New Danstar Belle Saison Dry Yeast?

I brewed an 8.75% saison with this and it turned out great. Go to town with it.


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I will second that. Mine came out right under 8% and it is fantastic!

mb82 said:

Has anyone brewed any larger beers with this yeast. Like 9-10% abv? So far all I have brewed are more sessionable beers and was wondering how it acted. Contemplating a bigger winter saison for this year.

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I'm also curious about this, but seems I read somewhere that it is good for higher abv%'s. Most saisons are session beers anyway (saison is French for "session), with lower abv beers.


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catdaddy66 said:

I'm also curious about this, but seems I read somewhere that it is good for higher abv%'s. Most saisons are session beers anyway (saison is French for "session), with lower abv beers.


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"Season". It's the French for "season".

Pilgarlic said:

"Season". It's the French for "season".

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yup. "session" in french is... "session".

I had success with an imperial saison that came in at 11%. Used the belle saison yeast harvested from a session saison. Went from 1084 to 1002 in a six week primary fermentation in the low 70s. Muy bueno.

Krid said:

I had success with an imperial saison that came in at 11%. Used the belle saison yeast harvested from a session saison. Went from 1084 to 1002 in a six week primary fermentation in the low 70s. Muy bueno.

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I think you meant "tres bien"

Thanks sweetcell and pilgarlic. Was sure I read that somewhere on HBT... My memory isn't as young as it used to be!


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catdaddy66 said:

I'm also curious about this, but seems I read somewhere that it is good for higher abv%'s...

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I think this is because this yeast seems to just plow through sugar and get nice low final gravity - so it's good for high OG beers and can push ABV...

Tcl1999 said:

10 lbs. 2 row
2 lbs. wheat
.5 lbs. Munich

1.5 oz. Hallertau at 60 min
1.0 oz. Saaz at 30
0.5 oz. Hallertau at 30
1.0 oz Saaz at 5

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So i have to say i am extremely happy/slightly hammered by this recipe and this yeast. Funny thing is that i made a bavarian hefe with wyeast 3068 hoping for that fransikaner style and was extremely disappointed. Then i decide to try the belle saison yeast and BAM! All kinds of hefe flavor. How did that happen? I wasn't even going for that!

I just tasted my Rafikah Rose's GF Pear Ale.

5.25 gallons partial mash.

1 lb Chestnut chips, medium roast (Trails End) 14 hrs 150F

4 lb Millet, Colorado Chateau Abbey
1 lb Buckwheat, Colorado Chateau Abbey 30 min. 110F; 30 130F
add Chestnut 30 min. 158F
0.5 tsp Amylase 30 min. 153F

3 lb Sorghum syrup
0.5 oz Czech Saaz 60 min
0.5 oz Czech Saaz 15 min
0.5 oz Falconer's Flight 5 min

3 qt Pear juice (Knudsen organic) primary

Danstar Belle Saison


I chose Belle Saison for the pear.

Drinkable, and the pear came through nicely

Has anyone even found this yeast to be "clumpy" when they've used it? I used it for the first time yesterday. Nottingham is my house yeast, for lack of a better way to put it, and I've used the BRY-97 before as well, so I'm pretty familiar with Danstar products.

Anyway, I rehydrated the yeast as I always do, and even after stirring it, there were clumps of it stuck together. I've never seen that with the other yeasts. I pitched it and it seems to be bubbling away nicely, so I'm not worried about it. Just wondering if that's common.

Really liked the Gose I did with Belle Saison and an acid malt only sour component. So have all of my friends. Nice clean and bright flavor, perfect for summer!

Brewed my first Saison today using this yeast and I had visible active fermentation after 3 hours. And I didn't even hydrate, just sprinkled. Really looking forward to this beer.


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youreanimpulse said:

Really liked the Gose I did with Belle Saison and an acid malt only sour component. So have all of my friends. Nice clean and bright flavor, perfect for summer!

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Would you mind sharing your recipe? I would love to try my hand at a Gose.


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Sure. It's a little more sour than other Goses I've tried, not exactly traditional. I made 2 gal, so here are percentages to make it easier:

Speedy Gose
OG 1.052 FG 1.006
14 IBU 6% ABV

48% 2-row
24% flaked wheat
14% flaked triticale
14% acidulated malt

Mash at 153 90 min, add acidulated malt during last 15 mins
60 min boil w/14 IBU Tettnanger at start
5g fresh ground coriander and 7g sea salt (used Sel Gris Noirmoutier, fancy salt!) both at 5 min
I pitched Belle Saison yeast dry and bottled after one week primary. It was done probably at 4 days, definitely (tested) at 5. Super fast turnaround for a tasty beer.

I used mine in a Belgian Pale with Nelson Sauvin this Saturday. I've used Danstar Notty and Bry-97 and liked the results. The aroma emanating from the airlock is phenol-menal! Spicy and fruity and everything I wanted out of the yeast after a couple of days. My krausen is beginning to drop as I write this. It's been chugging away in the low 70s and I'm bumping it to ambient garage temperatures after the scorching hot day tomorrow. Can't wait to try this one out!

I brewed an "office saison" with my coworkers using this yeast. Belma hops and a little bit of pear juice. Beersmith estimated 1.012 FG and it attenuated down to 1.005! So despite undershooting my OG, I overshot my ABV. It's cold crashing now, hopefully it's not too dry.

chocotaco said:

I brewed an "office saison" with my coworkers using this yeast. Belma hops and a little bit of pear juice. Beersmith estimated 1.012 FG and it attenuated down to 1.005! So despite undershooting my OG, I overshot my ABV. It's cold crashing now, hopefully it's not too dry.

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It won't be. I did the exact same thing. Mashed at 149, but over sparged and came out with 8+ gallons of wort. Expected 1.066, actually got 1.055. Finished at 1.005 as well. 6.4% alcohol is plenty for me.

All things considered I am glad I didn't hit my intended OG because I would have ended up with an absolute monster Saison!


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Tcl1999 said:

It won't be. I did the exact same thing. Mashed at 149, but over sparged and came out with 8+ gallons of wort. Expected 1.066, actually got 1.055. Finished at 1.005 as well. 6.4% alcohol is plenty for me.

All things considered I am glad I didn't hit my intended OG because I would have ended up with an absolute monster Saison!


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That is a good point. If I had hit my target gravity I would be looking at quite a beast! Good thing I undershot by 10 points!

I actually just used this yeast to pitch on top of a big Belgian Tripel (OG 1.110) that got stuck at 1.030 after a brief temp change on the WLP530 I was originally using. I had my fermentor in the high 70's low 80's and the temp spontaneously dropped 5 degrees in SoCal and the yeast dropped out along with it!

I made a starter with the belle and pitched it while at high krausen in the low 70's, its going on three days and its still bubbling right along, chewing through the final 15-20 gravity points. I have it back in the high 70's now, and so far I'm simply impressed that its still chugging along in what must be a nutrient free environment!

Still curious as to how the beer eventually turns out...

m1batt1 said:

So I was finally able to taste them today. The one at room temp is down to 1.003 and still has some yeast in suspension. It also has a definite banana flavor to it but over all very clean and light. Nothing besides the banana stands out to me but that may be the yeast still in suspension giving me that heavy flavor.

The one from the garage has dropped to 1.000 and is crystal clear. None of the banana taste like the other but surprisingly clean tasting. For something that was completely unregulated and may have hit as high as 95-100 degrees it has no bad flavor notes that I could taste. I would say maybe a bit more of the citrus came through on this one from the coriander and seeds of paradise.

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Just bottled my honey cream saison that I worked up about 5 weeks ago. Both have now cleared out nicely and the banana taste is gone from the room temp one. I would assume the yeast still hadn't dropped out when I first sampled. Both are quite tasty even warm and flat. The big thing I noticed was the one I let get hot appears to have a much cleaner finish and is smoother over all. The one I kept inside has almost what I would describe as a dry white wine finish. Anyone else have what you would call a wine type taste?

Since I'm in SW Florida and don't have a fermentation chamber I was excited to try this yeast and finally got a chance this weekend. I was curious about how high the temperature could go so here's my experiment that started Saturday.

2.5 gallons water
3 lbs DME Pilsen
32 oz juiced golden mango
1 pkg Danstar Belle Saison
.5 oz Citra
Whirlfloc

2.5 gallons into primary

I like to keep my extract boil times at 30 minutes and the whirlfloc and mango juice was added at 15 minutes. Chilled the wort as much as I can and pitched the yeast on Sunday morning. In the afternoon I put the bucket outside into 90 degree heat and it stayed there for 12 hours. Since then it's been back inside at 74 degrees. Just took a gravity reading and it's at 1.002 already. Haven't had anything ferment this fast except for WLP090.

I've just brewed two beers in a row with this yeast. The first I meant as a "session" saison, og was 1.046...but fg ended up 1.001, fermented in the house at 78 degrees.

I repitched the slurry in the second, which was 1.056, and finished at 1.005. This one I set out in the garage to see how hot I could get it, but unfortunately we went through a mild week, and I could only get it up to 84.

The first tastes pretty solid, but the second is definitely better, much stronger flavors. I agree with an above poster than I am getting some dry white wine flavors. Will definitely use this yeast again.

My neighbor also made a saison with this yeast around the same time as me and took a 1.080 wort down to 1.010 with one packet. I have not tasted his yet, but that is pretty beastly.

Are there any other styles of beer which could work with a saison yeast?
I can't use temp. control for various reasons nowadays so during the summer this might be the only yeast i could use.

I've heard of people using saison yeasts in American wheats and ambers but haven't tried it myself


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I just had an IPA my friend brewed with this yeast and it worked very well

badlee said:

I just had an IPA my friend brewed with this yeast and it worked very well

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Interesting, I was curious about what kind of flavors an IPA would get from the DanStar. I've had great luck with this yeast and saisons and even at some points use a space heater when I feel its not warm enough for the yeast to properly flocculate.

Sidenote: are you brewing in Chiang Mai? I was just discussing this with a friend that lives in Bangkok as I wanted to experiment with beer there but I was concerned with the water quality and obviously the ambient temps in Thailand.

Yes I am brewing here.
I tend to use well water to brew with,or a 50/50 with RO water.
Temps are great for Belle,but for other brews I use a temp controled fridge.
As gor the IPA,the low final gravity made the perceived bitterness seem much higher that the IBUs, but in a good way.
It was all EXP366 and I managed to mistake it for a mix of Simcoe and Nugget.
All hop oils clinging to your pallate and bugger all in the way of sweetness

My first batch of saison with this yeast came out pretty tasty, although there was a bit too much alcohol flavor (that is probably due to the apparent attenuation of 95% though). I used the yeast with no temperature control aside from a cold water soak in the initial few hours, it turned out very well given the heat spike we saw that week.

Kegged and carb'd my first trial with Belle Saison. 1.065 OG and finished to 1.002. Odd thing is it still seems to have a residual sweetness and decent body. Was expecting a very dry finish with this low of of a FG. How are others tasting at close to this?

I've had the same flavor profile myself although it always finishes dry. This yeast is a monster during fermentation


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This one was a great attenuator. All the way to 1.002 from 1.056. It finishes dry, but has some residual sweetness. It's more of a Belgian Pale than a saison. The Nelson was a great choice. Great compliment to the funk of flavor that the yeast provides. It is super fruity in yeasty esters and phenols and the orange and lemon peel late additions, malty with the aromatic and special B, and just enough hop bitterness to offset the fruit basket this guy puts out. Totally digging it.

Yeah really enjoying my belle saison as I brew my ESB. It's very dry, not the most "saisony" beer I've ever had, but am really enjoying it. Will use again.

I brewed twice with it, and I can say one thing : HOLY ****ING QUICK STARTING.

Less than 2 hours in both cases, and, in all likelihood, faster than 1 hour in the first case.

Anyone try this yeast without aerating/oxygenating the wort?

orangehero said:

Anyone try this yeast without aerating/oxygenating the wort?

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I did one in which I introduced no pure oxygen (did shake the carboy a bit).

Pitched two rehydrated packets into 1.058 wort (was supposed to be 1.068, which is why I had two packets for it... undershot, but later was glad I did because

It started immediately and attenuated down to 1.005. And that is with a pretty high mash of 155. Was targeting 7% ABV with my recipe, and even undershooting 10 points I hit 7.5ish. Good thing I undershot my gravity!

Results are cold crashing now waiting to be kegged, but sample tastes seem promising.

I have used it before,but would like to know if anyone has pitched into a wort with very low ph.
I plan on pitching a nice big starter into a wort already chugging with lacto brevis.

Just curious...

What makes people here say, "now thats a saison"? Must it taste like DuPont? Can it have a strong brett character? Can it be sour? All pils/pale or can it be dark? What about no sugar adjunct? What about terminal gravity, what's acceptable now compared to when "Farmhouse Ales" was written?

Maybe this is a question destined to be its own thread.

I haven't read it in a while, but I don't remember Farmhouse Ales making any rigid definitions and it did cover a lot of the interesting variety found in Belgium (and France). DuPont is the paradigm of the modern style in my opinion. Hennepin is an excellent American example.