Cab Saison

I'm back!! It sure has been a log time since my last post.  A new job and a new baby take up a lot of time.  That's not to say that I haven't brewed, I just haven't been posting anything.  The last few months I have brewed an Imperial Red IPA, and ESB, and fermenting right now is a Pumpkin Brown Porter.  I tasted that after primary fermentation, and it is very tasty so far.  Halloween should be fun!

This weekend I am brewing an experiment.  I have a couple Cabernet grape vines in my backyard that mostly are just for decoration and shade on my patio cover.  But I was able to harvest about 5lbs of grapes before the blue jays and mockingbirds got them all.  Not enough to make any wine, so I was wondering what I could do with the grapes.  My solution is: Cabernet Saison!

I was able to get just about 3/4g of juice from the grapes which I froze until I'm ready to use.  I'm just going to brew a 4 gallon batch using some light DME, wheat DME, and steep some crystal 15, maris otter, and  munich malt.  I'm using White Labs Saison II yeast which is supposed to be a bit more fruity than Saison I.  I figured that would complement the Cabernet grapes.  My plan is to put the Cabernet juice into my secondary and rack the beer onto the juice.  I didn't want to add it to the boil or primary because I want to get the best flavor possible from the juice..

The 500ml yeast starter was started yesterday and it became very active in only about 30 minutes.  It is still going strong today.  So I can't wait to see this yeast in action for the full batch.  Will let you know how it turns out!