Last Sunday I brewed a saison borrowed from Jamil's recipe. I listened to the Jamil show podcast... maybe 10 times and took notes, used the wyeast 3711 and didn't mess with the grain or hop bills at all. I had the point driven home that you need to get this beer as dry as possible, so I thought I would mash @ 147 for 2 hours. I have been having issues holding mash temps in my converted keggle mash tun, so I decided to use the tried and true "Gott Cooler" mash tun I had used for about 7-8 years. Doughed in perfect 147 on the dot. After a flawless brew session, I cooled the carboy down to 66 and pitched 2 Litre starter. About 10 hours later it was rockin, removed from ice bath and for the next several days the carboy gained elevation in my hose until it made it upstairs on top of the refrigerator and held @ 78. It chugged and chugged along until the mark of six days and slowed. I was bottling another beer and decided to check the gravity. I was astounded to see it was down to 1.000 @ 78 (Temp corrected to 1.002). I haven't brewed this style before, nor have I brewed anything that needed to be dried out so much. When I tasted it, it tasted just as I would have expected, spicy with an underlying lemon note. This is going to be a great beer! I may even counter pressure fill this from the keg and enter my first comp.
Jamil.... You kick ass!
) brew days where everything goes perfectly, glad your story ended well. Rock on.