BeerBorg

Hey Fellow Brothers of the Bloodshot Eye, Got a question for youse. It's getting into the Summer here and I have Temp. control problems,(too lazy to go the Swamp Cooler route). I recently took advantage of the B/D clearance sale and bought 2 of each kind available,and was wondering what I'd end up with if I fermented them with Belle Saison yeast. That would negate the temp problems,but what would the final products taste like? I'd really like to have some input from you fellow brewers.TIA, Cheers

The yeast will impart the flavors it is known for to each batch. For some/many, it will be the wrong flavors - cloves, peppery, fruity. For others, it may be fine.

If managing a cooler and frozen water bottle rotations is too much, then I'd suggest waiting until cooler weather.

If you like saisons and the flavors in those beers, I'd say go for it. I've had saisons/farmhouses of a lot of differing malt bills. True, there may be some styles it doesn't lend to, so I'd use judgement, but I've for instance had Yazoo's one off saison yeasted versions of their stout and mexican brown and liked the heck out of both of them, and I really didn't think the yeast would lend well to either.

I haven't tried with saison, but I've used Belgian Abbey yeast in an American IPA and Pale ale, maybe others too. Go ahead and try it, let us know what happens.

The "bigger" potential issue with Bella Saison is how highly it will attenuate. It is not a normal yeast, it is actually a "domesticated" beer spoilage yeast (Saccharomyces Cerevisiae var. Diastaticus).

Whether this is a big issue to you depends on if you like very dry, more alcoholic beer.

IE say the kit would have made a 1.05 beer using a "normal" yeast and you got 75% attenuation, IE it fermented to 1.012. That would give you a 5% beer with a normal yeast.

With Bella Saison you are going to get more like 94%-97% attenuation, even in an extract beer. At least I always have. I've gotten even more then that. That is the "minimum". Anyone who doesn't did something really wrong and I don't know what because it's never happened to me.

So 94% would mean it would take that same beer down to 1.003. And it is now a 6.2% beer. And it is way less sweet and much more bitter seeming then it would have been originally.

That on top of the pepper and tart fruit. Note that it is more peppery and citrus like tart then it is clove/banana.

Also since it is Saccharomyces Cerevisiae var. Diastaticus, you want to make sure you really murder it before you try to ferment with a normal yeast again. Otherwise it will act as an opportunist and ferment out whatever is left that your normal yeast doesn't. If you just bottle without paying attention and you didn't murder it, then you will get bottle bombs with those "normal" batches.

The good news is it's not hard to murder, it won't hide in cracks and such like a bacteria, it is a "big bug" because it's a yeast.

So, I'm not gettin too many good vibes from the plan to ferment regular B/D kits with Belle of the Ball(Saison)yeast. Did anyone ever try the Omega HotHead yeast? Has a temp range from 62-98 degrees F. It's not supposed to impart any off flavors and fits in well with most fruity hops. Anyone have any experience with it.Also it being a liquid yeast,can I just dump it in the fermenter like dry yeast? I never used liquid yeast before. Can you give me some easy tips ? Many thanx in advance Cheers

Omega Hothead is an isolated Kviek strain (Norwegian farmhouse ales). It is not going to be a "flavorless" or "clean" yeast, it's going to throw out some citrusy and musky tropical fruit like esters at warmer temps like some Brett strains do except mellower. It won't throw out a bunch of phenols though or become a banana bomb or something.

So as long as you are wanting a beer with some citrus or tropical fruit like vibe, then it will be OK. It might be the "cleanest" Kviek strain out there. Omega sells at least 2 other Kviek strains that can also be used at high temps, but they will be more intensely flavored.

It likely will still attenuate more then the yeast that typically comes with the kits, but it will be more like 80-85% and not 97%, so it won't throw off the bittering ratio so much.

If you want to learn about Kviek yeast, this is the best place.

http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/

Lars is pretty much where ever yeast manufacturer that now sells Kviek strains got their source yeast cultures from.

If you are brewing just 2.5 gallon or 2 gallon batches, you can direct pitch the Omega yeast for sure.