Biere De Garde Saison

[Spapro]

Morning all,

wanted to try something a little different so going with this Greg Hughes inspired Biere de Garde with a Belgian Belle Saison Yeast.

I have toned down the grain bill to get me to around 5.1%ABV. Never used a Saison yeast before so interesting to see how it goes and tastes.

Also added a second element to my Peco boiler yesterday to help with heating times getting water up to strike temp and then up to the boil. Running each element off a different circuit in my garage to avoid overloading my house electrics.

So, got started this morning, took 20 mins to get up to 69°C, added the BIAG and grains and got the mash started at 65°C at 10:10am.

Here are some piccies, will add more and the full recipet as we go today, cant beat a brewday, smiling from ear to ear :grin:

 

[Spapro]

Here is the recipe, original GH grain bill was 6.5kg = 7% ABV. Toned mine down to give me 5.1% ABV:

Batch size 23l

2.8kg Pale Malt (Maris Otter)
1.0kg Vienna Malt
325g Aromatic Cara Malt
325kg Biscuit Malt

60 minutes - 15g Hercules for bittering (17.3% alpha)
5 minutes - 30g Tettnang (3.0% alpha)
0 minutes - 25g Tettnang (steep for 30 minutes at 80°C)

Yeast Lallemand Belle Saison 11g dried packet - will re-hydrate before adding.

SG = 1.042
FG expected is 1.003
27.2 IBU's

Planning to brew at 20°C for 4 days then step up to 25°C for a further week or so.

Having tea and toast now, mash finishing at 11:10 so nearly time to rinse my grains with some kettle water and move to the boil.

 

[Spapro]

Mash finished at 64°C (1 degree lost over 60 minutes)

2nd element in the boiler has dramatically improved heating to boil etc, took just 20 minutes to get to boil, just avoided a boilover, had to quickly kill the power to the 2nd element, narrowly avoiding a mess !

Anyway, boil started at 11:40 and 60 minute Herkules bittering hops added.

Some more piccies:

 

[jceg316]

Interesting recipe. I really like Hercules as a bittering hop, not just because of the high AA but because the lack of aromatics so I don't have that voice at the back of my head saying "this could be used as a finishing hop you know..."

I used biscuit malt in a saison which is now ready to drink, I can't taste it at all and I'm not sure what it's bringing to the party. I reckon it will come through on a month or 2 once the beer has conditioned a bit more.

 

[serum]

Interesting recipe. I really like Hercules as a bittering hop, not just because of the high AA but because the lack of aromatics so I don't have that voice at the back of my head saying "this could be used as a finishing hop you know..."

I used biscuit malt in a saison which is now ready to drink, I can't taste it at all and I'm not sure what it's bringing to the party. I reckon it will come through on a month or 2 once the beer has conditioned a bit more.

I found dingemans biscuit pretty overpowering when I used 300g in an early brew but it was only with pilsner and my process wasn't that good back then. Interested to hear how this pans out. Id try to keep the temp on the lower end of the scale with that yeast and malt combo. Saison is very estery but Biere de garde is clean and malty but both should finish dry. Id say try to minimise esters as best you can when fermenting this so the malt comes through.

 

[Spapro]

Thanks Guys, read this interesting post on fermenting temps for this yeast, think it needs a higher temp to get the desired effect, thinking 18-20°C for 4 or 5 days then ramping up to 25°C to finish should be about right, but only time will tell: http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=37351

Anyway, finished boil, chilled quickly to 80°C then 30 minutes flameout hop steep started at 12:45 at 77°C.

More piccies:

 

[serum]

I don't think Belle saison necessarily needs heat to finish but it can certainly take heat without crapping out. More heat in the early stages means more esters. Use heat at the end to speed up the finish if you want.

 

[Uncle_Gareth]

Total coincidence but I am brewing this exact same kit today as my first brew with my new Grainfather!

Have stuck completely to the BrewUK kit as it's the first outing for the GF.

Will post later when I have finished - it's mashing away happily at the moment and not far off sparging time...

 

[jceg316]

I found dingemans biscuit pretty overpowering when I used 300g in an early brew but it was only with pilsner and my process wasn't that good back then. Interested to hear how this pans out. Id try to keep the temp on the lower end of the scale with that yeast and malt combo. Saison is very estery but Biere de garde is clean and malty but both should finish dry. Id say try to minimise esters as best you can when fermenting this so the malt comes through.

I think I used dingemans as well, either them or Castle. As I say, it will probably come out more in a in the flavour in a couple of months. I used Jester for bittering, aroma and dry hop as I really wanted to try it and it goes really well in a saison.

Keen to hear how this saison turns out though, do post back on here when the batch is ready to drink!

 

[Spapro]

Thanks for the info Serum, will start off at 18-19°C and a have a think about upping the temp to finish.

Uncle_Gareth - wow, great mind eh, interested to hear how yours turns out and I will post up here how mine progresses.

All done, and cleaned up, Got 23litres in FV, measured starting gravity at 1044 so close enough at 20°C just befor pitching:

 

[Leon103]

I found that my saison really came into its own after I put a few bottles in the fridge at 3c. This had been sat in the garage for a few months. I am lagering a Pilsner so chucked some saison in there for a few weeks and they are lovely

 

[serum]

Belgian yeasts can take an age to clear so I can see why that would be the case. The ones where I've been able to keep them cold for conditioning tend to come out best.

 

[Spapro]

Cheers guys, will make sure they get some time in the fridge before drinking