Saison, the blank canvas of brewing

[ricshayne]

If you want to use spices use the 3711 yeast as it is fairly clean and will let the spices stand out, I just did a rosemary and Sage saison that turned out spectacular, the key with spices it to go LIGHT I'm talking whatever you think is light scale it back from there. I used less than a tenth of an ounce of spices and they still came through but not at all overpowering as you still want the yeast character to punch through

 

[ICWiener]

I don't carb to the maximum, I only use Belgian bottles, and just to be sure I open bottles periodically, instead of putting these away for long term storage.

Great question though. I bottle under the assumption that brett could add an additional volume of carbonation over a long period of time, if someone has a definitive answer for this please chime in.

I can only speak to my experience, but I bottle in normal bombers or 12 oz'ers, and prime to 3.0 vols. If the Brett is eating anything in there, it's not adding a significant amount of carbonation. I've never had so much as a gusher. But a couple of things:

1) I don't think I've aged one over 2 years. Brett is a slow worker. Maybe if I let one sit longer it might be a problem.
2) My saisons are drrrrryyyyy. The last one I bottled was at .999, and they're never higher than 1.003. Perhaps there's a correlation because...
3) Brett only super attenuates in the presence of bugs. We all know it can eat sugars that Sacch can't, but if there's not a lot of sugar in there to begin with, maybe it just doesn't add a lot of CO2.

 

[lousbrews]

I just keg my batches. I personally like to toy around with yeast variations but have found that Brett in anywhere to 5-15% quantities of the total yeast count result in wonderful tasting saisons. I wouldn't ever brew one without them again.

 

[TipsySaint]

anyone ever use the yeast bay saison and brett mix?

 

[masonsjax]

Yes. I've already commented about that blend in this thread. It has been producing fantastic fruity, earthy, mildly funky saisons for me. I brewed another this past week and will let this one go for at least 6 months and see what happens. I have been letting them age for around 3 months previously, but I think they could dry out a little more.

 

[TipsySaint]

I'm sorry masonsjax i missed that. I'm waiting for it come back in stock rather than the sour saison. I want to try the wallonia and the brett mix.... Super pumped!

 

[ICWiener]

I brewed another this past week and will let this one go for at least 6 months and see what happens. I have been letting them age for around 3 months previously, but I think they could dry out a little more.

Every time I've done that, I've been a little disappointed with the results. Again, anecdotal, but when I age a saison for 3 months and bottle, it's awesome. When I've let it go 6 months and bottle I've never got the funk that I'm looking for. I've read that the Brett behaves differently under pressure, so maybe bottling it makes it kick out the funk.

 

[ardonthorn5]

Brewed up a saison two weeks ago using 8 pounds 2 row, 3 pounds of rye, .5 pounds victory, wilamette at 60 and 8 oz. of whole leaf sorachi ace at flameout.....smells and tastes incredible. fermented with 3711, my all-time favorite yeast.

 

[TipsySaint]

Got the yeast bay saison brett and the wallionia and i'm going to try a split batch next week!

 

[TrojanAnteater]

I'm drinking a saison right now that I brewed about 1.5 months ago. I used Wyeast 3711. I get a nice peppery flavor from it and it's getting even better as it ages. When I first bottled it, I was extremely disappointed in it's flavor. Very boring. Now, it's coming along nicely and I would say it's very good. I would recommend the yeast.

I also brewed a saison with 3711 a couple months ago. I hopped it with 1.5oz of Motueka hops (described as lemon, lime, tropical) over the last 10/5/0 min. It was a 3 gallon batch. The inital flavor was disappointing if you thought you would get a dupont flavor, or super earthy.... it was more like a nice Belgian Pale Ale flavor. After a few weeks the hops really melded with the malts to give a nice juicy tart/fruit/lemony character. Didn't have spice or funk of saisons we see now days but some nice mild phenols and a GREAT texture for a 1.002 FG and 7.1% beer.