Sour Saison - WLP670

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Colorado68

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Am looking for recommendations on a yeast for a slightly sour Saison.
I already have the WLP670 (American Farmhouse Blend) but not sure the wait and the contamination with the Brett is worth it.
I haven't used bugs before so the house and equipment are clean.
How about souring the wort a few days with grains then boil and use something like 3711?
I'm looking for sour but without a lot of "funk"
Here's my (AG) bill for 5g batch:

4 lbs - Pilsner
3 lbs - Wheat
1 1/2 lbs - Vienna
8 oz. - Acidulated
8 oz. - Aromatic
1 lb Amber Candi
.5 oz. Goldings at 60 & 30 min.
60 min boil

The 670 requires at least four months and longer the better from what I've read. But it also seems to produce a bit of the funky (horse blanket) that I'm not really looking for.
Would prefer something that is tart/sour fruity. Might consider splitting the batch and racking some on apricots.
Would love suggestion on an alternate yeast to use.. or validation I picked the right one.
Thanks!
 
So I picked up some WLP644 today (got lucky they had three vials in stock)
and think I'll split the batch and do two (2) three (3) gallon batches. One with the WLP670 and one with the WLP644.
Grain bill remains the same but will dry hop the WLP644 with some Citra.
Just crush the grains a little finer to get more efficiency to make up for the 6 gal batch vs. 5 gal.
Decided to reduce the boil to 20 min so adjusted the Goldings additions time.
The batch with the 670 fits the saison style (17.2) but I'm not sure what style I'm brewing with the WLP644 so it should be interesting.
Guess I'm interested to see how much fruity island flavors the yeast will produce.
Any thoughts or suggestions on this?
I'm brewing tomorrow (Saturday, June 14th 2014) and would welcome any advise or words of caution.
Thanks!
 
The May/June 2008 issure of Zymurgy was devoted to saisons, but none of them used a Brett. strain to get sourness (one used acid malt).

I ran your recipe through Brewer's Friend and it suggested that it fit the profile for a Flanders sour red more than for a saison (adding an ounce of Goldings for first wort hopping put it into the saison profile). So maybe you can call it an American sour red.

You could split the Citra between flameout and dry hopping - might give a more "rounded" flavor profile.

Post your result.
 
I dry hopped 1/2 oz. Citra in the 644 fermenter as you suggested.
Thanks for the reply and suggestion.

Did a 20 minute boil on 7 gallons ending with 6 1/2 after the boil.
SG into the fermenters was 1.048
Here's pics of activity 20 hours after pitching.
The 670 is really aggressive and percolating away.
The 644 shows good activity but really slow at the airlock.

Planning to rack both to 3 gallon carboys in a week. Will take more pictures then.

WLP644-1.JPG


WLP670.JPG
 
Racked to secondary today after four (4) days of aggressive airlock activity.
Temps maintained 77-79 degrees. Both smell great

Here's the pictures
The 670 was clearer and a little more orange while the 644 was golden with a bit of cloudiness.
Sorry, I didn't take readings.. maybe I will in a couple weeks.

WLP644.JPG


WLP670.JPG
 
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