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.
