Biere de Garde bottling morning

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Cwrw666

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I've just finished bottling my Biere de Garde, brewed from the Greg Hughes book, and the most expensive beer I've made so far - almost as much as a decent 2 can kit! Mostly because I had to buy in all the speciality malts and hops in specially for it - plus French Saison yeast at £6.85 !!!!!
Needless to say I've had a wee try of it whilst bottling, and am now contemplating spending the rest of the day sitting in my chair....
 
I have a 500ml bottle full of trub so I'd guess that's at least 2 more brews.
I don't have all the special malts so I'm planning on substituting some cherry smoked malt and crystal for the biscuit and aromatic malts. I've got everything else for another brew - hops and vienna malt.
Last halloween I went with the familly to Pipes brewery in Cardiff and the beer of theirs I liked most was a `smoked farmhouse saison'. This biere de Garde tastes exactly the same except for the smokiness.

halloween 2015 8.jpg
 
I do a nice French saison using Pilsner malt and some light dry hopping of Columbus and cascade. It's somewhere between a lager, saison, and a IPA. it's a real favourite with my mates.

Needless to say I love a saison.


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Had a look at this again in the book, does look nice.. so it is on my radar, look forward to your comments

Any one got any comments on how a French Saison compares to a Belgian??
 
French has less "funk" to it. Nowhere near as much clove and banana and I think it's a more refined saison. I find some of the really funky Belgians a bit to much for my taste and the #3711 hits the spot for me. Plus as a yeast it ferments out at a good pace and it doesn't get stuck like allot of the other Belgians have a habit of doing.


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Had a look at this again in the book, does look nice.. so it is on my radar, look forward to your comments

Any one got any comments on how a French Saison compares to a Belgian??

French saison isn't really a type of beer, it's only come about due to the yeast which was derived from a French Brewery called Thiriez and their blond is a bit like a saison.

That yeast is actually a bit dry for a Biere de garde in my view but it'll make a decent beer. It finishes way drier than the actual beer it's meant to come from.

If you want to learn more about the style buy a book called Farmhouse Ales. It's a cracking read.
 
French saison isn't really a type of beer, it's only come about due to the yeast which was derived from a French Brewery called Thiriez and their blond is a bit like a saison.

That yeast is actually a bit dry for a Biere de garde in my view but it'll make a decent beer. It finishes way drier than the actual beer it's meant to come from.

If you want to learn more about the style buy a book called Farmhouse Ales. It's a cracking read.

Thanks.. Interesting thoughts, I didn't think French Saison was much of a defined style as well we know they come from the Belgian farmhouse.. I just kind of curious as to how the yeast is.. I take it that it is just kind of a funkier yeast they use on the blonde?
 
Thanks for all the comments. This was the first time I've tried making this beer and I've only knowingly had a `farmhouse saison' once before, as I mentioned in an earlier post.
Had my first couple of bottles a few days ago - it's really, really nice though a lot of the flavour I remember from my few pints at the Pipes Brewery (and which was present at the bottling stage) seems to have faded which suggests to me that the Pipes one I had at the brewery was in fact really young. So although interesting to have made it, probably not going to be making any more in future as it was really expensive compared to my normal brews.
I have however done a second brew using the yeast trub from the first. I didn't have all the speciality malts - aromatic or biscuit - so I've substituted dark crystal and cherrywood smoked malt. At the moment it's still in the FV but is just about ready to bottle. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.
 
The French saison yeast is really dry and a bit peppery but not as fruity as the saison dupont yeast which is a bit like juicy fruit chewing gum. I find French saison yeast a bit more neutral so you can play around with flavours and spices a bit more.

If you want to make something like modern "craft" brewers make with all sorts of fruits, spices or US hops then French saison will work. If you prefer the Belgian style then the Belgian saison strands are good. Wlp550 or wyeast 3522 can work well too.
 
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