Glad to hear that. I have a brick at the brewery that I have been planning to use but been skeered.
Do you use a lot of dry yeast in the brewery? How do you rehydrate - just warm water in the bottom of the fermentor before cooling in?
Only rehydrate on beers over 1.065. I’ve pretty much switched my IPA and IIPA over to US-05 because I am using WY1007 on my other styles and I don’t care for it as much in IPA/IIPA.
I’ve been using the WY saison strain but last winter when I went to make my Saison Noel I was told by WY that it was 4 weeks out. Guess people don’t use that strain much in winter, so I’m happy to have a dry yeast option.
Have you ever used K-97? It’s really nice, along the same lines as 1007.
Fermentation just finished on my first saison with the Belle Saison yeast. Went from 1.052 to 1.002 in about 3 weeks. I mashed at 149 F for 90 minutes. I pitched a single pack at about 65 F, no rehydration, aerated well by very vigorous whipping/stirring for 5 minutes. Fermentation began within 24 hours. I left cool at 65 F for one day, then raised up to 72-73 F for the entire remainder of ferment. Resulting beer tastes of pilsner malt, low Belgian lemon-like esters, low pepper, low to moderate alcohol warmth that I hope will mellow somewhat after a month or two of age. Very pleasant beer, but I believe it needs a little more something so I am going to spice it, perhaps with lemongrass or even dill or basil or something odd like that maybe. Perhaps even some olde gruit herbs.
No. I have wanted to, but haven’t. I’m working on putting back together my old 1 bbl system as a pilot system. I’m going to have the liberty to try lots of new stuff soon, hopefully. (Well, new to me).
At a recent “Homebrewer’s Night” at my LHBS, I tried a cucumber basil ale that was actually really good. Not sure that I would drink more than one, but it was a lot better than I expected. I don’t think I’m brave enough to brew up a basil beer, but as I was drinking it all I could think of is that it would go real nice with some good spicy Thai food.
As for the Bell Saison Yeast, I keep meaning to pick some up and with the results from this thread, I’ll make sure to look for it next time I’m at my LHBS. Thanks to everyone positing their results with this yeast!
I think basil is lovely in beer. Bison Honey Basil comes to mind. but I also did a no hops basil beer that, once it settled down a bit (I used too much basil) was really nice as well. Dill, well anything’s possible
we can pickle that
I want to try Rosemary in my IPA. Just keep wimping out on brewday.
That’s another one to be very cautious with. would probably be tasty though in the right amount. sort of resiny and piney.
I bottled mine up tonight. I decided not to use dill, but I did make a tincture with basil and mugwort, and I also threw in a little oregano, what the heck. And I dare say… it tastes FANTASTIC. I’d do it again. I used the equivalent of 4 grams dried basil, 3 grams mugwort, and 3 grams oregano for 5 gallons. The mugwort is a little overpowering. If I did it again, I might use half as much mugwort, and maybe 1.5 times as much basil and oregano. However, it tastes great the way it is. It’s that subtle spice where you know there’s spice in there but you can’t quite put your finger on it… that sort of thing. But certainly not spiced so much that you can’t taste the very beery saison underneath. Dang near perfection.
nice. sounds yummy. My last saison-ish creation had a really nice herbal character from, I think the yeast as there was a touch of brett in there. but that slight herbal note can be really nice in that style.
I made on on Saturday and it’s sitting in the kitchen right now. I didn’t do anything crazy, just pale malt, munich and wheat to 1.056. We’ll see how the saison profile ends up being around 67 the whole time.
This yeast gave me a good flavor profile but I won’t be using it again in the brewery. For me, the flocculation was absolutely terrible. Dosed a couple of times with our normal fining regimen, added additional secondary clarifiers, had it stored at 32F, and no change. Then, as the yeast dropped out, the flavor changed considerably into something much less complex. I would imagine this yeast would work better on a bottle conditioned project.
IME the liquid strains are also powdery. That’s perfectly ok though - I find irony in a “farmhouse ale” with brilliant clarity.
Well I wasn’t looking for brilliant, but turbulent wasn’t what I had in mind either. In the past, I’ve had better luck with Wyeast 3726 with regards to flocculation.
Well it seemed to take a little longer than I expected but it finished down to 1.008. Had a krausen the entire time but was never extremely vigorous. It did finish in a week but based on what everyone else was saying I was expecting more like 3-4 days on a 1.056 beer.
So far the samples I have pulled have been fruity and tart dominate. I get some banana, little clove, tropical, citrus notes. I used a small amount of amarillo hops in this beer so some of the citrus could be from that. I have also zested 2 grapefruits and put the skins in the beer and am letting them sit until Friday then I’ll keg it. So far seems like a winner.
First batch w/ Belle Saison dry yeast and it turned out fantastic! I can’t really compare to 3711, which I’ve always used for my Saisons, since I changed a couple of variables for this brew. Usually I let my Saisons rise to the mid 70’s during fermentation, however I kept this one in the low 60’s. Mine started at 1.058 and ended up 1.008, which is a little higher than what I usually get w/ 3711, but that may be due to the lower fermentation temps. Very happy with this yeast and will use this yeast for all my Saisons, except w/ my Saison de Noel which I will use 3711 and a large starter. Also, I’ll probably keep fermenting in the low 60’s.
Cool to hear it worked out well. I’ve got a packet from NHC and a saison brew scheduled for this weekend.