Saison 565

The first (and probably only) Saison I've brewed this year turned out quite successfully for my tastes. This beer was loosely based on last year's Saison Viejo that I brewed and entered into the LA County Fair Homebrew competition. It scored a 34 and 38/50 which I thought was actually very generous as the French Farmhouse yeast I used for that beer didn't give me the typical level of aromatics generally found in the Saison style these days. This time I replaced it with the most classic Saison yeast, White Labs 565 strain which is said to be one of the main Saison Dupont yeasts.


The recipe was as follows:
67% Pilsner Malt
19% White Wheat Malt
10% Rye Malt
4% Rolled Oats
29 IBU Nugget at 90 min
Willamette and Amarillo over the last 15 min.
ABV 6.6%

Really the only issue I dealt with during this brew was that I couldn't get the temperature of fermentation above 72F. It was pretty cool that week and even placing the carboy in the upstairs bedroom that traps heat made no difference. Still, even without pushing it higher than 72 I thought the phenol/earthy flavors were quite pronounced.

Taste-wise, the beer has a good dose of the earthy phenols expected for this style with a lemony and small orange citrus character which I presume is from the Amarillo. I think the wheat does show up a bit in the flavor, not overpowering at only 19% of the grist but it's there. Citrusy/acidic juicy finish. It finished around 1.006-1.007 which is not ideal for a Saison, would have liked to dry that up a couple more points, but it remains drinkable and not sweet.

I entered this into this year's LA County Fair Homebrew competition as well. In my opinion this beer is definitely more to style than the beer I entered last year, which means I would expect a score higher than the mid-30's or high 30's range. However, in general, scoring above 40 in a BJCP sanctioned competition is quite hard. We'll see! I'm looking forward to beer judge feedback.

****UPDATE**** This beer won 2nd place in the Farmhouse Ale category at the LA County Fair! It was the 2nd most entered category (23 entries) and I guess this beer was the top saison, as the beer who beat it was a "sour blonde."  Really stoked for an official confirmation like this on my homebrew's validity.

Amber Drive Red Ale

I wanted this beer to be similar to awesome tasting Faction Red Ale I tried, which claims 98 IBU's and is hopped with Cascade, Centennial, and CTZ. It was bitter, roasty, aromatic... just a punch in the face of a red IPA. Unfortunately the homebrew shop didn't have Centennial or CTZ (Columbus). I had a tiny bit of Centennial left at home though, but decided to buy Nugget for bittering, and Cascade and Simcoe for flavor/aroma additions. I also used a bit of Citra I had left over.

The malt bill was:
83% 2 Row
7% Munich
5.5% Crystal 40L
3.5% Crystal 120L
1% Black Patent



Hop schedule:
55.5 IBU Nugget at 60 min
Cascade and Simcoe at 10 min
Cascade, Nugget, Simcoe at 3 min
Centennial and Citra at flame out

Overall the hefty crystal malt base lends a big caramel component.  The amount of hops put in (3.75oz for a 2.25 gallon batch) do balance it somewhat, but I wanted the hops to come out on top.  Next Time I would probably decrease the crystal by half, up the Munich, add a bigger Nugget bittering addition and dry hop with a couple ounces.

The color came out close to what I wanted. Once the beer cold crashes a few a weeks in the bottles it'll become much clearer and show off its red hue much better. The head retention was the best I've had. Nice and creamy. This was sampled after less than 2 weeks of carbonating, so it'll develop some more, although it was already at a very nice level.

***UPDATE*** After a few months of conditioning in the fridge this beer really turned into something fantastic.  Sure, at first I was aiming for a hoppy red and it didn't seem to hit that hoppy mark I was looking for, but man this became a smooth red ale with a bit of sweetness in the middle and a touch of roast in the finish to keep things interesting. Really like how it came out, but would still adjust the recipe a bit next time around.