Coopers Saison

Discuss making up beer kits - the simplest way to brew.
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hazelbrew

Coopers Saison

Post by hazelbrew » Thu Feb 04, 2016 12:33 am

Put this on at the weekend. Had a moment of madness and attempted two brews and one new cooking dish (pulled pork enchiladas) all at the same time... twas interesting. this was the easiest of the brews, the other is another post and was my first BIAB ag attempt...

Anyway... Coopers don't make a saison... but many people have been rolling their own by combining a coopers pale ale kit with wheat beer and a small hop addition. I used a coopers australian bitter kit instead - it is similar colour and IBU as the pale ale

I did the following:

On Saturday:
1.7kg - Coopers Australian Bitter kit
1kg - wheat DME
40g Savinjski Golding
280g cane sugar.
Danstar Belle Saison yeast.

I didn't measure the OG. I don't bother so much with the kits - brewers friend seems to do a good enough job working the numbers out of@:

OG: 1042.
Expected final gravity: 1.008
Expected ABV: 4.36% (pre priming sugars)
After priming sugar should be about 4.5%


Boiled half the DME in a few litres of water to dissolve cleanly for 10 minutes.
added the hops for the final 5 minutes then turned off an dlet all steep.
rehydrated the Belle Saison yeast.
added the kit, dissolving the sugar in the kit with boiled water.
made up to 23 litres with much splashing and sloshing....

aerated with paint stirrer attached to power drill... at 22:30.
pitched yeast.
stuck fish tank heater in, but fairly low. This was coming out at 18-19C at the surface of the wort the next morning.

by the next morning the krausen was creeping out of the FV.

tested SG on Tuesday and it was down to 1024.

So...

why the sugar? Why the low OG?
- i have been reading the "Farmhouse ales" book. Original saison were quite light, thirst quenching beers intended to refresh. So a lower ABV like 4-5 %. That is what I am after here - the sugar just ups the ABV a touch and should let it dry out well. if the Belle Saison really gets hold of it then it may finish a lot lower like 1.004 or less. That would be 90% attenuation and approx 5% ABV when bottled.

smells coming out of the fermenter are great :)

I have now increased the temperature in the FV to let it finish well.

I've missed the chance to harvest yeast from the top, so will have to save it when done.

hazelbrew

Re: Coopers Saison

Post by hazelbrew » Mon Feb 08, 2016 9:59 pm

Well this yeast is a bit of a beast isn't it?

Took a gravity reading on the 3rd - it was down to 1012.

Took one tonight and we have...I would call it 1.004. amazing. that is 90% apparent attenuation. I am not sure it is done yet either. though it looks fairly placid on top.

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hazelbrew

Re: Coopers Saison

Post by hazelbrew » Wed Feb 17, 2016 10:38 am

Bottled two gallons of this at the weekend. Final gravity looked like 1.003.

Sample out of the jar tasted good. Very crisp and drinkable. I looking forward to this experiment. I bottled some in 750ml champagne bottles too. :)

What did I do with the rest?
I have one gallon doing a dry hop with 15g of glacier hops
1 gallon with a yeast bay lochristi mix pitched
1 gallon with a yeast bay Melange mix pitched.

I added a small amount say 10g of sugar to each demijohn to wake up yeast and give them something else to work on. Not much fermentable left so might add some maltodextrin to the two with yeast bay mixes.

The two with bugs and Brett will be left for months. Dry hop will bottle this week.

Saved the yeast cake from this tontry in something else.

MattyBoy

Re: Coopers Saison

Post by MattyBoy » Sat Feb 20, 2016 4:51 pm

Sounds superb! I must get my 3 FVs active again... been too busy :o

hazelbrew

Re: Coopers Saison

Post by hazelbrew » Sat Feb 20, 2016 5:56 pm

MattyBoy wrote:Sounds superb! I must get my 3 FVs active again... been too busy :o
I bottled the dry hopped one in the week. very hoppy, no extra bitterness really.

smelt and tasted great even with no carbonation straight from the demi john. Got 5 500ml and 5 250ml bottles out of it. Quite pleased...

I also fed the bugs in the other 2 dj. 100g BKE2 and 50g maltodextrin. the BKE 2 is 60/40% dextrose maltodextrin. should be 30g dextrose and 45g maltodextrin added to each demi john. Might or might not work. the base might be too bitter for some of the bacteria.

The brett should work as long as it survived. It was a very out of date liquid pitch - but it had been stored in the fridge...and the it has gone into just 4.5 litres.

hazelbrew

Re: Coopers Saison

Post by hazelbrew » Mon Feb 29, 2016 11:16 pm

properly tasted this weekend.

really happy with how this turned out, especially for the amount of effort in doing it... not sure carbonation is right. need a bit more experience. also not 100% bright, but it will drop clearer. Only been conditionning for two weeks.

refreshing cold brew from the fridge, with that distinct saison taste and smell.

also tried the Glacier hopped version and wow. :)

now all I need is 25C weather outside! This is one I will almost certainly brew again.

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hazelbrew

Re: Coopers Saison

Post by hazelbrew » Fri Apr 29, 2016 12:24 am

Still drinking ok. Anyone thinking of doing this as a kit go for it. easy.

This is the melange demijohn.
Took a sample few days ago. significant acidity and change to the base beer. I am going to bottle this. you can see the results of the bugs on the glass of the demijohn.

not sure what to do with the yeast cake though. Keep it yes, but then what?
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hazelbrew

Re: Coopers Saison

Post by hazelbrew » Tue May 24, 2016 10:37 pm

and the other demijohn has now started doing something interesting.

this one had the Yeast Bay Lochristi pitched to it, and some bottle dregs. I don't remember what bottles went in.

This was a picture tonight with a start of a pellicle:

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Bigveees

Re: Coopers Saison

Post by Bigveees » Wed Feb 14, 2018 10:54 am

N1 Hazelbrew,

Nice to see the updates here with what you did. I've got to do a saison soon, so I will now consider using coopers syrups.

Just got my temperature control fridge sorted for fermentation. So off we go!
Went a little silly and threw together a double Australian pale ale with citra hops to kick off my down under brewing

Cheers
Andy

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