Saison help... ingredient question

[DansBrew]

My wife ordered me a brew kit with 3 boxed kits. The saison struck me as my first shot. I started everything without checking all my ingredients. I was missing the Bitter curacao the recipe calls for. I made the wort without it, and shot an email to the Homebrew shop. They emailed me back and mailed me the 1oz packet. They told me to put it in a bowl, and fill it with vodka(enough to cover the orange peel) they said to add it at bottling. I've never brewed before. Is this ok to do?? I will gladly skip this step 1) because I don't want to ruin a 3 or 4 week ferment, and 2) I hate that orange in the glass taste in a wheat beer, so will it taste like that in my saison?? Any help greatly appreiciated....Thanks...

 

[adfirmus]

With a Saison you would probably be just fine without the Orange. A lot of Saison recipes have little to no spice. The spicy character of saison usually comes from the warm fermentation and the belgian yeast. If it were me, I wouldn't bother with it. Save it for a Belgian Wit. It will still have a nice belgian saison flavor without the added orange.

 

[ChshreCat]

A traditional saison gets all his spice flavor from the yeast. I'd have left it out so long as you're using a saison yeast and fermenting warm.

 

[neuron555]

It won't hurt anything. By the time the beer is fermented, it is pretty resistant to infection. It really depends on how well you like the orange. It would probably taste fine, but I personally like the yeast characteristics.

 

[simcoe4life]

I totally agree with the above comments. Honestly I don't know if I'll ever use bitter orange peel again when making a saison. The Dupont yeast strain kicks out a lot of nice citrus flavors when you ferment in the mid 80's to 90. I accidentally put some orange peel into the boil --at the very beginning of the 60 minute boil-- and ended up with overly bitter wierd flavors in the brew. Given time, they mellowed out, but it wasn't what I was aiming for.

 

[DansBrew]

Thanks for the help. I'm going to pass on the orange peel. I wasted a good bit of vodka though, steeping it... Now my fermentation is stuck! Damn... Waiting on yeast energizer vis USPS...

 

[flyangler18]

Thanks for the help. I'm going to pass on the orange peel. I wasted a good bit of vodka though, steeping it... Now my fermentation is stuck! Damn... Waiting on yeast energizer via USPS...

How warm are you fermenting? Saison yeast strains do best above 80°, in fact I try to keep it around 85°.

 

[DansBrew]

I'm fermenting in my basment stairway, darkest area in house. sticky thermo on the bucket says 78(thats as high as it goes) so I'm going to guess about 80 ish because it was always showing 74-76-78 and i took the middle number as an average. I just tested it again, and its at 1.020(1.022 corrected for heat) I have a Micro Saison(Sly Fox Saison Vos) I filled my hydro tube with that for the hell of it, and its showing at 1.018. is that high for a Saison? I also calibrated it in plain old water the other day and its spot on... The wort itself has a head like appearance(not thick, almost like when the head wears completely off and you have that white tight bubble across the middle of a beer in a glass) So I am not completely sure if the fermentation is stuck. I gave a good swirl/stir. airlock bubbled once. nothing since. I'm thinking yeast energizer? Any thoughts?

 

[LakeErieBrew]

1.020 is high for a Saison. Don't mess with it and let that yeast do its thing. It is probably not finished yet. It will probably start up again one day out of nowhere. Saison yeast is weird like that.

 

[enderwig]

Sometimes with saison yeast, the last few gravity points can take a while. Just be patient and keep it warm.

 

[ChshreCat]

The yeast is demanding a sacrifice. If you want it to continue, you have to buy a 6-pack of nice beer and drink them in honor of the Saison.

Be warned, Saison yeast is not easily pleased. You may have to continue making sacrifices to it in this manner for some time.

 

[DansBrew]

LOL. I drank 2 26oz bottles of Micro Saison, and added yeast energizer. The yeast accepted this offering and is fermenting nicely. I took a reading today after one day of airlock inactivity. Im at about 1-014/015. There is a fine layer of fresh krausen still, so I'm probably going to let this sit til about monday or tuesday(28th)