Anyone brewed Coopers Biere Du Mois Saison?

[Markdon]

Browsing the Coopers site and spotted this, quite tickled my fancy. Just wondered if anyone had done it before? Tried googling it but not had any luck.

Just been brewing slightly tweeked kits, nothing as complex as this with two kits and malt, any more experienced brewers could offer any hints or tips that may help me in the brew?

Biere Du Mois Saison

Makes 20 litres. Saison (French for Season) is a very old southern Belgium beer style (possibly early 1700s), which was traditionally made by farmer-brewers in the late winter, stored until summer then provided to thirsty seasonal workers (les saisonniers). In those days, the supply of beer was often considered to be part of their payment. Working for beer – some things never change! The diversity of brews from one farmhouse to the next probably explains why the BJCP style guidelines describe Saison (16.C.) as such a broad category, with variations across colour, alcohol, bitterness and late hop presence. Despite such variation, one could argue that the essence of Saison comes from the yeast. It’s a highly carbonated, bottle conditioned ale, which often displays quite funky characters such as fruity, spicy, peppery, cloves, etc. The Saaz hop addition, although not necessary and not the typical type of hop for this style, adds a little bit of extra spiciness to the finished brew. You may choose to ferment warmer than the recipe recommends to get even more funk goin’ on!
FLAVOUR PROFILE:
Colour: Gold
Bitterness: Low
Body: Light
Approx. Alcohol Volume: 6.5
Carbonation Method: Natural
Ingredients
1.5kg Australian Pale Ale
1.5kg Thomas Coopers Wheat Beer
500g Coopers Light Dry Malt
25g Saaz Hops
11g Belle Saison Yeast

Step 1: Mix
Add Saaz hop pellets to 500ml of just boiled water and leave to infuse for about 15mins (this works well in a large coffee plunger or similar).
Place the Light Dry Malt in a sanitised, well drained fermenting vessel. Add 2 litres of hot water, immediately pick the FV up and swirl the contents until dissolved (about 15 secs) - this minimises lumps.
Add the beer kits and hop infusion to the FV and then stir to dissolve.
Top up with cold tap water to the 18 litre mark, stir thoroughly.
Check the temperature and top up to the 20 litre mark with warm or cool water (refrigerated if necessary) to start the brew at 24C.
Sprinkle the dry yeast or stir in liquid yeast and fit the lid.

Step 2: Brew
Allow the brew to cool over the course of 12 to 24 hours and ferment as close as possible to 20C.
Fermentation has finished once the specific gravity is stable over 2 days. It should finish around the 1004 – 1008 mark.


Step 3: Bottle
Bottle the brew with a priming rate of 8g per litre (2 carbonation drops per 750ml bottle).
Allow to condition for at least 2 weeks in the bottle.


Step 4: Enjoy!
Expect the alcohol content to be around 6.5% ABV.

Thanks.

 

[Markdon]

Just realised the malt is just dried malt, so not to dissimilar to what ive done in the past.

Added all items to basket in homebrew company, decided to use a white labs liquid yeast, saison ii, and its like £38 delivered, i could make two kits for that price, not sure if its worth the extra cash??

 

[Rivvo]

I've not brewed this but it seems an expensive way to do it, look on beer smith or brewmate for a recipe and make it with lme, usually about 3 kg in a recipe which comes to about £21 not including hops and yeast.

 

[Markdon]

Would i be able to do it that way with my basic kit?

 

[Rivvo]

I'm looking at going into extract from kits, I bought a 20 litre stock pot which is the only additional equipment required.
Some of the sponsors above even do extract kits where they send you all the stuff you need for it, or there are recipes in the recipe section on the forum.

 

[clibit]

Why not just get one can, and add some dried malt extract? Saison is usually based on pils malt and often 100% pils, so I'd use a pilsner kit rather than APA, and add 1kg light malt extract or wheat malt extract (which is not 100% wheat), plus some sugar, hops and a saison yeast. Saisons often contain sugar. Some saisons contain wheat, others don't. I'd be tempted to use wheat extract. A dried yeast will be cheaper, but I would read around and get the yeast that people recommend for saisons. Some people use T58, which costs about £1.50.

Coopers Pilsner can 11.25 (Wilko also does its own Pilsner kit currently £10))
1kg Extract 5.00
500g Sugar 50p
Saaz or Styrian Goldings Hops 3.00 ish
Yeast £1.50 - £6

Total £20-25

ABV for the above would be around 5.6% if you made a 19 litre batch.

Why not try Safbrew T58, which is pretty popular, then if you want to experiment further, try it again with a liquid yeast, like Whitelabs 565 or 566, or Wyeast 3711.

Using different saison yeasts will provide loads of variation, and strong flavours. I believe saisons should be fermented at high temperatures. Keep it warm. Keep it real. Keep us posted. :ugeek:

 

[Markdon]

Rivvo - thanks for the info!

Clibit - thats very interesting, think i will go this route to start with. Might buy double of everything and do two brews, one with dry yeast, one with liquid?

Brew one:
Coopers Pilsner
1kg wheat malt Extract
500g Sugar
30g Saaz Hops
T58 Yeast

Brew two:
Coopers Pilsner
2kg wheat malt Extract
30g Styrian Goldings Hops
Whitelabs WLP566 Yeast

Sound ok?

 

[clibit]

Yes, or just split one brew into two smaller FVs and do 10 litres in each. Use a full vial of liquid yeast and half a sachet of dried. I have a 12 litre FV and a 15 litre FV, as well as a 25 litre, so I can split batches like this, and usually do. Two different beers, more variety. Do you want c40 litres of something pretty experimental?

And/or you could do one with wheat malt extract and one with normal light dried malt extract.

 

[Markdon]

I would prefer two brews, then i know they are split equally. But you are right, its a gamble, one im willing to take!

Brew one:
Coopers Pilsner
1.5kg wheat malt Extract
30g Saaz Hops
T58 Yeast

Brew two:
Coopers Pilsner
1.5kg light malt Extract
30g Styrian Goldings Hops
Whitelabs WLP566 Yeast

I have spare of both those hops from previous adventures, so saving a little there. I think with this saving, and the good hbs i have will be well priced, just the yeast may have to be bought elsewhere.

 

[clibit]

You could buy yeast online, they don't weigh much so postage not crazy, probably about £3, depends where you buy. Brewuk.co.uk £2.99, Maltmiller £3.60. Or just get everything online in one purchase, think I would. You could weigh out the kit extract to split it, 750g in each FV. Just rinse out the scales as you do the can!

I'm now thinking of doing an all grain one myself, not done a saison yet. This recipe is well spoken of...

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/20 ... aison.html

And this thread provides a lot of info from people who seem to make saisons a lot:

http://www.ratebeer.com/forums/looking- ... 142129.htm

 

[Markdon]

Spoke to my hbs, he says he can order the whitelabs in, result.

 

[clibit]

Great stuff, I'd love to hear how it goes.

 

[Markdon]

Big if, but if i remember i will post in brewdays incase its any use to someone else.

Cheers for the chat and suggestions.

 

[Markdon]

Looking at

Prices:
Brew one:
Coopers Pilsner (£13.00)
1.5kg wheat malt Extract (1.8kg £13.50)
T58 Yeast (2.50)

Total £29.00

Brew two:
Coopers Pilsner (13.00)
1.5kg light malt Extract (1.8kg £13.50)
Whitelabs WLP566 Yeast (waiting for price from Whitelab)

Total £26.50

Ive priced up wlp566 and found the cheapest being £9.20 delivered.

 

[clibit]

Buying online would save a lot tbh.

If you buy everything from one of the places at the top of this webpage, you will pay one delivery fee of about £6, and everything will be much cheaper. And in my experience, much fresher too.

Malt extract will be about £5 per kg. x 3 = £15
Coopers about £11. x 2 = £22
Yeast £1.50 + £6.50 = £8
Delivery £6
Total Approx £51 (yours looking like £65ish depending on Whitelabs)

You could order other stuff online as well to take advantage of the delivery weight allowance, usually 30kg at that delivery price. I realise you may prefer to shop local. I would, it just costs more and hops, grains and yeast often seem much less fresh. Maybe that's Mancunian homebrew shops, they seem to focus on kits and not much else .

 

[Markdon]

Yeh online can be cheaper, but i like to support the little guy, he has given me lots of help and we are on first name terms and swapping brews, so unless he is double the price, i'll stick with him.

 

[clibit]

That's cool, if you fnd a guy like that, you are in luck.