Petite Farmhouse Recipe Critique (TYB)

BGBC, glad the Farmhouse Sour Ale is working out for you! Some commercial Brewers likes the base saison blend so much, we created Saison Blend II which is a new product available to anyone now.

I actually had a chance to taste through some barrels at a larger brewery in the area that uses the Farmhouse Sour Ale, and I was very impressed with the character development present after only a few short months. Much faster than I've seen in my homebrews.

burninator said:

I imagine you're drinking this by now, right?

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Hey, I've had a couple bottles and it's delicious. Nailed it, can't really say I would change much about it honestly. Looking forward to seeing how it changes over time with the Brett blend in there too, but it's delicious now - light, sour, fruity, great hop aroma.

Last one I had was toward the end of a group tasting (everyone else was a big fan too), so maybe I should throw another bottle in the fridge so I can post a proper pic and review.

BGBC said:

Hey, I've had a couple bottles and it's delicious. Nailed it, can't really say I would change much about it honestly. Looking forward to seeing how it changes over time with the Brett blend in there too, but it's delicious now - light, sour, fruity, great hop aroma.

Last one I had was toward the end of a group tasting (everyone else was a big fan too), so maybe I should throw another bottle in the fridge so I can post a proper pic and review.

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I admire your patience. I've had to hide the few remaining bottles of mine from myself in hopes of tasting it with a little age.

I'd love to see a pic.

burninator said:

I admire your patience. I've had to hide the few remaining bottles of mine from myself in hopes of tasting it with a little age.

I'd love to see a pic.

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It's less patience and more a) being out of town for the majority of the week every week, and b) I split this batch with a buddy, and most of my share is still at his house.

I threw a bottle in the fridge though and will get a pic up this weekend hopefully.

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Decided to enter this one in a comp under the 2015 BJCP guidelines in a couple weeks.

I know I really like it, hopefully others do too.

Gonna give this a try using harvested yeast from Bellwoods Brewery's barrel-aged 'Farmhouse Classic' Saison. Thanks for posting your process, BGBC, it was really helpful.

I've been happiest with all pilsner / wheat grain bills so far, though i know vienna is a very popular addition also. i like about 80/20 pilsner to wheat ratio and using a combination of flaked and malted wheat.

Brett pitched right off the bat works well because it's slow enough to let the sacc do its thing first anyway.

ophillium said:

Gonna give this a try using harvested yeast from Bellwoods Brewery's barrel-aged 'Farmhouse Classic' Saison. Thanks for posting your process, BGBC, it was really helpful.

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Sweet, let us know how it turns out!

BGBC said:

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Decided to enter this one in a comp under the 2015 BJCP guidelines in a couple weeks.

I know I really like it, hopefully others do too.

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Great looking beer! Hope the competition goes well.

Just got the results back. The beer scored a 30 (31 and 28). Both judges critiqued it for being too sour (too sour!?) and a little out of balance (too sour!?).

One seemed to ding me for calling the base style a petite saison, saying there should be more spicy phenols.

All that said, I don't think I would change anything if I rebrewed this.

I did get a bronze for a melomel I entered, so not a complete loss for the competition.

Balance? Who wants that? You brewed this to keep excess enamel from building up on your teeth.

BGBC said:

Just got the results back. The beer scored a 30 (31 and 28). Both judges critiqued it for being too sour (too sour!?) and a little out of balance (too sour!?).

One seemed to ding me for calling the base style a petite saison, saying there should be more spicy phenols.

All that said, I don't think I would change anything if I rebrewed this.

I did get a bronze for a melomel I entered, so not a complete loss for the competition.

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I feel ya. Living in the middle of nowhere, people are barely aware of sour beer here. I entered the last of what was easily my best sour to date into a comp as well as a 100% brett IPA (and 17 others)

The judges knocked the brett IPA for not being "funky" and the sour for having sour off flavors.....I entered it into the sours category which ended up getting lumped into the Belgian/French ales since Im pretty sure I had the only sour entry....

I was pissed that I wasted the last 2 bottles of that magnificent beer on those bastards

m00ps said:

I feel ya. Living in the middle of nowhere, people are barely aware of sour beer here. I entered the last of what was easily my best sour to date into a comp as well as a 100% brett IPA (and 17 others)

The judges knocked the brett IPA for not being "funky" and the sour for having sour off flavors.....I entered it into the sours category which ended up getting lumped into the Belgian/French ales since Im pretty sure I had the only sour entry....

I was pissed that I wasted the last 2 bottles of that magnificent beer on those bastards

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The European and American sour categories got lumped together in this one (2015 BJCP), but there were 16 entries total. The feedback wasn't bad, just different tastes I think.

My club president and LHBS owner was actually one of the judges at that table, interestingly enough...

BGBC said:

My club president and LHBS owner was actually one of the judges at that table, interestingly enough...

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I smell collusion.

finsfan said:

I smell collusion.

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Maybe if I had placed in the category...

I hadn't brought either this or the Flanders red to a meeting yet, so he was having both for the first time.

I didn't read all the posts, but did you stay with the no hops in the boil and how did that turn out?

Clarke said:

I didn't read all the posts, but did you stay with the no hops in the boil and how did that turn out?

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No boil hops, just dry hopped. I'd do the same again. The only reason I'd add any hops in the boil is if you wanted to inhibit the lacto/sourness at all.

From The Yeast Bay's description of Farmhouse Sour:
"Higher fermentation temperatures and lower (0-5) IBU will produce elevated levels of acidity. Lower fermentation temperatures and higher (10+) IBU will produce lower levels of acidity."

BGBC said:

No boil hops, just dry hopped. I'd do the same again. The only reason I'd add any hops in the boil is if you wanted to inhibit the lacto/sourness at all.

From The Yeast Bay's description of Farmhouse Sour:
"Higher fermentation temperatures and lower (0-5) IBU will produce elevated levels of acidity. Lower fermentation temperatures and higher (10+) IBU will produce lower levels of acidity."

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I like your style. I'm not a huge fan of much detectable bitterness in sours, but I love some good Galaxy/Citra/Amarillo/Centennial dry hopped aroma!

Biobrewer said:

I like your style. I'm not a huge fan of much detectable bitterness in sours, but I love some good Galaxy/Citra/Amarillo/Centennial dry hopped aroma!

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Thanks for the input along the way and of course for the cultures.

Happy to send a couple bottles your way if you're interested!

ophillium said:

Gonna give this a try using harvested yeast from Bellwoods Brewery's barrel-aged 'Farmhouse Classic' Saison. Thanks for posting your process, BGBC, it was really helpful.

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Haven't had the farmhouse from bellwoods. Any good? Love most of there other stuff.

ophillium said:

Gonna give this a try using harvested yeast from Bellwoods Brewery's barrel-aged 'Farmhouse Classic' Saison. Thanks for posting your process, BGBC, it was really helpful.

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Haven't had the farmhouse from bellwoods. Any good? Love most of there other stuff.

brewerJase said:

Haven't had the farmhouse from bellwoods. Any good? Love most of there other stuff.

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Yeah, I'm a huge fan both of the style and Bellwoods' iteration of it. IMO, go straight for the barrel-aged version -- a year in oak barrels with brett is what sets it apart from the rest.

The farmhouse, Brettal Head, Omerta, 3 Minutes to Midnight, their Berliner Weisse & IPAs, and anything soured/barreled are my favs from their roster. Their Barn Owl series is a grand slam of brett/barreled beers so far. #2 in particular is fresh, dry, grassy-perfumed brett perfection. I could talk about it for days.

I did a Brettal Head clone of sorts in the summer (incredibly delicious from the bottle right now) that I posted about here.

If you harvest the dregs to use for anything, post it here. I'd love to compare notes.

BGBC said:

Sweet, let us know how it turns out!

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Glad to oblige I've started a thread about this project, here.

Thanks BGBC for sharing your knowledge; I've done my best to pay it forward.

BGBC said:

Thanks for the input along the way and of course for the cultures.

Happy to send a couple bottles your way if you're interested!

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Got any of this left? I think I still have a handful of last year's dry-hopped table sour (which is what I'm calling it right now, I guess). It's drinking well, even though it never really carbed up much. This year's version won't be nearly as sour, but it's already almost done.

burninator said:

Got any of this left? I think I still have a handful of last year's dry-hopped table sour (which is what I'm calling it right now, I guess). It's drinking well, even though it never really carbed up much. This year's version won't be nearly as sour, but it's already almost done.

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Yep, still have some bottles. Hop aroma has obviously faded, but there still some presence in the flavor. Still very tart, but maybe more of a rounded sourness now instead of a sharp acidity.