Farmhouse / Saison

Who likes these? I'm not sure I want 5g, but I enjoy Belgians periodically so against my better judgement (and because the VSS Farmhouse strain from Wyeast piqued my interest) I'm going to brew one. I slapped this together based on guidelines from a BYO article and because round #'s make it easy to order ingredients. I'll have to wait probably another month to brew it since this yeast apparently likes it in the 85-90F range! I should be able to achieve a Belgian farmhouse-esque environment in my garage by then. No, I haven't read the Belgian Farmhouse ale books, but I should Who brews these and has anybody used this yeast before? cweston, anyone...???


I Say, Son

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.50 Wort Size (Gal): 5.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 12.00
Anticipated OG: 1.063 Plato: 15.55
Anticipated SRM: 9.0
Anticipated IBU: 38.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
75.0 9.00 lbs. Pilsener Belgium 1.037 2
8.3 1.00 lbs. Cane Sugar Generic 1.046 0
8.3 1.00 lbs. Wheat Malt Belgium 1.038 2
8.3 1.00 lbs. CaraMunich Malt Belgium 1.033 57

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.00 g. Hallertau Hersbrucker Whole 4.75 5.2 First WH
56.00 g. Hallertau Hersbrucker Whole 4.75 29.8 60 min.
28.00 g. Hallertau Hersbrucker Whole 4.75 3.0 5 min.

Yeast
-----
Wyeast VSS Farmhouse

Right now I'm drinking a Flying Fish Farmhouse Ale Clone. It's pretty good, but next time I'll do the sour mash a little longer.

I celebrate each spring with a saison--mine is based on the Dupont clone from Clone Brews.

My grainbill is like yours except *no* crystal--I use about 6 or 8 ozs of Vienna for the orange hue and the touch of sweet malty flavor.

I've never used that yeast, though. I used 1214 this spring and fermented at about 75. (I wanted something I could repitch a tripel on.) It's only been in the bottle about 4 weeks, but the ones I've tasted have been great.

I think Saison is a great summer beer (the crisper, no crystal finish is nice), and it's one of the few beers I think is pretty close to its best straight out of the fridge. (I prefer it a few degrees warmer, but it's plenty good enough ice cold.)

No bitter orange peel?

I brewed one as my third batch, back before all-grain. I think it used styrian goldings. I don't like hallertaur, it has no flavor worth speaking of.

Definitely true about the saison strains, I brewed the following,

Saison Citron
2/8/07

14# Belgian Pale Malt
1# flaked white wheat

1.5 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh, 60 min. 4.2%AA
0.5oz Hallertau Mittelfruh, 15 min. 4.2%AA

4 - 7 Kaffir Lime leaves (available at Asian Grocery Stores)

WLP565 Belgian Saison yeast, pitched in 1 pint water w/ 1 cup DME 24 hours in advance.

F.G. was 1.039, I tried everything, put a heating pad under the carboy, pitched pacman, pitched a champagne yeast, wouldn't budge. I think my mash was off, but I bottled it anyway, and it tastes absolutely delicious.

I like the flavors that the strain developed though, and I am planning to do an IPA in the next couple weeks with that strain.

Interesting feedback, guys. I'm no huge fan of crystal so I may consider replacing that with some Vienna or Munich. I've found over time that I really don't like the beers with orange peel/coriander/etc as much as the ones that get the spicy/peppery flavors directly from the yeast so I'm going to try it just straight up and see what I get.

I tried a Flying Fish clone a few years ago and it came out horrid! I'm pretty sure I didn't execute the sour mash portion correctly. I may try it again, but I'm skeered!

Brewing this next weekend, or Monday (a holiday here in the US). I'm now leaning towards taking Denny's advice of some orange peel, and I happen to have some. I'll leave out any spicing such as coriander, however. Probably 1/4oz at 15m and 1/4oz at 2-3 minutes which is a schedule I've seen in several recipes.

I'm doing one myself. I'll post it in the recipes... Have a great brew!

I have had a beer by New Belgium Brewing company called Saison. Is this the flavor profile in which this thread is about? It reminded me of a farmhouse ale i had. The farmhouse ale, I think, had a buffalo on the label and was a flip top bottle and could have been organic... not sure about the organic part though. I have used flying dog ale yeast from WYeast, and it was similar to these 2 beers but different. The STRONG spicy clove flavors were about 1/2 or less than that of Saison by NBBC or that farmhouse ale. I guess my question would be are these 2 beers aforementioned considered farmhouse ales or Saisons? What would a good example be? (I had a beer called TRAIN WRECK a few weeks ago, it also had a similar taste)

Yes, believe it or not, the NBB Saison is a saison. I wish it wasn't just a seasonal....one of maybe 3-4 beers they make that I like.

I have had a beer by New Belgium Brewing company called Saison. Is this the flavor profile in which this thread is about? It reminded me of a farmhouse ale i had. The farmhouse ale, I think, had a buffalo on the label and was a flip top bottle and could have been organic... not sure about the organic part though. I have used flying dog ale yeast from WYeast, and it was similar to these 2 beers but different. The STRONG spicy clove flavors were about 1/2 or less than that of Saison by NBBC or that farmhouse ale. I guess my question would be are these 2 beers aforementioned considered farmhouse ales or Saisons? What would a good example be? (I had a beer called TRAIN WRECK a few weeks ago, it also had a similar taste)

Click to expand...

The Farmhouse Ale you're referring to is from Bison Brewing Company in Berkeley CA. I personally think it's an excellent example. The style category for Saisons (or Farmhouse Ales) are all over the map. They can be very light to dark in color, varying alcohol strengths, etc. One of my favorite Saisons of those available in the US is Saison Dupont.

I just bottled a farmhouse ale, a biere de garde, however, not a saison. You may want to consider strisselpalt hops, at least for the late addition.

Would a barleywine be good with a farmhouse or saison yeast or would the nature of the yeast leave it too sweet?

No idea on that one as I've never tried one, though I don't think it's traditional. Probably would be more appropriate for a strong Saison/Farmhouse (they can be fairly high abv) than a barleywine.

I second bonechewer's advice about strisselspalt for the flavoring add. I've brewed two saisons this spring, one with strisselspalt and one with sorachi ace, and the strisselspalt is spot-on delicious.

Brewed this one Monday. Used EKG because I don't have any Strisselspalt hops. Horrid efficiency which I haven't tracked down other than the fact I was heavily lubricated by the time I brewed. Went with the sweet orange peel, so we'll see what happens. It's fermenting away happily in the garage somewhere north of 80F.

proton said:

I second bonechewer's advice about strisselspalt for the flavoring add. I've brewed two saisons this spring, one with strisselspalt and one with sorachi ace, and the strisselspalt is spot-on delicious.

Click to expand...

Dude, you mind posting your recipe? I've done 5 saisons with the sorachi ace, and been modifying recipe almost every time. Would love to see what someone else did with it.

Also, how did yours taste with the Sorachis?

As long as this is bumped up, I should comment on the VSS Farmhouse yeast: they aren't lying when they say it likes it hot! I had pretty vigorous fermentation for a few days @80-85F and then it quit. I didn't take an SG reading, but just assumed it had fermented fast at those temps, and left it where it sat noting that it had cooled to the 76-78F range. A few days later it was back >80F and fermenting like crazy again! Unfortunately, my garage has not been as warm as I thought it would be so I'm not in the 85-90F range where I wanted to be.

I made a Ginger Saison for Memorial Day and it was the hit of the party. Three things that I need to tweak about it: I want a slightly stronger ginger flavor; I want the finish to be more dry, like Fantome Saison, or champagne; I want to add some citrus highlights to it. The beer was great by itself, but I ended up serving it with a lemon most of the time and it really made the beer.

Grain/Extract/Sugar
1.00 lbs. CaraMunich 40
6.60 lbs. Alexander LME - Pale
1.00 lbs. Generic DME - Light
1.00 lbs. Candi Sugar (clear)

Hops
1.50 oz. Hallertauer Whole 60 min.
0.50 oz. Hallertauer Whole 10 min.
0.50 oz. Styrian Goldings Whole 5 min.

White Labs WLP565 Belgian Saison I

Blend 2 oz. crystallized ginger with 2 cups hot wort and add at 0.