Belle Saison

[Coldfrog]

Coldfrog- do you retain any "saisonness" in your cider? I've played with that yeast for two batches (simultaneously) and the cider turned out very clean. As if I used regular yeast. Ferm temp was high 60s/low 70's.

It’s been a long time since I’ve drank beer, but my impression is that it retains some “saisaonness”. It definitely ferments clean, and it retains quite a bit of apple flavor and crisp tartness, as compared to ale yeasts and others I have used. I just finished a keg in which I added in blueberry juice concentrate in secondary. It’s got great flavor and the blueberry lends the slightest bit of sweetness, which goes well with the tartness from the saison. It also has more body.

 

[FunkyMunk]

I kegged my cider today, about 2 weeks since pitching. It had settled pretty well, and there was just a bit of off-gassing from the lees. Final gravity was 0.998. It's still a bit sulfury but it should clear up eventually. The pH was 3.5, and tasting it again I found it a bit more flavorful than previously. I would say it's very clean, I definitely don't taste anything off about it. There was something reminiscent of a saison to it but I'm not sure I would call it "peppery"... spicy/earthy maybe? Adding a little sugar helped bring out the apple flavor a lot. I don't think I will add acid, after all, since it seems to be ok as is. My plan is to backsweeten to about 1.007 and steep some cinnamon and allspice in the keg.

After a bit of aging in the keg, the sulfur disappeared, and I backsweetened to off-dry and steeped some cinnamon and allspice in a mesh hop sack right in the keg, gave it a few days to carb up in the fridge. The cider came out great. There was some tartness that balanced well with the spices and the touch of sweetness, and there was decent apple flavor. I carbed to 12 psi and it has a really good mouth feel. I intentionally went lighter on both the sugar and the spices than I thought I would need to, so neither is overwhelming and it's easy to have a few pints, actually a little too easy. I'd probably use this yeast again if I had to ferment warm; curious to see how it would be without spices, although it was pretty good with them.