BeerBorg

First Pour. Wow. This is really good. And Easy! I am really excited about this beer. Probably the best I've made so far.

Thanks PapaG!

Monty

Way cool! I liked mine too.

Looks Yummy!

Good job Monty!

Glad you like it!

I told you it would be delicious

I really like this beer a lot. I think I am obsessed with it. I've just about drank it all already. So, I am going to make 5 LBKs worth next, cause that's all the Belle Saison dry yeast I have at the moment.

But I have a quick question about the Munich malt. Can I just use regular malt instead? Will it make much of a difference? Also does a Saison have to have wheat in it?

I am thinking of using just light DME for the hop boil then adding light LME at flame out.

I don't really care about conforming to the style, just wondering if basically anything will work with the Belle Saison yeast.

For the remaining 4 LBK's I'm going to use basically the same malts/sugar combo, but with different dry yeasts, like s-04, us-05, T-58 and s-33, just to see what I get.

All of these are going to follow the exact same hop schedule with the same hops. I think it will be a fun experiment.

Thanks in advance for any advice or comments.

Monty

using what you have on hand would be following tradition. A saison is a farmhouse ale. the word means of the season. The farmers used what grains that had on hand.

The yeast will ferment whatever malt you give it, but the flavor will change without the Munich.

You can make a saison out of anything. I made one with candi syrup made from dandelions. It was yum. It may seen a bit more tart without the munich, that's all. That's not necessarily a bad thing, that beer was tart and delicious.

You can even add lots of late hops, I think of more highly late hopped saisons as the original "Belgian IPA" as such.

Well I started making these yesterday.

The first one I made with 1lb of Munich lme, 1 lb of wheat dme and 2lbs of light dme and with a small partial mash of 1.0 lb of 6-row, honey malt and carapils. Pitched re-hydrated bell saison yeast. I boiled 1 oz willamette 20 min, and another oz for 30. The second one I made with 3/4 lb of Munich LME, 2.25 lbs of light DME, and 1 lb of Bavarian wheat w/ re-hydrated lallemand bell saison yeast, and did a 30 minute boil of 2 oz of Hallertau. Since I am now out of Munich, the next few are going to have some wheat and some barley malt until I run of wheat, then I am going to have to start making these with all barley malt. After I run out of saison yeast, I am going to try the other dry yeasts I have. And use up the different hops I have. I don't know what exactly I'll be making, but I bet it turns out as beer. I should be able to do this 6 more times based on the malt I have.

Also I have found a nice trick to boil a gallon of water. I leave the cover on the stew pot until the water starts to boil. It seems I can maintain one, but getting to a boil takes some time.

One quick question, Since DME is dried wort, do I have to worry about DMS (is that what it is called?) when boiling it with the hops? If not it would help to keep it covered.

This may turn into my signature beer. Really easy to make, and less expensive doing my own hop boils. And I get to keep the bitter down. Love the taste of hops, not so much the bitter.

Monty

Bring it to a boil with the cover on and then remove the cover for the boil itself... You'll be fine.

Glad this is working foryou... Your variations sound real good too!

Guess you could say we created a real Saison Monsteroyd!

I see what you did there.

Yes, it really is fun to just take some malt, hops, and yeast and make beer. Well, I am probably using the most forgiving yeast there is (at least if you like saisons), but it sure has been fun so far.

Monty

FWIW, I've boiled DME/LME with the lid 75% on and not had any DMS. I've even boiled it for a short period of time with the lid totally on and had no issues.

Now if you steep grains or do a PM, then I'd be more cautious.

I put the lid on for hop stands for 20-30 minutes post boil as well and have no issues - but have already boiled for 60+ minutes if I did a PM with the lid totally off or at least no more then covering 50% on the pot first in that scenario. (yes, I boil full volume BIAB or PMs of a larger size with the lid part way on because my stove will not keep 3 gallons boiling unless I do that).

Cool. Thanks, Mashani

Monty

Looks great. There is another one to put into the line up!

OK I did one last night and used up my wheat, so from here on out they will be all barley.

Last night I used the 'cover the water till it boils' option. Got it to boil after only 20 minutes, then did the half covered with wort boil. Worked much better. (Thx Mashani)

This one was .5lb light DME, 1 lb wheat DME, 2.8lb light LME added after flame out. Boiled 2 oz of Hallertau for 20+ minutes and pitched rehydrated bell saison. Got an OG of 1.074.

I am using Beersmith 2 and I just can not hit the estimated OG. I forget what it was but I am over it. I must be losing some water somewhere. Also I noticed a really weird thing in BS2. If I checked the box on the LME that said I added it after the boil, my IBU's went from like 20 to 50. What is up with that? No way 2oz Hallertau for 20 minutes is going to give 50ibu. Anyway using BS has been interesting, but weird stuff like that makes me wonder if it is too AG for me.

Anyway another one in the pipeline. Got to order more belle saison yeast, only have 3 more and I need 8 total, so I need 2 more. Also I hope I have enough DME, because I am boiling 1 lb -ish of DME for the hops and topping off with light LME. Somewhere in there I am going to go 'Super Saison' and throw in a lb of honey in a batch. Bwahaha!

I know it isn't AG, but I am having a ball doing these small 1 gal hop boils and then finishing it up with LME. My target is about 3-ish lbs of malt depending on what I got. I imagine towards the end, I will even need to start in on the darker DMEs. Hmm.. a black saison, the style guide just flew out the window.

Monty