Hoppy Rye Saison with Brett Trois – Recipe and Review

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Nick Ladd

More and more I’m beginning to think that there is real potential to create delicious beers by exploiting the synergies that can take place between fruity American hops, and fruity yeast strains. To achieve this end, it is important to select the appropriate hop varieties that lean more towards the fruity/tropical rather than pine/resin end of the flavor spectrum. To further investigate these possibilities, I decided to brew up a super hoppy saison that would be complemented by the pleasant fruitiness provided by the Dupont saison yeast and intense tropical esters provided by Brettanomyces Trois (which may or may not actually be a Brettanomyces strain). Additionally, my goal in pitching a Brett strain along with the traditional Dupont strain would be to allow the Brett to finish up the ferment where the Dupont yeast typically stalls out.

Hoppy Rye Saison with Brett Trois

Recipe Specs:
Size: 3.31 gal
Efficiency: 70%
Attenuation: 84%

Original Gravity: 1.050
Terminal Gravity: 1.008
Color: 3.87 SRM
Alcohol: 5.5% ABV
Bitterness: 30.6 IBU
Mash Temp: 144°F 90 min., 154°F 10 min.

Grain Bill:
5.75 lb (79.3%) Weyermann Pilsner Malt
.75 lb (10.3%) Weyermann Rye Malt
.75 lb (10.3%) Briess Flaked Rye

Hopping:
0.75 oz Mandarina Bavaria (7.2% AA) – 90 m

1 oz Citra™ (13.7% AA) – 180 degree hop stand – 20 m
2 oz Mandarina Bavaria (7.2% AA) – 180 degree hop stand – 20 m
1 oz Centennial (10.5% AA) – 180 degree hop stand – 20 m

2 oz Amarillo® (8.5% AA) – Hop Back

1 oz Mandarina Bavaria (7.2% AA) – Dry Hop 3 Days
1 oz Citra™ (13.7% AA) – Dry Hop 3 Days

Kettle Additions:
0.5 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – 15 m
0.5 tsp Wyeast Nutrient – 10 m

Yeast:
WYeast 3724 Belgian Saison™ – Added to 2 gallons of wort
White Labs WLP644 Brettanomyces Trois – Added to 1 gallon of wort

The Saison strain and Brett strain were pitched on brew day into two separate fermentation vessels. Once the Saison yeast stalled (typical of this strain), the two fermenters were combined and allowed to co-ferment.

Water Treatment:
Soft NYC municipal water with 3g Gypsum and 2g Calcium Chloride added to the mash.

Tasting Notes:

Judged as a BJCP Category 16E Belgian Specialty Ale

Aroma (11/12):
Initially there is a big hit of meyer lemon-like fruit up front, followed by a massive amount of tropical fruit. The beer is almost reminiscent of POG (Passion Orange Guava) juice. Very bright and refreshing aroma. The impression of fruitiness is huge, but it is unclear where the hops and yeast character begin and end. A great melding of aroma compounds. Malt is soft and bready. No grassiness, alcohol heat, or other off-aromas. Just a hint of pepper — not as much as you’d find in a typical saison.

Appearance (1/3):
Murky gold. The hop haze and high-protein rye have produced a very muddy beer. Glass is capped with a nice persistent white foam.

Flavor (16/20):
Huge tropical notes fill the pallet. Very delicious and refreshing. Low amounts of pepper-like phenols are present and add to the beer’s dry impression. The base malt is in the background and nondescript. The rye is evident and provides a spicy kick. The overall impression of dryness is very high and gives a great refreshing impression. The is a firm hop bitterness that is high for style, but works well in this beer.

Mouthfeel (5/5):
This is where the rye really shines. The beer has an immensely pleasurable silky mouthfeel that prevents a dry beer like this from feeling too austere. The silky body balances well against a prickly level of carbonation.

Overall Impression (9/10):
This is a fantastic, refreshing, and complex beer. In many ways, it feel more like a Belgian IPA than saison due to the immense hop aroma and flavor. The synergies that are happening between the potent hopping and yeast derived compounds work well. It will be interesting to see where this beer goes as the hops begin to fade and the yeast derived flavors come more to the foreground.

Excellent (42/50)

Three Brett Saison Varieties Reviewed

Posted on May 17, 2014 by Nick Ladd

Back in July 2013, I brewed a saison heavily hopped with American varietals, and split them into three separate secondary vessels inoculated individually with Brettanomyces Lambicus, Brettanomyces Bruxellensis, and a mixed culture of ‘bugs’ cultured from a bottle of Crooked Stave Surette. These cultures were added to the main beer after a short initial fermentation using Wyeast 3724 which (as expected) dropped early and left a lot of residual sugar (1.025) for the secondary cultures to work on. The beers were allowed to age with the mixed cultures for 5-months before being bottled for consumption.

The goal of this experiment was to evaluate the impact that different secondary cultures can have on a base beer. It was amazing to taste how the different secondary cultures caused dramatically different transformations of the base beer. As expected, the two Brett strains were the most similar, with the Crooked Stave culture being clearly cut from a different cloth. Terminal gravities between the three samples were also slightly different:

Brett Lambicus: 1.004 (92.7% Apparent Attenuation)
Brett Brux: 1.002 (96.3% Apparent Attenuation)
Crooked Stave Culture: 1.006 (89% Apparent Attenuation)

Flavor and Aroma Notes:

Brettanomyces Lambicus (White Labs WLP653)
Overall, this beer has the mellowest level of Brett funk and fruity esters. The Brett character is medium in intensity and reminiscent of horse, hay, and earth. A touch of band-aid like phenol is present, but not overly offensive. There is a nice bready pilsner malt character that shines through the funk.

Brettanomyces Bruxellensis (White Labs WLP650)
This beer had by far the most pronounced Brett character. There is a moderately-high level of horsey / musty funk. The ester profile is really nice with slight hints of ripe pineapple and other fruit. There is a low level of band-aid phenol that is slightly higher than what was found in the Brett Lambicus sample. Again, there is a nice round bready malt character in both the Brett beers that somehow manages to shine through despite the high levels of attenuation.

Crooked Stave Surette Culture
By far the fruitiest sample. There is a round fruity ester reminiscent of tart pie cherries. This beer developed a nice level of bright lactic acidity. Not quite puckering, but pleasantly tart which helps reinforce the fruit notes. There is a light banana ester present which is a bit out of place. I am quite surprised with this beer’s lactic character given the high level of hopping and lacto’s typical intolerance to hop compounds. This makes me hypothesize that the strain of lacto Crooked Stave is using is more tolerant to high hopping than other commercially available strains. Funky Brett notes are present, but subdued. The nice malt character found in the previous two beers is well hidden beneath the big fruit character of this beer.

Final Thoughts:

Part of my goal with this beer was to evaluate how Brett strains meld with American hop varietals. While there was a bit of citrusy hops still present in the beers, it for the most part has oxidized and dissipated. For the next version, I think it is imperative to dry hop a beer like this after extended aging and prior to packaging to allow the volatile hop aromatics to survive in the final beer and meld with the Brett derived flavors and aromatics.

Belgian Saison Recipe

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Nick Ladd

Saison can be a difficult beer to brew, especially when using the yeast attributed to Brasserie Dupont (Wyeast 3724 or White Labs WLP565) which can be notoriously fickle. In my experience with using solely Wyeast 3724 the beer tends to attenuate about 10-25% in a day or two, and then floc out and take an additional 4-6 weeks of heavy heat to complete fermentation. To overcome this, I’ve designed this recipe to first use the Dupont strain to impart its beautiful ester profile and then the French saison strain (Wyeast 3711) to get the beer dried out in a reasonable amount of time. Additionally this recipe contains a fair amount of acidulated malt to accentuate the beers quenching nature as well as a fair amount of Munich malt to compliment the austere pilsner base. The touch of special roast provides additional character to the malt flavor. I don’t like coriander or other spices in my saisons as I think the yeast gives plenty of spice character on its own.

Specifications

Volume: 6.12 Gallons
Original Gravity: 1.055
Terminal Gravity: 1.004
Color: 8.37 SRM
Alcohol: 6.65%
Bitterness: 24.3
Efficiency: 78% (tweak recipe to match efficiency of your brew house)
Boil Length: 90 Minutes

Ingredients

7 lb (57.7%) Belgian Pils
2 lb (16.5%) Munich TYPE II; Weyermann
2 lb (16.5%) Pale Wheat Malt; Weyermann
6 oz (3.1%) Acidulated Malt; Weyermann
4 oz (2.1%) Special Roast Malt; Briess
.5 lb (4.1%) White Table Sugar (Sucrose)
.5 oz (18.2%) Magnum (12.5%) – added during boil, boiled 60 m
.5 oz (18.2%) Hallertau Mittelfruh (3.4%) – added during boil, boiled 60 m
.5 oz (18.2%) Styrian Goldings (3.8%) – added during boil, boiled 20 m
1 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 15 m
.75 tsp Wyeast Nutrient – added during boil, boiled 10 m
.75 oz (27.3%) Hallertau Mittelfruh (3.4%) – added during boil, boiled 0.0 m
.5 oz (18.2%) Styrian Goldings (3.8%) – added during boil, boiled 0.0 m
1 ea WYeast 3724 Belgian Saison™ – 1000ml Starter on Stirplate
1 ea WYeast 3711 French Saison Yeast

Water

Carbon-filtered Seattle water which is very soft. All salts added to grist before mashing in.
4.0 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)
6.0 g Calcium Chloride (Calcium Chloride)
2.0 g Epsom Salts (Magnesium Sulfate)

Mash

90 Minute Saccharification Rest at 146° F
10 Minute Mashout Rest at 170° F (I do a second hot water infusion to mashout)
Sparge at 170° F and collect sufficient runnings to hit pre-boil volumes.

Fermentation

Chill wort to 74° F and pitch yeast slurry of Wyeast 3724.
Ferment 74-82° F until yeast flocculates and activity drops off.
Pitch smack pack of Wyeast 3711 and keep temperature in the low 80’s. Ferment until beer is attenuated to 92% or so. It may take weeks… be patient.

Keys to Brewing

High attenuation is the heart of Saison’s very nature. Because of this, it is important to push the fermentation with high temperatures and design the grain bill and mash profile to encourage maximum fermentation. Low 90’s percentage-wise is a starting point for a good attenuation rate.
Don’t use crystal malt in your saisons (including carapils). It tastes odd to me and really clashes with the overall nature of the beer. If you want more malt character that is not sweet or caramel like, try malts like Munich, Victory, Biscuit, Special Roast, etc. that add interesting notes without adding lots of unfermentable sugars. If you’re worried about head retention, add some wheat.

Awards

The beer brewed from this recipe has won several awards as a BJCP Category 16c. Saison:

2012 NHC First Round – 1st Place
2012 Best of the Bay – 2nd Place