The Untraditional Saison (sort of)

So here I am again at the end of summer (or early fall), writing another entry about a saison.  Last year I wrote about my 2016 saison, where I talked a little bit about the tradition of saison and how I used it to make that beer.

This year is a little different.  This year I went in the opposite direction.  This year I wanted to make a saison but I had no European pils or noble hops which is most of the times ingredients in this farmhouse style ale.

Uncertain I asked Drew Beechum on Twitter to see if I would be shunned for making a saision with American  2-row.  Drew is one of those guys who prides himself in making saisons of all stripes. He gave me his blessing and added that he’s made plenty of saisons with 2-row.  I also had a ton (actually still have a ton) of Jarrylo hops that I picked up as part of craigslist deal and didn’t know what to do with it.  I recently made a Belgian table beer with it and it turned out well with that hop.  Looks like my saision for 2017 was shaping up.

Lastly, I had my fermentation chamber (video on that here) all freed up.  I wanted to push my yeast as far as I was willing to go, comfortably.  So I decided to ramp things up over a few days after pitching pretty cool.

Here’s the details:

Profile: Saison

• SRM: 9
• IBU: 29
• PBG: 1.041
• OG: 1.050
• FG: 1.002
• ABV: 6.3%

Grain Bill

• 83% American 2-Row
• 10% flaked wheat
• 7% Old fashioned oats. (left over from my session NEIPA)

Mash Profile:

148 for 60 minutes.

Boil Additions:

• .5 oz Jarrylo @60 (12.0% AA)
• 1 oz Jarrylo @5 (12.0% AA)
• 2 oz Jarrylo 0 (12.0% AA)

Yeast:
Bell Saison Belgian-style yeast, pitched at 64 (thanks again Drew).  I had to break out my recirculating set-up (video here) to get it chilled while my ground water was still pretty warm.

Fermentation schedule:

• Day​ ​0-3​ ​ferment​ ​at​ ​64
• day​ ​5​ ​ferment​ ​up​ ​to​ ​75
• day​ ​6​ ​ferment​ ​up​ ​to​ ​80
• day​ ​7​ ​ferment​ ​up​ ​to​ ​90
• day​ ​12​ ​cold​ ​crash

Tasting notes:

The beer come out well.  It was crisp and light.  The taste lingers, but not too long on the tongue.  After a few weeks in the keg the citrus started come through.  This would be a great beer to bottle and age for a bit.

Final notes:

So here I am again, regretting I let another summer go by and only making one saison.  Guess I’ll need to start making some more.