Saison Brett Trois

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Ailstock

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This is going to be my first Saison I've ever brewed. I have discovered The Bruery's Saison Rue and loved it.
I based it on what I could gather that beer is made with.

60% Pilsner
20% Rye
20% Wheat
Lemon Zest
Lime Zest

Mash 147 for 90 minutes

Noble Hop - Bittering
Citra Hops - Flavor/Whirlpool
Motueka - Dry Hop

WLP644 Brett Trois

This is by no means meant to be traditional.
How much lemon and lime zest would be enough for subtle character?

And I'm planning on using a bittering hop, Citra in the boil, and a small dry hop with the Motueka.
 
I've moved this from the HBT recipe database to the recipes forum. The recipe database is for 'tried and true' recipes, recipes that you have repeated, etc. Also, you're more likely to get more responses in the recipe forum.

This looks like an interesting beer. Two questions/thoughts: I would consider saving the Citra (a relatively expensive hop) and use a less expensive, neutral character hop for the bittering. Secondly, will the WLP644 turn the beer into a sour?
 
Pappers_ said:
I've moved this from the HBT recipe database to the recipes forum. The recipe database is for 'tried and true' recipes, recipes that you have repeated, etc. Also, you're more likely to get more responses in the recipe forum.

This looks like an interesting beer. Two questions/thoughts: I would consider saving the Citra (a relatively expensive hop) and use a less expensive, neutral character hop for the bittering. Secondly, will the WLP644 turn the beer into a sour?

Ah sorry, that's what I meant to post it in, but I posted this using the app on my phone. I am planning on using something like Saaz or another noble hop for bittering, and Citra more so at 10 minutes and flameout.

From my understanding is that the WLP644 Brett acts more like an ale yeast fermentation and doesn't get funky until there's some age. It pronounces hop character and fruitiness.
 
I'm an avid saison brewer, and I think this recipe looks really interesting. Here's my thoughts:

You're gonna get some lemon/lime character from the Motueka hops. So if you want it to be really subtle on these flavors, you could potentially drop the zest and just use Motueka as both your flavor hop and for a dry hop. If you want something more on this spectrum, I would go up to 1/8 oz. zest total for 5 gallons. So maybe 1 or 2 grams of each zest? Also, you'll want to add the zest close to flameout I would imagine, to preserve as many aromatic oils as possible.

I love the idea to use WLP 644 to ferment. Will have to try that myself. Because it's Brett, it's gonna eat a wider range of fermentables than normal Saccharomyces yeast, so I wouldn't be afraid to mash a little warmer, particularly if you lose more than 2 or 3 degrees over the course of your normal 90 min mash. I've started saison mashes anywhere from 143 to 154, and the more typical saison yeasts are so highly attenuative they've always gotten it down below 1.008 FG (the 143 mash even went down to 1.000 FG).

Finally, you might want to use some rice hulls in the mash with the combination of rye and wheat (the rye especially), or maybe just go down to 5-10% of the grain bill on the rye. I've definitely overdone it with rye in my rye IPAs before, and you might find that it's character overwhelms the more delicate citrus character you're trying to get.

You'll have to let me know how this one turns out... looks like a great idea on paper. Cheers!

EDIT: One more thing I just realized... Saaz seems like a strange choice for bitterring since you'll lose all it's aroma over a long boil and since it's so low in AAs. Since you're going for some citrus notes, what about something like Galaxy. Nice and high in AAs, and absolutely loaded with citrusy hop oils. Granted, the vast majority will boil off during bittering, but you could try something like 1 oz. at 30 min for all your bittering needs and still retain some oils.
 
So I ended up doing a 3 gallon BIAB version of this. My efficiency wasn't as good as I wanted and it came out at an OG 1.052.
Anyways I fermented this with Wyeast French Saison 3711, and just pitched the vial of WLP644 with the Saison yeast in Primary.
The fermentation took off within 12 hours and ripped through it. It was at an ambient 72+ degrees due to the hot weather. About 3 days in I added a heat wrap and didnt have temperature gauge on the carboy but it got hot. At least 80+.
After a week I took a gravity reading and it dropped all the way to 1.002 already.
At this moment it's sitting in secondary with a small .5oz dry hop of Citra and am bottling tomorrow.

Since the gravity is so low, I wanna prime some champagne bottles with Brett to carb. Any suggestions on how much priming sugar to add? And how many drops of Brett per bottle?
 
This is the actual recipe I did, I had changed from what I originally posted.

3 gallon BIAB

60% Pilsner
20% Rye
20% white wheat

French Saison 3711
WLP 644 Brett Trios

45min - .5 Citra
10min - .5 Citra
10min - .5 Motueka
0min - .5 Citra
0min - .5 Motueka
Dry Hop - .5 Citra

Dropped the lemon and lime zest.
 
3711 is an awesome yeast. You'll get some fruit flavors without the need for zest.
 
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