This beer solidified my transition from hoppy beers to the rest of the beers. It reinforced that beers can be so amazingly diverse, even between similar styles. As I was typing out this recipe, while looking at my Belgium Trippel recipe, I noticed how similar the amount and type of ingredients were. Similar to Trippels, I love how varied Saisons can be. I especially love how beers such as this develop nearly endemically, with the local yeasts granting the beer its own unique flavors and characteristics. Saisons allure to the old-world ideas of brewing I romanticize in my head. While this is for another post, I love beers that develop as a reflection of the culture and region that spawns them. I’ve had Saisons that are light and fruity (like this recipe) and Saisons that taste like licking the side of a barn, my favorite phrase I’ve read researching about the funkiness of Saisons.
Grains
16oz Carapils
8oz Crystal 10L
Hops
1oz Styrian Goldings (3.4%AA) @60min
1oz Styrian Goldings (3.4%AA) @30min
.5oz Styrian Goldings (3.4%AA) @15min
Malt
8lbs Light LME
Yeast
Wyeast Belgian Strong Ale (1388)
*1tsp Irish Moss @15min
SG: 1.062
1wk: 1.016
2wk: 1.016
FG(3wk): 1.016
This is an incredibly good beer. Light and fruity, this Saison was really easy and enjoyable to drink. I seldom brew the same recipe twice, but this beer would be one of the select. Some of the bottles in my batch seemed a little too carbonated, even though Saison’s are supposed to be, yet I think I must have used a tiny bit too much priming sugar. If only I had actually written down how much I used.