29th Brew – Hoppy Brett Saison – July 3 2010

Its time to take a break from my back yard and brew again. 2 months is definitely my limit even with all the landscaping going on outside.

My Bier De Garde kicked a few weeks ago, which means we definitely need to get another farmhouse ale queued up. I really enjoyed the velvety mouth feel, flavor, and dryness that the Wyeast 3711 French Saison yeast adds to the beer so I’m definitely thinking of using it again. If you have ever tried the new Stillwater Stateside Saison, the same yeast is used and I felt it added a really nice flavor to that beer as well. I had a chance to speak with Brian Strumke the owner several months ago at a Frisco Grille pint night and he indicated that the fermentation is on the warm side. He lets the beer free rise in the 70s capping so it doesn’t get too high. I’m thinking I will probably do the same, maybe a 70-75 degree fermentation and rise, but we’ll see how cold we can chill the beer.

Since this will be our 3rd farmhouse ale, we decided to add a twist to it with the addition of extra hops and some of my favorite wild yeast, brettanomyces. Typically saisons don’t really get too much hop character, maybe a couple ounces in a 5 gallon batch and somewhere around 20-25 IBUs. For this beer I would like to stick to the low acid hops that are traditional with saisons and just add more. Maybe somewhere around 10 ounces for a 10 gallon batch, 40+ IBU, and with sufficient balance of bitter, flavor, and aroma. The details will be figured out later as I don’t have a recipe finalized yet.

For the brett I’m thinking I will either do all bruxellensis or a blend of bruxellensis and claussenii because that worked out very well for the Wild Levitation. Definitely going to give the 3711 yeast plenty of time give the beer a nice saison flavor, but I still want a decent level of brett flavor, so the plan is to pitch the second starter while high krausen is still near its peak. Hopefully the balance will work out, but worst case is we get a little extra brett.

Last thing I want to mention is that this is going to be a family brew, so I’m only inviting a few neighbors and of course much of my family. The usual invitation will go out for the next brew.

Cheers!