So I’ve been wanting to brew a saison for the entire summer and i finally got to brew my first one (Not from a kit) this past weekend. I’ve been listening to The Sour Hour a lot these days and when they had Tim Clifford from Sante Adairius Rustic Ales (SARA) on he gave some insight to the infamous Saison Bernice recipe. I love how these well known brewers are so open to help out the entire brewing community commercial to home brewing… It’s just fantastic… Anyway this got me thinking why not play off this great recipe a little bit. Over the winter and spring I stocked up on some great yeast and bacteria strains. So after planning out this saison for probably at least 2 months… I decided to take this recipe and just throw in 2 yeast bacteria blends that I couldn’t decide on. I chose East Coast Yeast – BugCounty (ECY20) and White Labs American Farmhouse Blend (WLP670).
Saison Bernice w/ ECY20 & WLP670
Method: All Grain
Style: Saison
Batch size: 5 Gallons
Boil time: 90 mins
OG: 1.084
FG: ?
ABV:
SRM: 4.79
IBU: 14.63
Efficiency: 85%
Grain Bill
11.25 lbs Am Pilsner
1.5 lbs Am Wheat
.75 lbs Am Vienna
.75 lbs Rolled Oats
.75 lbs Acid Malt
Hop Schedule
75 min – Styrian Ceilia Goldings, 1 oz. @ 4.5% AAU
Mash Schedule
146oF – Single Infusion for 90 min @ 1.35 qt/lb
170oF – Mash out
Water Treatment
1 tsp/gal – Gypsum
Yeast
1L starter for each @ 24hrs
Notes:
8/9/15 – I brewed this based off a 60 min mash but decided to switch to a 90 because I saw others using 90 min for similar saisons and I remember brewing my first saision kit and that was also a 90 min mash. Anyway my original efficiency which is usually spot on was 70% and rose to 85% with the extra 30 min. So this went from a 6.37% saison to a 7.9%. No big deal… mashed @ 146 for 90 min with a single infusion. Slow drain and then mashed out with 170oF let set for 5 min and again slow drain. Probably collected close to 7 Gallons of wort and boiled for 90 min with a 1 oz. hop addition of Styrian Celia Goldings (4.5% AAU) @ 75 min. Chilled and transferred about 5 Gal to fermenter then pitched ECY20 & WLP670 @ 80oF. Fermentation took off within a few hours and had to change my airlock to a blow-off tube because of the lively fermentation. I also decided to try a third running and pulled almost 5 Gal from another 90 min mash @ 145. Boiled that down to 1.024 with a .5 oz. hop addition of Saaz (3.5% AAU). Threw this in the fermenter with White Labs Brettanomyces Lambicus (WLP653). We’ll see what happens with this…
4/20/16 – So It’s been a little while… A lot has happened… Cider season has passed. Anyway this saison is still aging away but I have a few updates on what It’s become. I’m not sure what yeast it was but these things blew right threw the sugars… FG stands around 1.006 so that makes this a 10.24% SUPER SAISON! I was not expecting it to ferment down this far so it ended up a little hot. You can feel the burn on the back of the beer when you sip it. So I though of what I can do to possibly mask that burn/alcohol. I wanted to used these wine soaked oak staves my buddy gave me from his home made wine someday and I though this might be perfect for this beer! I let the beer age for about a month on the stave which was soaked in red wine before. The color changed slightly and the burn was muted a little by the oak flavor. I did like what the stave has added to the beer. A nice oaky/vanilla flavor along with a hint of wine. It’s still missing something though, and the heat is still there but not as pronounced as before. I am also waiting for the ECY yeast to take over whatever sugars are left and add a little tart/funkiness to the beer. This beer is coming up on 9 months aging and there is a slight tart/funkiness to it. I am thinking about possibly adding in some Jolly Pumpkin dregs to see if that will sour this beer up a little bit. I want to get this one ready for the summer but I don’t see myself drink more then one per day LOL!
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