Tasting Day: Farmhouse Ales Saison

Today is the first tasting for the Farmhouse Ale Saison that I made a while back. I really let this sit in the secondary until I felt it was as clear as it was going to get.  Surprisingly the beer is not nearly as clear as I thought it was going into the bottle!

This is the recipe from the Farmhouse Ale book by Phil Markowski. Nothing more than Belgium Pilsner and American Wheat for the grain bill along with some Styrian Goldings and East Kent Goldings hops.  A bit of table sugar was added for an extra punch and to help dry it out a bit. I used the Wyeast French Saison yeast hoping for a nice dry beer with a lot of that funky farmhouse flavor that most Saisons have.

ABV = 6.8%
IBU = 29.5
SRM = 4

Appearance - Golden color that leans towards an orange color.  Has the appearance of a standard American wheat beer. Yep the one those crazy kids put oranges in.  The large white head fades pretty quickly and there is minimum lacing.

Smell - It has that traditional Saison yeast smell.  It smells like there is some sweetness to it – like honey. Slight hay or grass smell that would remind you of a barn. Orange or lemon also makes an appearance.

Mouthfeel - The carbonation is not prickly enough for a Saison.  When you think of a Dupont you think of a light bubbly refreshing beer.  This one is currently lacking that "sparkle". Wyeast says on their site that the yeast unexpected silky and rich mouthfeel.  I wouldnt call it rich but I can see where they get silky.

Taste - Not too bad.  I think if the carbonation was higher and it had more of a prickly mouthfeel it would be right in line.  My basement might not be warm enough.  Saisons are fermented at higher temps and bottle conditioned at higher temps as well. I get a bit of hay, a bit of bubble gum and even a small hint of banana from the yeast.  The bubble gum flavor is more fruity than some of the other Belgians that I have had.  Slight citrus flavor.

This seems to be lacking the pepper flavor that saisons are really known for.  

Overall - If this beer had a bit higher carbonation levels and a bit more prickle to it, I think it would be a keeper. It is a very easy to drink beer with some complex flavors from the yeast that keep you coming back for more.  It just falls a bit flat and none of the flavors tend to shine.  For example I would love for the citrus to come forward some more or even some more of the hay flavor.  When I brew again maybe a does of orange bitter peel or fresh orange zest – or even lemon – will bring this beer from a good beer to a great beer.

For now I plan to try to move the bottles to a warmer spot in the my place to see if that helps with the carbonation issue.

I will follow up if something happens after the move to a warmer temp.
Till then...

UPDATE:
I let the beer sit for two additional weeks and the results are pretty great right now.  Seems that maybe this beer needs 6 weeks in the bottle to fully mature.  I still don't have the full crispness of a Dupont Saison but this is a pretty excellent beer for my first stab at a traditional saison.

Belgian Blonde Sour Pale Ale

Just a quick update on the Belgian Blonde Sour Pale Ale - I bottled the beer which came out to about 0.875 gallons which was four 750 ml bottles.  I waited an extra week just to ensure fermentation was complete since I have had some bottles gushing a bit lately so I figured the extra time to ensure everything has done its job wont hurt.  I will let them sit in the basement for two weeks and then test a bottle to see how the pale ale soured.

Funk with Less Fuss - Flanders Red - Final Recap

Three months have passed and the Flanders Red edition of Funk with Less Fuss experiment has come to an end.  I made a three gallon batch of beer and split it three ways with three different yeast.  A standard ale yeast, one with 100% Brett and the mixed fermentation with Roeselare yeast that contains Brett, Peddio and Lacto along with standard brewers yeast.

Keep in mind my goal was to create a sour as quick as possible.  I did not let them age in the bottle or secondary any longer than was required from any of the resources I used.  These beers may get better with time as most standard sours do.  This will be for another test down the road.

I saved a bottle from each and did a "vertical" tasting of all three in one sitting. Here is the final recap from the three batches.

#1 Flanders Red - Sour Mashed - California Ale Yeast: 
This was the cleanest of the three beers. With no wild yeast and all of the flavor coming from the sour mash this was to be expected.  The sour level was pretty nice.  Not as fruity as the others probably due to a lack of the Brett.  With the clean flavor the oak cubes really came through on this one more than the others as well.  Maybe a bit too much.  Overall a really solid beer that was ready to drink in 5 weeks.

For the next batch I would work on the following: 
The body of the beer was a bit weak.  I mashed at a lower temp to get a drier beer. Next time I will mash a bit hotter so there is more body to the beer.  I would also explore using a more expressive yeast to add some more character.  Maybe a Belgian Ale or Belgian Wheat.I will also reduce the amount of sugar used at bottling since I had a few slow gushers

#2 Flanders Red - Sour Mashed - 100% Brett. Brux:
What I really liked about this one was the sour flavor.  It was just like a sweet tart.  Some other flavors that people used to describe it included green apple and cherries.  This was also one thing I did not like about it.  The sweet tart flavor really over powered the rest of what was going on.  The Brett did not add too much other funk and just added to the sour flavor.

For the next batch I would work on the following:
Again I need to reduce the sugar used at bottling so the slow gush does not happen.  I also need to balance out the sweet tart flavor.  If using only Brett as the primary yeast maybe I need to use two different strains and reduce the amount of time that the wort sours to reduce the sweet tart flavor and let some more of the Brett character show through.  Maybe mashing at a higher temp to give the Brett more sugars to munch on would help while also giving a more rounded malt and "beer" flavor to balance out the sweet tart taste.

 #3 Flanders Red - Sour Mashed - Roeselare Yeast Mixed Fermentation:
To my surprise, this beer was not too different than batch #2.  It had a bit more funk, but only a little. (This is why I did not do a tasting post on this one).  That extra funk might of made it a bit better than batch #2 but not so much better that justified the extra month in the secondary.

For the next batch I would work on the following:
Same as #2.  The other thing I would do is let this sit for 3 months in the secondary and then bottle.

Final thoughts:
I think the first two batches have the most range to fit within the "Quick Sour" category.  A more expressive yeast in the first batch may take that beer to the next level and another Brett strain along with a shorter sour mash may balance out batch #2.  A bit more body on all of them could really help as well. As of this moment I am considering the following for the next batch.

Go with batch #1.  Choose a more expressive yeast and mash a bit hotter so there is more body.  Once it comes out of the secondary add one or two strains of Brett to "dirty-up" the beer and let it sit for one month in the secondary and bottle with less sugar – OR – Do all of the same as listed above but instead of moving to a secondary carboy I would dose the bottle bucket with Brett and bottle condition without any added sugar and let the Brett referment in the bottle with the remaining sugars.

Whatever I decide this next batch will be a five gallon batch and it will be going into the wine barrel once it has been bottled. 

The Funk with Less Fuss is a great way to create some quick sours.  They will not have the complexity of the traditionally aged sours but you may be surprised. 

Le Singularite - Tasting Update

I took some homebrew to a small get together last night.  I had the final batch of "Funk with Less Fuss" red (which I will write up a full recap of the experiment in another post) and a bottle of Le Singularite.  This is the beer that was brewed from the "Wild Brews" book with a single strain of Brett Claus.  A simple pale beer that will let the character of the yeast shine through.

You can read the original tasting notes here.

This was about 5 weeks ago.  How time has changed!

This is no longer a beer I would enjoy.  When it first cracked open you can smell the funk.  It was a very strong barn flavor.  You could also see a difference in the beer.  It looked to be very effervescent with small bubbles crawling to the top of the glass one after another.  The after the first sip you get hit with how bone dry this beer is now.  No longer a medium mouth feel.  Light and dry as the Sahara. So far this may sound like a good beer.  Similiar to Duvel with some funk right?

Wrong.  The taste was pretty terrible.  It moved into the band-aid flavor realm.  According the Wild Brews this is from the ester 4-ethyl-phenol which is a volatile phenol.  Descriptions in the book are listed as:

• Band Aid - Big check on this one
• Antiseptic - A bit.  So check here as well.
• Stable - Horse Blanket / Hay flavor?  If so check.
• Barnyard - Big check.

The question is whether or not the flavor will subside after some time or if the beer is beyond saving.  I will probably pitch the remaining few bottles and save 2-3 and open one every few months to see what is going on.