Belle Saison yeast and Mandarin Bavaria hops

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spook100
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Belle Saison yeast and Mandarin Bavaria hops

Post by spook100 » Wed Feb 21, 2018 5:06 pm

I've had some success previously with an orange and coriander saision. I am trying to redesign the recipe to get the same sort of flavours from the hops and yeast rather than orange and coriander additions. I'm aiming for light-medium flavours, not too strong.

I'm thinking of using Mandarin Bavaria hops because they are reported to give an orange/mandarin citrus flavour (as oppose lemon/grapefruit) and Belle Saison yeast for the spicy notes. Thought I might through in a bit of Saaz or Styrian Goldings too for their spicy notes - but not sure if they will go with the MB hops? Malt will be around 75% pilsner and 25% wheat, with maybe a touch of munich. Around 4% ABV.

Opinions/suggestion would be most welcome.
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Re: Belle Saison yeast and Mandarin Bavaria hops

Post by dbambrick996 » Thu Feb 22, 2018 1:11 pm

Sounds good, haven’t used MB hops yet but looking at the hop profile it should deliver what you require. U could also add a good quality orange essence near the end of primary.

I did do a very nice saison with Belle and Citra. Very dry and refreshing summer beer 5.4 abv


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Re: Belle Saison yeast and Mandarin Bavaria hops

Post by spook100 » Thu May 10, 2018 1:06 pm

I finally got around to brewing this over the weekend. Wow, that Belle Saison takes off! I had foam gushing out through the airlock 12 hours after pitching.
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Re: Belle Saison yeast and Mandarin Bavaria hops

Post by MTW » Thu May 10, 2018 1:38 pm

I've had many good homebrewed saisons with Belle, including one of my own. I have to say, I find it gives off a (nice) lemon note, so you'll just have to see how you go (if you're trying to avoid that!). Finishes very dry indeed; mine was 1.001 from a 1.040 odd start, though still in a refreshing way. Wouldn't want to bottle that too early!
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Re: Belle Saison yeast and Mandarin Bavaria hops

Post by wolfenrook » Sat May 12, 2018 12:47 pm

I rather liked the Belle when I used it in my braggot too. Went from 1.060 down to 1.000 happily (so easy to get a high OG when making braggot it seems. lmao). I used 2 packets obviously with the OG been over 1.050. It was surprisingly clean for a Saison yeast, but sticks to the bottle like nobodies business, making for a nice clean pour.

Mangrove Jacks M29 French Saison is similarly high attenuating though (3 days under 23 degrees C, then slowly ramped up to 26 degrees C). Took my last Saison from 1.050 (so 1 packet, just... lol) down to 1.000. Touch more citrus flavour from it than the Belle though, but on the con side it doesn't stick to the bottle quite as well as the Belle in my experience. It's all in that ramp up to 26 degrees C though, as the Saison I made previously with this yeast bottomed out at 1.004 (from 1.054), but temps maxed out at 24 degrees C as I didn't heat the FV at all, just wrapped it in blankets.

There are a couple more dried Saison yeasts on the market that I want to try now too, both claiming to be Belgian strain rather than French. Safale BE134 (folks reckon it's spicy, with hints of apple/pear) and Bulldog B16 Belgian Saison (can't find ANY posts anywhere from anybody trying it...).

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Re: Belle Saison yeast and Mandarin Bavaria hops

Post by spook100 » Wed May 23, 2018 3:25 pm

This beer finished up at 1.002. I was a bit disappointed when sampling straight after primary because the phenolic, spicy taste from the saison yeast was overpowering. But a week later, and having dropped the temp from 26c to 5c, they are still there but are quite subtle now - just what I wanted from it.

I'm not getting much of the mandarin flavour from the mandarina bavaria hops, just a hint of it in the aroma, so have thrown in an extra 32g of dry hops to see if I can bring it out.
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Re: Belle Saison yeast and Mandarin Bavaria hops

Post by spook100 » Thu May 31, 2018 8:57 am

Another week on and it has actually dropped a couple more points in gravity. The flavour is fine but way to dry for my taste. Any rescue suggestions?
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Re: Belle Saison yeast and Mandarin Bavaria hops

Post by wolfenrook » Thu May 31, 2018 1:06 pm

Give it about 3 months in the bottle to condition maybe? Belle Saison does ferment very dry, however given some conditioning time you don't notice so much.

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Re: Belle Saison yeast and Mandarin Bavaria hops

Post by spook100 » Mon Jun 04, 2018 2:56 pm

I think the problem was too much carbonation. I originally carbonated to around 2.5 volumes but after dropping it back to 1.8 volumes it is a lot more drinkable.
A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it's better to be thoroughly sure.

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