anyone done with their saison yet?

A few weeks back it seemed like there were more than a handful of us doing Saisons... anyone try theirs yet?

I bottled mine today with about 4 oz of corn sugar. Went from about 1.048 down to around 1.015, using wlp565 (so I got 68% attenuation for a range of 65-75% it seems?). It spent 3 weeks in primary. Seemed to taste pretty yummy, though a little sweet. It's really cloudy though, guess we'll see what it looks like coming out of the bottle.

I don't think the recipe I followed ended up with an official Saison - according to Beer Alchemy the color is too dark. It's also the first recipe I've followed after doing 5 previous pre-packaged-kit-brews.

How are all yours doing?

Mines only been in the fermenter for two days, going to start to ramp the temp up to 85 tonight. I tell you how it is in a month.

I started mine last Thursday, an extract kit from AHS called Belgian Summer Saison. Oddly, this kit used half wheat extract, half standard malt extract, so I imagine that this is more a wheat beer-saison hybrid. Whatever, I imagine it will be marvelous.

Mine is still a twinkle it it's daddy's (mine) eye. Hope to get it going in the next few weeks.

My Saison was a beer from hell. A bunch of Pils, some wheat, some aeromatic, and honey. I had several spills of wort on my stovetop, couldn't get a decent gravity reading, and overshot my volume by almost a full gallon. And finally forgot to add the honey until I had the wort in the fermentor. In the end, I said the hell with a starting gravity. After two weeks in primary at about 80 degrees, it had bottomed out at 1.015ish (I suspect my hydrometer is all screwed up). So, I racked to a secondary to do a little dry hopping. Stirring up the yeast restarted fermentation and dried it out to somewhere about 1.005ish. I finally bottled it last week. I have no idea what to expect.

Mine is doing just fine, I ended up repitching some nottingham yeast when the Saison yeast stalled out around 1.018. It finally ended up at 1.004... It is a solid beer, but it needs some more time to age because it came out at around 7% ABV.

Mine is chugging away nicely - White Labs Saison II yeast. I've been impressed with this yeast. It doesn't seem to crap out like other Saison yeast. I did a 10% ABV beer with it last year, fermented in the upper 60's F and it chugged right through it ending up at 1.008. My current beer spent a week in the mid 60's, then a week at 70F and now it's at about 75F and still bubbling slowly.

7 lbs pils, 1 lb wheat, 0.5 lb aromatic OG 1.056

Sorachi Ace, Sterling and Saaz hops

I didn't know about the group effort, but I bottled a Saison two weeks ago. Looks good so far.

To those of you who got yours under 1.01 - how did you know it would do this?

I basically waited until I hit the attenuation range, which 1.015 is in. But now I'm nervous about bottle bombs after hearing about yours drop more. Were you using 565 also?

I primaried mine for 3 weeks then secondary for a week.

after 2 weeks, I needed to resuspend the yeast to get it to finish it's job.

turned out to be a danmed fine beer

I'm thinking about doing a saisson....How long do you need to let this 'age' before being able to drink? Is it the typical 6-7 weeks or longer b/c of the high alcohol?

It hasn't been warm enough yet for me to do one. I don't want to go out and buy an electric blanket or heating pad just to make Saison. However it seems to be getting warmer now, so maybe I'll make one in the next week or two.

daveooph131 said:

I'm thinking about doing a saisson....How long do you need to let this 'age' before being able to drink? Is it the typical 6-7 weeks or longer b/c of the high alcohol?

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I think a month in bottles or kegs should suffice. I don't have a lot of experience here but it depends on the recipe. A lot of the saisons we drink are 6 months old or more because of shipping and handling.

Keep in mind a 'typical' Saison is 5-7% so it doesn't need to be outrageously high in alcohol to be a Saison. If you like it that way, then that's another story.

I made one months ago. It's gone.

I give all my beers 8 weeks in the bottle, but I usually do dark or ABV styles. I'm thinking this one might come up quicker, maybe 6. We'll see.

Just took a gravity reading tonight.
Brewed 7/4
roused yeast 7/11
OG 1.070 (expected 1.062)
grv today 1.012

gravity is still a bit high, but I have near 82% attenuation. I'll give it some more time, and if it doesn't dry out, pitch some notty in.

I made one about 2 1/2 weeks ago. Started at 1.068 and got down to 1.003-1.004. Using a strain my friend had on a slant from Al B (I believe it was actually a blend of 5 saison strains) and it was amazingly attenuative. It was an 11 gallon batch with 1.5 pounds of piloncillo sugar in it and fermented over 80 (it was a couple of hot weeks here!)

It is mellowing, but it started out really solventy/medicinal. I think it was just the yeast in suspension that tasted so bad, but time will tell. It is waaay too young to tell. It is starting to smell fruity and I think it will turn out well.

Man, my saison is a more moderate abv, with an OG of only 1.060. I was only expecting it to finish out at beer normal, or around 1.012. If it drys out to the 1.005 or lower it will be freaking diesel. I guess we shall see.

I just took a gravity reading of mine today after 6 days in the primary. It's down to 1.007 from 1.059 and the sample tasted great. Wy 3711 is working wonders drying it out for me considering its a partial mash. I'm going to leave it in there for at least 3 weeks regardless of SG but so far so good.

I'm bottling mine tomorrow and pitching a wit right on top of the cake...I had planned to do another saison on it, but the temps this week are not warm enough to brew a saison in Michigan this week...In fact I think I was fermentaing mine initally a month ago on the only 80+ days we had.

So I am going to pitch a pseudo hoegaarden clone on top instead.

Revvy said:

So I am going to pitch a pseudo hoegaarden clone on top instead.

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Hey Revvy,
Can you share the recipe that you are planning to use? I'm currently fermenting a saison and hoegaarden-type wit was next on my list as well.
Thanks,
Andy

Andreas said:

Hey Revvy,
Can you share the recipe that you are planning to use? I'm currently fermenting a saison and hoegaarden-type wit was next on my list as well.
Thanks,
Andy

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I second that! Let's have a look-see.

Andreas said:

Hey Revvy,
Can you share the recipe that you are planning to use? I'm currently fermenting a saison and hoegaarden-type wit was next on my list as well.
Thanks,
Andy

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WorryWort said:

I second that! Let's have a look-see.

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It's OhioBrewtus's Clone https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f71/ohiobrewtus-hoegaarden-clone-ag-37991/

But I am prolly going to toss in some grains of paradise as well...maybe 1/4 ounce.

(Oh he calls for orange extract, which I can't find so I swapped sweet orange peel in the recipe instead.)

And I went with Hallertau and Saaz instead.

Total cost for the grain from my lhbs was $14.00

I made this one last night:
TastyBrew.com | Recipes
However, my LHBS didn't have any Saison yeast so the guy said Kolsch yeast is close enough. Was he right?

Vic_Sinclair said:

I made this one last night:
TastyBrew.com | Recipes
However, my LHBS didn't have any Saison yeast so the guy said Kolsch yeast is close enough. Was he right?

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I have never heard that. Saison yeasts are meant to be fermented in hot temps....like over 80 to bring out all the awesome goodness.

I think you might have gotten hosed, sorry.

They're not even from the same country.

I'm bummed. There's a heatwave coming this weekend and the start of next week and I can't brew my saison yet! Oh, cruel fate! How you mock me!!!

ChshreCat said:

I'm bummed. There's a heatwave coming this weekend and the start of next week and I can't brew my saison yet! Oh, cruel fate! How you mock me!!!

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Why can't you this weekend...Sounds purrrfect!

Revvy said:

Why can't you this weekend...Sounds purrrfect!

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1. no time.
2. no ingredients and no time to go get them.
3. SWMBO says I can't play anymore until I put away all my toys.

I just warmed my saison to 83 degrees and it is bubbling again. What a weird yeast. I am using the wyeast 3724. I bought a $25 submersable aquarium heater at walmart and threw that, some water, and my fermenter in a rubbermaid container. I can now brew saison any time of the year.

jigidyjim said:

A few weeks back it seemed like there were more than a handful of us doing Saisons... anyone try theirs yet? . . .How are all yours doing?

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Style: Saison (16C)
Brew Date: 3/22/09
Original Gravity: 1.071
Final Gravity: 1.006
Alcohol: 8.5 ABV
Color: 8 SRM
Bitterness: 45 IBU
Bitterness Ratio: .63 IBU/SG
3¼ oz Amarillo Hop Pellets / Alpha 8.0%
2 qt Starter Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison
Bottled after 59 day primary
Bottle conditioned for 6 weeks

I love to tinker with my recipes, but this is one that I'm already planning to brew again without changing anything. It's been a challenge to ration this out so that it's not gone too soon. It's got a great full head with lots of lacing. A nice spicy Belgain flavor and aroma complimented by the orangey character of the Amarillo hops. It may fall outside the guidelines for a competition worthy Saison, but I love this beer!

I started my fermentation on the saturday before fathers day. I had crazy fermentation for 2 weeks, then it slowed in the airlock to about 1 bubble every 20 seconds. Then in stopped completely for 2 days. Tried heating, spinning the fermentor... nothing. Stuck. I ordered Yeast Energizer. Chucked in the recommended dose and voila... chugging away again.
The OG was 6-20-09 1.062
7-6-09 1.024 this is where it slowed
7-13-09 1.020it stalled here
7-23-09 1.014 finishing up

There was a bit of froth still on top, i'm gonna wait til sat or sunday to take another reading and be bottling accordingly. It tasted pretty good today, a little bit of a phenol?(medicinal) taste. If you've had Merry Monks by Weyerbacher, it wasn't as strong as that. I don't mind that taste. I had a lot of Banana Ester during fermentation, I could smell it 2 feet away. I didn't want that taste, though. I'm hoping it will dry out a little, and condition some of that bite away.

Well that was interesting, bottling my saison and brewing so I could pitch on the cake in the same session...it wasn't the smoothest, and I cut my thumb pretty badly openning a hop packet with a knife...but overall it was still fun.

Revvy said:

Well that was interesting, bottling my saison and brewing so I could pitch on the cake in the same session...it wasn't the smoothest, and I cut my thumb pretty badly openning a hop packet with a knife...but overall it was still fun.

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Who let you play with a knife?

I opened one of my saison's today, after only a week of bottle conditioning. I know it's probably too early, but I feel like in order to understand when things are ready I need to experiment and taste things before they are ready.

It's kind of weird - it didn't taste as fruity as it did when I tasted the hydrometer samples. It also had a pretty bitter aftertaste. Actually, aside from the bitter aftertaste, it tasted really plain, and boring, which was surprising because i thought the pre-bottled stuff was pretty interesting.

I'll see if anything changes next week.

This is one beer I HOPE is ready right at three weeks....It's been bottled for a week, and 2 weeks from now is the World Series of Vintage Base Ball at Greenfield Village. Many of us are staying in dorms for the weekend...I am hoping to squirrel away a few bottles of this with me for the evening after the long game day when it gets a little boring.

I also bottled a red, and that too I hope isn't green come game weekend....

(Yes, even Revvy gets impatient sometimes.)

Revvy said:

This is one beer I HOPE is ready right at three weeks....It's been bottled for a week, and 2 weeks from now is the World Series of Vintage Base Ball at Greenfield Village. Many of us are staying in dorms for the weekend...I am hoping to squirrel away a few bottles of this with me for the evening after the long game day when it gets a little boring.

I also bottled a red, and that too I hope isn't green come game weekend....

(Yes, even Revvy gets impatient sometimes.)

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Revvy.... do I need to ctrl-v a lecture to you about beer having it's own timetable and not rushing it and whatnot?

ChshreCat said:

Revvy.... do I need to ctrl-v a lecture to you about beer having it's own timetable and not rushing it and whatnot?

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LOL.......I knew someone would say something...that's why I posted it.



But I do hope it's ready by the World Series...and it will a hot weekend to enjoy a nice saison dupont, I filled a few champagne bottles......

Perhaps I will even be able to find someone to share a bottle with, on a blanket in the moonlight. Maybe with a winsome Tallykeeper;



Or a lovely, barefoot lass in lavender...

Lookit that hottie!!! She's almost showin' ankle! The slattern!

Woot woot woot!!!

I'm drinking my first one!!!!!

It is delicious. I won't say it really taste like a Saison Du Pont clone...But it is a might tasty and effervescent ale.

It is still a little "hot" right now. But it's carbed and not green. Just has a bit of an alcohol bite. But only a serious beer taster/brewer/judge would pick up on that, and it will mellow out in another week or so. But I can definitely take a couple bottles with me this weekend.

And since I sent it in for judging at the end of august, I betcha it will be perfect by then.

I just tasted my saison after FIVE count em FIVE days in the bottle. Delicious! Carbed already. Nice and spicy! It spent 7 weeks in the fermenter so you can't call me impatient. I used the Wyeast Saison yeast and fermented hot but had to finish it with Nottingham for a week. I used Jamil's Saison recipe. Loving it so far, can only get better from here. I bottled it in Session stubbies.