Skip to main content

Out of the Bottle: Surly Cynic, proof that there's nothing wrong with buying a kit.

I follow a lot of beer websites. Occasionally, a deal comes up on one of them that's too good to pass up. When a chance to get a nice discount on kits at Northern Brewer came along, I pounced.

I purchased the partial mash version of Surly Cynic and gave it a whirl. The kit was purportedly created by the brewers at Surly Brewing and is a copy of their take on a Saison. I won't post the recipe, because that would allow all of you to cheat and not buy the kit. The only change I made was with the yeast. I wanted the full Saison experience, so I picked up Wyeast's French Saison instead of the prescribed Belgian Ardennes. Otherwise, I followed the kit's instructions.

The yeast got to work within eight hours of pitching, but it wasn't the fastest worker. The fermentation lock bubbled regularly for a couple weeks before dying down. Cynic is fairly light, so it was ready to bottle after three weeks. After a couple of weeks of bottle conditioning, it was good to go. The finished beer has an alcohol content of 5.9%

Cynic pours with a hazy apricot pigment and has a generous eggshell cap. I can tell right off the bat that I went a little crazy with the priming sugar. The bubbles in the beer are frenetic. I like a good amount of fizz in my Saison, but..... On the upside, the bubbles are holding the head up nicely.

I have a weakness for certain hop varieties. A new one has made it onto my list. The lone flavor and aroma hop in this beer is Styrian Goldings. It's closely related to one of my favorite English hops: Fuggles. It's both fruity and earthy, with a touch of spice. It is anything but the citrus bomb of many popular American hop varieties. I knew I would like it when I opened the hop packet on brewing day.

Anyway, Cynic is an interesting beer. The yeast does a lot of the work. It brings a subtle sourdough funk to both the aroma and flavor. The grain bill for this beer also includes a fair amount of aciduated malt. You can tell its there and its acidity is a bit too much for my tastes. If I were to do this over, I would either cut it way back, or eliminate the grain all together. The rest of the flavor is quite nice. The sweet/bitter balance leans ever so slightly to the bitter side. The body is acceptably light and a bit grainy. Again, my heavy hand with the priming sugar nets a bit too much tingle.

With many commercial Saisons weighing in with high alcohol contents, this kit's relative lightness is highly welcome. The story goes that Saisons were originally brewed to quench the thirst of farm workers during in the late summer harvest. A relatively light one like this lets you plow the fields without getting plowed yourself.

For the brewer nervous about formulating their own recipes, I strongly recommend this one.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In the Fermentor: Flaming Pumpkin

I'll admit that I'm not a huge Pumpkin Beer fan. I didn't have one on my brewing calendar for this year and didn't have my sights set on one for next Fall either. Then my niece came along and threw down the gauntlet. She asked me to brew her a pumpkin beer and I accepted the challenge. I did a lot of reading to see how to best go about using pumpkin in beer. Some people mash it with the grains. Others add it to the brew kettle during the boil. Some add it to the primary or secondary fermentor. The consensus from professional brewers appears to be adding it to the mash, so I took the same approach. The pumpkin was cooked ahead of time by my girlfriend to soften it, convert some of the starch and help release some of its sugars. It then joined the grains in the mash. I really want the pumpkin pie effect here, so I've thrown in all of the requisite spices toward the end of the boil. I've also gone with just enough bitterness to balance the sweetness of the ...
4 comments
Read more

Birthday Brewing: Dark Session Saison

I've been asked to brew all of the beer for my friend's Birthday. It's in mid-August, so I have to get everything going right now . There will be five beers in all: Dunkelweiss, Wit, Saison, Dark Saison and Kölsch. Rather than post all of the recipes at once, I'm going to spread them out into separate posts. My Session Saison and SMaSH Kölsch were already underway before I was asked to brew the other beers. The Dark Saison below is an extension of the Session Saison. I've expanded the original recipe to make a darker beer. CaraMunich Malt adds a little caramel sweetness, while Carafa II brings a light dark chocolate edge to the brew. The rest of the beer is as it was before, with the same hops and yeast. Adding extra grains does push the alcohol content up a bit, but the beer still shouldn't break the 5% ABV mark. I'm anxious to try my two Saisons out side by side and taste the difference that two extra grains can make. For five gallons: Grai...
Post a Comment
Read more

Out of the Cellar: Old Man's Chest

2014 I can't believe it's been a year since I bottled my last Old Ale . I suppose time flies while you're having fun. Anyway, it's time to see what's taken place in the last 12 months. Things have changed quite a bit the last 12 months. First off, the flavors meld better than they did before. This is still a complex flavored beer, but the balance of the different pieces is more cohesive. Bitterness has faded just a bit, but still carries the black tea bite that was there before. 2013 The rum-like qualities have really cut through with time. There's an almost vinous quality to the beer that wasn't around before. This is especially true in the nose. A slightly heavy body persists that is drier than before. The beer finishes with lingering toffee and rum flavors. Overall, I'm quite happy with how this beer aged. I'd still tweak the recipe if I brewed it again, but time has made for a much more cohesive brew.
Post a Comment
Read more