Simple Saison

[Brewbirds]

ok somewhere back there I made a Citra saison. I got to try this one out over the weekend, and man, Citra is great in a Saison. The aroma, taste, and bitter worked wonderfully. First Wort Hop and just a very short boil, like 5 minutes or something. Wonderful taste and aroma. I like Citra.

Monty

Hey Monty, I did a pale ale with Citra and it was like a fresh pink grapefruit tasted great but wondering if that is what you got as well?

[monsteroyd]

Hm.. Well it reminded me of more of a lemony citrus. Very good and I now understand a lot of what I've read about Citra. It might be described as pink grapefruit, I guess, I don't like grapefruit, so I'm not good at relating to that taste, but with the bitter, I guess that's a better explanation than my lemon citrusy.

Monty

[mashani]

Hm.. Well it reminded me of more of a lemony citrus. Very good and I now understand a lot of what I've read about Citra. It might be described as pink grapefruit, I guess, I don't like grapefruit, so I'm not good at relating to that taste, but with the bitter, I guess that's a better explanation than my lemon citrusy.

Monty

For me it depends. The last beer I made with it tasted like peaches and grapefruit mixed.

Other beers have been really funky/musky mango and cantaloupe like with some citrus, but it was really hidden under the musky flavors.

I think part of it is the yeast used. All the musky ones were with a Belgian yeast that makes lots of stone fruit flavors. The peaches and citrus was with a clean yeast.

Bella is citrusy tart to begin with, and doesn't make stone fruit flavors, so it probably enhances the citrusy parts of the citra.

[BigPapaG]

Agreed... I'm actually thinking of exploiting that trait in my next Saison...

I'm thinking Citra, Centennial and Sorachi Ace to try to get a lemon citrus Saison for summer, using the Belle Saison yeast of course.

Edit: Might skip the Centennial...

[monsteroyd]

I like Sorachi Ace in a Saison too. I have one of those. Very tasty. I'm actually thinking of a Belma, Citra, Sorachi Ace collusion. It might just be too much, but it sounds good.

Monty

[mashani]

Try dry hopping a 2.5 gallon saison with 2 or even 3oz of Sorachi. That gives you awesome lemon vibe.

[monsteroyd]

Whoa. That would definitely be hoppy. I really like Sorachi Ace and I have about 15 oz left, so I might just do this, only with a simple nottingham blonde ale. With some lemon zest. hm.. - Oops wrong thread.

Monty

EDIT: Had some more hibiscus Saison last night. Man oh man, I think I have found something I really like. Might be my signature Saison and Sorachi Ace will probably be the hop.

[BeerRust]

ok somewhere back there I made a Citra saison. I got to try this one out over the weekend, and man, Citra is great in a Saison. The aroma, taste, and bitter worked wonderfully. First Wort Hop and just a very short boil, like 5 minutes or something. Wonderful taste and aroma. I like Citra.

Monty

The Saison that myself and JPSHERMAM Did for The RCE is a Citra Saison. We wanted to do belma but couldnt find it at the LHBS, so we switched to Citra. Should be ready in a few weeks!

[monsteroyd]

Yeah Belma I had to order from somewhere, I forget where. It also is good in a Saison. I think my go forward will be Citra, Belma, Sorachi Ace in Saisons. They are all good and go great with the Belle Saison yeast.

Monty

[mashani]

FWIW: Best hop forward saison I made last year was just a simple wheat/pilsner saison and had 1oz of pacific gem as the finishing hops in a ~5 gallon batch with Bella Saison yeast.

Pacific gem best I can describe is like styrian goldings/fuggles on crack.

I see lots of bad mouthing about those hops, but they were really good in the saison.

[BigPapaG]

FWIW: Best hop forward saison I made last year was just a simple wheat/pilsner saison and had 1oz of pacific gem as the finishing hops in a ~5 gallon batch with Bella Saison yeast.

Pacific gem best I can describe is like styrian goldings/fuggles on crack.

I see lots of bad mouthing about those hops, but they were really good in the saison.

+1 mash...

Pacific Gem is much better as a finishing hop IMHO than a bittering hop.

Saisons, blondes and I bet an English Mild!

[monsteroyd]

Finally had a du pont saison mine are just as good. Dupont is good. I am in NYC visiting my niece so we went to a belgium beer bar and i got the dupont. This was after mcsorleys and their blonde and brown ale.

Great time.

Monty

[mashani]

Finally had a du pont saison mine are just as good. Dupont is good. I am in NYC visiting my niece so we went to a belgium beer bar and i got the dupont. This was after mcsorleys and their blonde and brown ale.

Great time.

Monty

I like mine better then DuPont too but it's apples and oranges really. Because DuPont is a totally different yeast. If you want to brew something that tastes like DuPont you need to use Belgian Saison (liquid yeast only right now) and get your fermentation up into the mid 80s to get that bubble gum thing going. French saison doesn't make that flavor, it's got that tart citrus vibe going instead. I prefer French Saison flavor profile, so it's no wonder I prefer my own saisons made with it over DuPont.