Saison 1st Try Ever

[Brewbirds]

Okay thanks Mashani.

[jhough]

Brewbirds... Update ? Looking forward to hearing how it is going.

[Brewbirds]

Brewbirds... Update ? Looking forward to hearing how it is going.

It is cold crashing right now. Went to Austin Home Brew and got some corks and wire baskets for my four empty Belgian bottles and some Grain of Paradise.

We didn't get the GOP in time for brew day so we are going to try and get a little of the flavor by boiling in a nylon hop sack in the priming sugar water ( we are batch priming this one).

Hydro sample tasted good, maybe a little to bitter from the orange peel but we thank time will fix that.

We probably won't be opening one of these for a while but when we do I will update here.

[Brewbirds]

Brewbirds... Update ? Looking forward to hearing how it is going.

Okay I got this one bottled today, hadn't batch primed in a while so I was a little anxious about infection, but I practically sterilized the whole kitchen when I do anything brew wise.

Got a .75L Belgian bottle and 21 12 ounce bottles out of the batch which was way more than we thought. Had an auto-siphon/LBk jostle while transferring to the slim line and stirred the trub up a bit so had to let that settle down for a while before I bottled.

There was enough for a taste after I was done and I was pleased that the harsh bitterness from the orange peel settled out already.

I have a hard time saying what the final beer will taste like from tasting a bottling day sample but this was quite good. There was mild hints of orange, pepper and some of the yeast character. No one flavor was over powering another.

We are pretty sure we got a bit of flavor from steeping the Grains of Paradise in the water for the priming sugar. I put the grains in a small sack made from one of our nylon grain bags and let them sit in the water as it came to a boil. After it boiled for about 10 minutes I took it off the heat and added the priming sugar then put a lid on the pot and let the GOP steep for a few more minutes before I put the pot in an ice bath to cool.

We carbed conservatively at 3.1 because BB2 was scared of bottle bombs and didn't want to go higher. We figured since this was our first try we can go higher on the next batch.

To clarify we only used one of the Belgian bottles, we are doing four holiday recipes and using one of each of our four Belgian bottles to make a Christmas gift pack for my sister, who gave us the Mr. Beer kit last year.

She will get a bottle each of this Saison, a cherry porter, a pumpkin ale and a Praline Brown Ale (we hope) and I will put some candied oranges, chocolate covered cherries, pralines and well, I haven't figured out the candy for the pumpkin ale yet (suggestions)? We want to make special labels that tell her about each of the beer styles.

So that where the Brewbirds stand right now. I want to go share the Praline recipe up if I can remember how to do it.

Give this beer a shot I think you might like it.

[haerbob3]

BB's empty champagne bottles work great for bottling Belgiums and other beers that you want to carb that high. I use them for gifting since I do not need to worry about getting the bottles back

[Brewbirds]

BB's empty champagne bottles work great for bottling Belgiums and other beers that you want to carb that high. I use them for gifting since I do not need to worry about getting the bottles back

Yup this is our plan, had the siason bottles from the ones we got at the grocery store grand opening. We can buy some at the LHBS but would rather convince BB2 to shell out for some that have fluid inside. We'll see as we have a long line up before the next saison arrives in the recipe pipeline.

[dbrowning]

I love belle saison yeast
and I love Saisons
my first Saison is best beer I've made.
Including all the lagers .
I've made 3 - 3 gallon batches and
thinking about doing one more 5 gallon
before it cools of too much

starting in April I hope to make
3 or 5 gallon batch every other week

[mashani]

I love belle saison yeast
and I love Saisons
my first Saison is best beer I've made.

I will always be keeping that yeast around from late spring to early fall. Everything I've made with it I like a lot. It's just like Wyeast French Saison except easy mode.