Wild saison trial

First brew since moving and about time i gave my new yeast a go.

10 litre batch
1.2kg lager malt
800g wheat malt

Mashed at 67

24g herkules (6.6%alpha) 90min
10g herkules 0min

Og 1036

Split the batch and pitched half with 'strain 4a' my highest ester strain the rest with yeast from the Strawman's saison

I realy want to know how these hops work in a Saison, as I have a pack coming over from the UK for just this reason.
So, what is this yeast strain you have?

4a is the best of of the now twenty colonies i picked from an elderflower starter, it shows high fruit esters production, acetoin, moderate acid and very high attention in small volume trials. I used the strawman as a comparison as it was the 'most average' of the saisons I've tried recently - nothing at all wrong with it, it just doesn't have any extreme flavour quirks

Cool. That is some wicked work you must have put in to get so far.
Please keep us updated with progress

Just going by colony morphology and ester production ( I'm getting butter - acetoin and honey - methyl phenylacetate ) plus a little acid I reckon I've got either Kluyveromyces or Hanseniaspora.

If this comes out drinkable I'll think about setting up slants to post out.

Now that sounds like a great idea

Had a look today - both have about 2 inches of healthy looking foam. These have been kept warm - the workshop hovers just under 27c in the day and 20 at night. I bucket ferment - no airlocks here, just a loose fitting lid. Strong honey/fruit aroma from 4a at the moment.

Strain 4a


Strawman

Subscribed. Let us know how it comes out. I'm stepping up a wild ferment off of a lime tonight. :beer:

wicked pics,look like roaring fermentations.Mate,where are you?
The mention of elder made me think of non US, but 20c and I am damn sure you are elsewhere.

I'm in the uk. Getting a little concerned about the warmth now (it's getting hotter) buy that yeast ought to be used to full sun. The reject yeasts have been mixed and used as a bread culture, might just pitch some of that to wort next week

You should be able to get yeast from any insect pollinated flower - i know linden (lime) meadowsweet and hawthorn have been used to make something like the elderflower 'champagne'

I have tried from lime,mango and jujube, but just seem to get snot and mould

badlee said:

snot and mould

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What a great name for a brewery, pub chain or beer

You know something?
I think you might just be onto a great idea there!

Sounds like an English pub...

The signature drink will be "sick" beer mixed with blue cheese. Mmmmm...mmm! Tell ya what, if you create it, I will eat there.

badlee said:

I have tried from lime,mango and jujube, but just seem to get snot and mould

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I got the snot (pedio or lacto) from my lime but, no mould luckily. Kicking along good right now.

Just had a check, temps have been stupid high the last few days, temp logger's broken but it's been over 35c in there - fish tank thermometer doesn't go any higher.

Saison yeast has coped well, it looked almost cleared and the SG was or possibly a little lower. Tasted like a typical saison and the herkules performed well.

4a not so good- got hit by ethyl acetate on opening, white folded powdery pellicle. SG 1030, since I've used this culture in small scale tests and not seen any of that behaviour I suspect the high temp has killed off the original yeast. Murky liquid and a taste that whilst not utterly repulsive was bordering on undrinkable.

I'll repeat in a cooler location - main reason for using the work shop was the housemove, I needed out of the way. And hey half the batch wasted but I have a good beer from the result

I set up a repeat yesterday, slight tweak to the grains - a little lower on wheat just so I didn't have to open another bag of malt but still 1035, fermenting in the house so still warm but not like the workshop.
The bottled saison from salvaged yeast has cleared already.

SG 1004 today, murkiest looking brew I've ever seen with great circular chunks of yeast floating on the top. Taste is good though, the hops seem to have tempered or masked the esters a bit but they're still present.

Not sure what to do next, at such a low gravity I'm tempted to keg it at the weekend with some priming and see if it'll clear.

Already thinking another batch with honey might be an idea....

Good idea that

I'm not sure what's going on in there, with the SG that low I'd have expected fermentation to have slowed but it seems to have sped up this morning. Ester production has kicked in with a strong honey aroma coming off the brew. I can help wondering what it's metabolising at the moment.

Back in ethyl acetate and pellicle territory but I braved a taste and it seems to be drinkable. Not sure whether to ditch it or leave it a while longer - don't really want to risk contaminating a difficult to clean keg.

Microscopist said:

don't really want to risk contaminating a difficult to clean keg.

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Isn't it too late to worry about that? At this point the bugs, good and bad (if there even are any), are well distributed.

Microscopist said:

don't really want to risk contaminating a difficult to clean keg.

Click to expand...

Isn't it too late to worry about that? At this point the bugs, good and bad (if there even are any), are well distributed.

sweetcell said:

Isn't it too late to worry about that? At this point the bugs, good and bad (if there even are any), are well distributed.

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I don't think so - so far it's only seen the inside of one brewing bin and nothing else has shown problems. Even if it goes airborne I'd only be dealing with a tiny titre compared to if it'd been in to a keg and got into all those joints and corners. Cleaning a bin's a lot easier
than a keg tap.