1.005-1.006 would be more realistic.

Coming up with a hopping schedule was, for the most part, pretty easy. I added a bit of Azacca at the beginning of the boil to provide a few IBUs (feel free to use any bittering hop; I used Azacca simply because I didn't feel the need to open a vacuum-sealed bag of another variety for just a few grams), and then added a whole whack of it near the end of the boil, at 5 minutes, flameout for a hop stand/steep, and even more when the wort temp dropped below 180 F (an approach I've been using a lot lately for hoppy beers). The question was... what should I add for the other hop variety, which I assumed would be in the dry-hop additions?

I really wish I had one of those amazing senses of smell, or a fantastic palate like some do... but I don't. I'm not going to pretend I can pick out a certain hop variety in a multi-hopped beer, especially when it's in the background compared to a highly-flavorful hop like Azacca. First, I considered Nelson Sauvin based on my initial thoughts on Grizacca, but somehow I can't see Oxbow using that in a beer with Azacca. I was going to go with Centennial, but at the last minute I changed my mind... and I don't know why. But I did, and threw in some Simcoe for both dry-hop additions. Even if it's not what Oxbow uses, I figure it'll still be tasty!

For my yeast, I went with the always-dependable (for me, anyway) Wyeast 3711 French Saison. I've used this strain several times in the past (such as in my very tasty Prairie Artisan Ales 'Merican clone); I really like what it brings to a beer, and how well it attenuates without a lot of fuss (I'm looking at you, 3724). It's also a great yeast to use this time of year; it's not exactly hot out anymore, and Wyeast lists the fermentation range from 65-77 F, which is perfectly doable any time of year, really, indoors.

And that's about it. As usual, here's hoping for a tasty beer, if not a clone of the real thing! It's all about the adventure, right? Well, the end product has to play SOME part in all this.

Recipe targets: (4 gallons, 75% efficiency) OG 1.041, FG ~1.005, IBU ~40, SRM 3, ABV ~4.6%

Grains:

1.3 kg (49.1%) Pilsner
650 g (24.5%) Wheat malt
650 g (24.5%) Flaked Wheat
50 g (1.9%) Acid malt
125 g Rice hulls

Hops:

Azacca - 5 g (14% AA) @ 60 min

Azacca - 30 g @ 5 min

Azacca - 30 g @ 0 min (with a 15-minute steep)

Azacca - 60 g after started chilling, when wort temp below 180 F

Azacca - 40 g dry-hop for 4 days (in primary)

Simcoe - 20 g dry-hop for 4 days (in primary)

Azacca - 40 g dry-hop for 4 more days (keg-hop)

Simcoe - 20 g dry-hop for 4 more days (keg-hop)

Misc.: 1/2 tab Irish Moss @ 5 min

Yeast: Wyeast 3711 French Saison (production date Aug 19th)

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 2 g Gypsum and 2 g calcium chloride added to the mash

- Brewed on September 28th, 2014, by myself. 50-minute mash with 8 L of strike water, mashed in at target of 148 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 5 L of boiling water. Sparged with ~4.25 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~5.75 gallons.

- SG a bit low at 1.028 (target 1.029). 90-minute boil. Flameout hops had a 10-minute steep before turning on the chiller; wort temp was almost immediately below 180 F, where I added the second amount of flameout hops. Final volume ~4 gallons. Chilled down to 64 F, then poured into Better Bottle. OG slightly high at 1.042. Aerated with 60 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast.

- Good activity over the first several days, temp getting up to 74 F. Visible fermentation ended quickly.

- 10/10/14 - FG 1.005. Added 1st dry hops directly into primary.

- 14/10/14 - Racked beer to CO2-purged keg; added 2nd dry hops in a weighted-down mesh bag; left at room temp.

- 18/10/14 - Removed dry-hops, set keg in keezer to bring temp down before starting to carb.

- Tasting notes here... the beer came out great, I'm really happy with it. However...

Tasting : Zombie Freestyle (Oxbow Freestyle #5 clone)

Bottle label

I've said it before, but it's really nice getting advice from a brewer on how to clone a beer of theirs that I've tried. The problem, of course, is when I finally get to try my clone, and I can't remember much in the way of specifics about the actual commercial beer. It's made even more difficult when said beer is pretty much a one-off, limited-release product.

And that's the problem I have with this beer, a "Black Wheat Saison" (brewing notes here). Chances of me ever getting to try a real Oxbow Freestyle #5 again are probably extremely low. The notes that Tim Adams (co-owner/brewmaster) gave me were very helpful, and I think I did the best I could in terms of substituting a couple of the ingredients. So, regardless of clone-closeness, how did the beer actually turn out?

Overall, I like it. It's different, that's for sure. In the end, I didn't quite hit the FG I was aiming for, but Wyeast 3724 is notoriously picky, and I chose to brew this beer during the coldest time of the year. Brilliant. I DID have a heating belt on the Better Bottle, raised the ambient temp, and even ran a damn space heater for days, for crying out loud (which I'm sure didn't help my power bill). Doing all this, I was able to keep the temp of the beer probably in the mid-80s, but I was away for a period of that and had to unplug everything, so the temp dropped to the low 70s, and then I turned all the heat back on, and it went up, etc. Not the most ideal conditions, but the yeast slowly did their work and I got to a reasonably low number. In fact, if you look at the apparent attenuation, with 77% I was within the range that Wyeast mentions is realistic for this yeast.

In the end, I'm happy with how this beer came out, regardless of whether I'm close to Freestyle #5 or not. A recipe I'd recommend to anyone looking for an easy-drinking, smooth, ~5% Saison... that's black. Thanks again to Tim Adams of Oxbow for all the help! Anyone visiting Maine, seek out Oxbow beers... you won't be sorry!

Appearance: Poured with a medium-sized, tan, creamy head. Retention isn’t as good as I’d expect for the style... fades to a thin film. Body is black and opaque.

Aroma: A mesh of wheat tartness and spicy... at first, I was unsure if it could be described as phenolic. Upon further sampling, I think it's due to the yeast, and the large hop addition at the end of the boil.

Taste: There definitely is a strong spicy character to this beer, that again strikes me as yeast-related. The finish is moderately bitter, maybe even medium-light, with some - again - spicy hop flavor. Slightly tart and crisp, likely from the high amount of wheat malt.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light bodied, with moderate carbonation.

Overall: If I couldn’t see it, I definitely wouldn’t guess it’s as dark as it is. The Aromatic malt, large hop flameout addition, and Dupont yeast are probably adding more to the aroma and flavor than anything else. Fairly enjoyable; smooth and easy-drinking.

Brewing an Oxbow Freestyle #5 clone (No.1 in the Maine Beer Clone series)

If I had to pick just one reason to be jealous of the state of Maine, it would be over its number of quality breweries. Sure, they're one of the highest brewery-per-capita states in the U.S., but really, a lot of these breweries make some extremely tasty and original beers. Allagash is, of course, probably the first Maine craft brewery that comes to mind, but if you even look at some of the newer ones that have opened up in just the past few years (e.g. Maine Beer Company, Baxter Brewing, and Rising Tide), you can tell that Mainers definitely have more than their share of great breweries.

Oxbow Brewing

Another fantastic new brewery in Maine is Oxbow Brewing. Located in Newcastle, they're considered a Farmhouse brewery, and while their output is, of course, low compared to a lot of larger breweries, the beers they're making are delicious, and already extremely popular. While Oxbow just opened in 2011, they already have quite a repertoire of beers that they've made available to the public, most of which are in their Freestyle series. Several of the beers in this series are Stouts and IPAs, but the majority of them are different types of Saisons. I've been lucky enough to try a few of the Freestyle beers, my favorite of which is their #5, a "Black Wheat Saison". Dark, spicy, and creamy, it's a delicious beer that, at 5% ABV, won't knock you on your butt like a lot of the higher-alcohol Saisons that you see now.

Back in the summer, I contacted Oxbow and asked them if they would be able to help me with a clone recipe of the Freestyle #5. It took a bit of time, but I eventually got a reply from Tim Adams, co-founder and head brewer at Oxbow, with some quite-detailed notes on brewing their beer:

"It was basically 50% wheat (red & white), 50% french/belgian pale malt. Some aromatic for character and Briess Midnight wheat for color. hold at 148 for 40 min, recirc for 20 mins. Hopped with Saaz and Styrian Goldings to somewhere in the 20 ibu range. 90 minute boil. bittered at 75, some at 10, more at 5, loads in the whirlpool. Pick your favorite saison yeast strain or blend. Ferment in the mid 80s. Cheers! Tim"

This was more information than I was expecting, and much thanks to Tim for the help. When putting the recipe together, I had to make some substitutions due to what was available to me. For the grist, I went with White Wheat malt only (I've never seen Red Wheat at my LHBS), and then a 50/50 mixture of Maris Otter and Pilsner in place of the French/Belgian pale malt. Hopefully it'll get me close. I actually WAS able to order some Midnight Wheat on a group buy... it took a few months to get, hence the reason that I'm just brewing this beer now. This wheat malt is extremely dark (~550 SRM), and, like Carafa Special, doesn't give a lot of bitter, harsh roastiness, due to the lack of a husk. When figuring out how much to add, I eventually decided on a little over 10% of the grist, enough to get the color of the beer to about 36 SRM on BeerSmith... I remember the #5 as being very dark, so I based it on that.

Unfortunately for the hop schedule, I didn't have any Styrian Goldings on hand or even available to order. I subbed in some UK Fuggles based on various online recommendations, as they seem to have relatively-comparable flavor and aroma characteristics to Styrian Goldings. A good proportion of the hops were added at flameout for a 10-minute whirlpool, to try to bump up the aroma of the beer. In fact, looking at the recipe now (after I've brewed the beer), I think I may have overdone it a bit with the 10- and 5-minute additions... we'll see.

For my last Saison, I used the Wyeast 3711 French Saison, which I liked. However, I decided to change for this beer and try the Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison, a very popular yeast, despite it's notoriety for being slightly difficult. Apparently, the yeast has been known to seemingly "stick" in the mid 1.030s during fermentation; however, supposedly patience and warm temperatures will eventually aid the yeast in finishing with very good attenuation. This is going to be a bit difficult for me to accomplish this time of year, with temperatures already as low as -15 Celsius or even lower, so I purchased a Brew Belt to try to help bring the temperature up to at least the high-70s F.

I'm hoping that on my next trip to Portland (or even better, maybe a first trip to Newcastle?), I'll be able to track down the Freestyle #5 again. May not be too likely outside of the brewery tasting room, since they continue to release new Freestyle beers, but I'd love to be able to actually compare the real thing to my effort! I'd also really like for this to be the first in a series of Maine brewery clones; I may try putting out some feelers to some other brewers, to see if they're as generous with recipe info as Tim has been!

Recipe targets: (5.5 gallons, 75% efficiency) OG 1.045, FG 1.007, IBU 22, SRM 36.5, ABV 5%

Grains:
1.64 kg (41.4%) White Wheat malt
817 g (20.7%) Maris Otter
817 g (20.7%) Pilsner malt
454 g (11.5%) Midnight Wheat
227 g (5.7%) Aromatic malt

Hops:
Saaz - 21 g (2.4% AA) @ 75 min
Fuggles - 9 g (5% AA) @ 75 min
Saaz - 28 g @ 10 min
Fuggles - 28 g @ 10 min
Saaz - 28 g @ 5 min
Fuggles - 28 g @ 5 min
Saaz - 49 g @ 0 min
Fuggles - 49 g @ 0 min

Misc.:
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient @ 15 min
1/2 tab Irish moss @ 5 min

Yeast: Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison (PD Dec. 14/2012, with a 1 L starter)

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered

- Brewed December 31st, 2012, by myself. 50-minute mash with 12.5 L of strike water, mashed in at 148 F. Mashed out for 10 minutes with 7 L of boiling water, resulting temp 163 F. Sparged with ~4.5 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~7.3 gallons in the kettle.

- SG 1.034 (target). 90-minute boil. 10-minute whirlpool at flame-out. Chilled to 62 F in about 20 minutes with immersion chiller. Poured into Better Bottle. OG a bit high at 1.048. Pitched yeast starter at 65 F, aerated by shaking for several minutes before and after pitching. Placed BB in room with ambient temp set to 70 F, with a small space-heater on as well.

1/1/13 - In AM, the airlock is bubbling almost every second, but the temp is only at 72 F. I attached the Brew Belt and bumped up the space heater temp as well. By the evening, the temp on the fermometer was past its max (78 F), and the ambient temp was 82 F, so I assume fermentation temp is around the low to mid-80s.

2/1/13 - Temp still above 78 F, but airlock activity has already slowed to every 2 seconds.

6/1/13 - Gravity at 1.015. Trying to keep the temperature up...

14/1/13 - Gravity still only down to 1.013. Leaving the space heater and Brew Belt on.

9/2/13 - Turned off the space heater a couple of weeks ago, temp stayed consistently around 76-78 F. Even after 6 weeks, FG only at 1.011. That actually proves to be an apparent attenuation of 77%, which is in the range listed on the Wyeast website. Bottled with 157 g table sugar, aiming for 3 vol CO2 for 4.75 gallons with max temp of 85 F (?) reached.

15/4/13 - Tasting notes here. Spicy and easy-drinking.