Belle Saison is a beast, especially when fermented warm. I like to start at room temperature (74Fish) and let free rise. For the last gravity points, I sometimes move the beer into a hot garage (85-90F) to finish. I get pepper, apple, pear and some subtle banana and clove with this method. OGs as high as 1.078 have finished in the 1.003-005 range.
Cool fermentation yields a fairly flabby result, very little esters or spice. Very hot primary fermentation (in my case over 90F) yielded a lot of fusels that didn’t show with fermentation in the high 70’s. I also got overwhelming banana flavor in that batch.
I re-pitch slurry at about 1/2 - 3/4 the normal rate to keep up similar flavor expression compared to ‘fresh’ packages. I have run this out to 5 generations and had good results. I seem to be selecting more flocuant yeast as I go - the later pitches seem to drop bright with a week of cold conditioning.
A Saison is not a standard (Belgium) yeast. The Saison yeast needs for the special dry Saison character high temperatures. Yesterday I tasted a Belle Saison beer (Start SG 1038 and end SG 997) from another homebrewer. This beer was fermented at 90 F. It was nice dry and had no off flavours.
I just used this yeast for the first time. I brewed 10 gallons of saison, 90% pils/10% munich, and overshot my gravity and ended up at 1.065 OG (damn you Avangard pilsner malt). I split the batch into two primaries, one with two packets of Belle saison, the other with a 1.5 L starter of WY3726 farmhouse.
I started fermenting in the mid 60s for 10 days, then attached a brew belt and heated it up to 75 for another 20 days. Yesterday I kegged them both. The 3726 had dropped clear, had a wonderful pepper and fruit flavor going for it. Its terminal gravity was 1.005.
The Belle version was cloudy. It was peppery, but kind of one dimensional compared to the 3726. Of course, judging a yeasty flat beer isn’t indicative of the final product. Its final gravity was 1.000(!)
I racked them as yesterday I brewed the Saison d’Hiver recipe posted in another thread, and pictched it on the two yeast cakes. This time I undershot the gravity - 1.075. This morning, the 3726 was merrily bubbling away, while the Belle bucket had blown its lid. Which I can’t recall ever seeing that happen before.
I’ve had a couple beers brewed by others that were fermented with Belle Saison at warmer temps. They were good, but they seemed to be less saisony (pepper, clove, spice…) and more Belgiany (fruity with hints of ethanol). I recently gave the yeast a try and fermented for a week at about 18C followed by a week+ at about 23C. I bottled at 1.002 and I’m enjoying the hell out of it right now. It’s phenolic all over the place. It’s possible the spice notes are accentuated by the 18% rye in the grist. Anyway, I’ll use the yeast again and I’ll ferment low again.
Mine fermented in upper 60s with a final gravity of 1.002 did not taste anywhere near that dry. It tasted like the gravity was closer to 1.007 or something like that. There was still some body and mouthfeel left. Unlike certain other saisons.
There were similarities, but mine also had a fuller mouthfeel and body than Dupont. I’m sure that’s as much or more due to the malt bill and mash schedule as the yeast. I was aiming for something closer to Saison Voisin than Saison Dupont.
I just brewed an odd beer with belle - 70% MO, 20% US 2-row, 10% white wheat, hop bursted/dry hopped with simcoe, galaxy, cascade, centennial, & citra, and with some peaches thrown in for good mix.
OG was 1.042 eaten down to 1.000 after 3 weeks in the 70s (and I even mashed high). Despite the odd concoction and FG the beer turned out fantastic.