Summer Saison

[serum]

Haha you can try butter but I take no responsibility for the results. I've no idea whether British malts will be detrimental to the flavour. I gravitate towards the Belgian and German ones because I know they're what the breweries use but there's something to be said for using local products. I'm sure you can get British Munich malt but if you want to try it, look for one that has the same colour as Munich 1 as it's quite pale. It converts well by itself.

[serum]

As for hops I say keep that simple to let the rhubarb do its thing. The goldings you're planning on will work nicely. My approach is to pick a focus which would be hops, yeast or malt and keep the rest simple. Belle saison as a yeast isn't massively expressive compared to some so the rhubarb ought to come through.

[Clibit]

As for hops I say keep that simple to let the rhubarb do its thing. The goldings you're planning on will work nicely. My approach is to pick a focus which would be hops, yeast or malt and keep the rest simple. Belle saison as a yeast isn't massively expressive compared to some so the rhubarb ought to come through.

I might use First Gold or Challenger as I'm low on Goldings. I'm not sure how much the hops could come through with this yeast. I want the beer light, zesty and fruity.

There are different colour UK Munich malts from different maltsters.

Hanglow, apologies for the full on hijack.

[serum]

Not sure about those. Challenger for a bittering hop should be fine but I've no idea how that or first gold will work in a saison. Can't see it being disastrous though. I'm quite a traditionalist so I prefer European or British hops in this kind of brew. That's just my taste though.

[Clibit]

Not sure about those. Challenger for a bittering hop should be fine but I've no idea how that or first gold will work in a saison. Can't see it being disastrous though. I'm quite a traditionalist so I prefer European or British hops in this kind of brew. That's just my taste though.

Challenger and First Gold are both British, and not too far away from Goldings. They both give a little orange flavour which could go well with the rhubarb.

[serum]

I say go for it. When I looked I noticed they use challenger in one of my favourite Belgian blonds so I think that'll work nicely.

[Clibit]

I say go for it. When I looked I noticed they use challenger in one of my favourite Belgian blonds so I think that'll work nicely.

Cheers serum. Not sure when I'll do it, I have a different brew lined up first, but the rhubarb needs culling.

Not sure on the malts yet. From reading around, the saison style is very loose. Anything seems to go. Often it's 100% pilsner. I'm out of Munich at the moment, could get some. I like caramalt though, and I've seen saison recipes with Cara malts in them. I do have Vienna, so that might be a good idea. Will probably drop or reduce the wheat.

Edit: I've remembered I have a Harvest Lager kit, so I'm tempted to do a partial mash and add lager/pilsner malt, Vienna and caramalt. Boost the quantity I get, and I did this with my previous Belle Saison brew, using a Harvest pilsner kit, and it worked really well.

Looking forward to hearing how Hanglow's brew turns out! When will it be ready to quaff?

[Hanglow]

I should be able to do a taste test in two weeks or so

I found an old boots immersion heater for wine that was unused and am using that to keep the temp at a steady 25C. Seems to be working well. No blow off but a touch of banana smell from the fermentation, hopefully that won't be in the beer at all though.

[Hanglow]

Bottled today, FG was 1.004 giving 92% AA Sample was lovely, full bodied too considering. Carbonation to 2.8 volumes. Looking forward to this
Also saved a jar of yeast to try with some turbo cider

[serum]

You've inspired me to grab some challenger for a few saisons I've got planned. Might do one in the next few weeks.

[Hanglow]

These have pretty much dropped bright allready, looking at the bottles with the light behind them. I'm chilling one in the fridge right now to try out far to early really but some carbonation tests are always called for, to make sure of no bottle bombs

[duncans]

Any European hop seems to go well with these I think. Whatever bittering charge you make the belle saison will rip through it. I did a split batch with belle saison and wlp002, massive difference in hop profile.

My favourite saison are with hallertau or Stygian goldings, especially with vienna. Perle is nice too if you use munich.
Enjoying a g lass of this as I type and enjoying it ....

20% munich, 20% Vienna, 10% sugar, 50% lager malt
Spalt, 60 min for 15 ibu. Spalt, 10 min for 4 ibu
Few months conditioning is pretty tasty.

Never used rhubarb though.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

From my experience you can throw a lot at a saison and it will work.

And I mean almost any hop, noble hops , English hops, big alpha stuff, and it can take a lot of interesting malts. Think oats, flaked rye etc. That's before you put in wired shit like honey, fruit, elderflower, juniper etc.

As long as you let it finish, and carbonate it well you are good. Though I like to have some character in the base malt.

[Hanglow]

One month on exactly from brewing it I though I'd give a taste test. I moved it to my cellar a few days ago from warm conditioning.



Pours light golden hay colour, crystal clear. Aroma of floral zesty lemon, fairly light. Tastes is a touch spicy lemony. Decent bitterness, nice dry finish. Body is surprisingly full.

It's rather good I'd be tempted to throw more flavour hops at it next time, and a dry hop.

I'm certainly impressed with the yeasts ability to drop, it was pretty cloudy when I bottled it as I didn't drop the temp of primary at all. As for the flavour, well it's no saison dupont but it's pleasant enough. I wonder if it would be a good yeast to co pitch with the saison dupont strain, perhaps 12 hours after pitching it maybe, so it finishes well and in a timely manner as I know SD can be a bit more picky and stall

[Clibit]

Well it's a lovely photo, and I like the description of the lemony spice. Nice work.