Saison je t'aime | Grain to Glass Homebrew | New Favorite Saison Yeast

Full Recipe and more below! Our first homebrewed saison in about five years went surprisingly well. This was a split-batch brewday where we brewed up a high-gravity wort, then diluted and split it between two carboys: One got Imperial Rustic Saison yeast and the other got weird with some Belle Saison. We also got weird with the French New Wave.

This is mostly a yeast experiment, so don't pay too much attention to the mash and boil. It's all Pilsner malt and European hops. Though I do recommend a step mash for any Belgian beer.

Homebrew Recipe for approximately 8-9 gallons (split between two 5 gallon carboys)

19lbs Avangard Pilsner Malt
No-sparge Hochkurz Mash (rests at 144F and 160F)

90 minutes: 1oz Perle First Wort Hops
30 minutes: 1oz Styrian Goldings (or maybe it was Saaz?)
10 minutes: 1oz Saaz

Split the approximately 5-6 gallons of wort between two 5 gallon carboys, topping up with approximately 1-2 gallons of filtered water? This part was all guestimated.

Original Gravity Who Knows? These beers are around 6-7% abv. Feels like 7.

Saison #1 got Imperial Rustic B56 yeast and fermented for 4 weeks
Saison #2 got Lallemand Belle Saison and fermented for 2 weeks, then got 1/4oz dried ginger and a package of frozen peaches for another 2 weeks.

Both beers were re-yeasted in the bottling bucket with EC 1118 champagne yeast.

FILM REFERENCES (for nerds)

François Truffaut
Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows)
Jules et Jim (Jules and Jim)
La Nuit americaine (Day for Night)

Jean-Luc Godard
Le Mepris (Contempt)
Made in U.S.A.
2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle (Two or Three Things I Know About Her)
Week-end

And probably more. Those were the main ones.

HOMEBREWING TERMINOLOGY (for the curious)

SAISON: I mean watch the dang video. A yeast forward, effervescent, dry Belgian farmhouse ale.

MASH: Converting the grain's starch into fermentable sugars.

HOCHKURZ MASH: A step mash with rests at 144F and 160F that encourages both fermentability and dextrin formation leading to better body and head retention

NO-SPARGE MASH: Using only the first runnings. It is less efficient, but allows you to use more grain to reach a certain gravity, thus resulting in more pronounced malt flavor in simple, low gravity grainbills. We prefer to do this rather than utilize high mash temps (basically useless) or add specialty malt/ caramel malt (can be cloying).

FIRST WORT HOPS: Adding hops as you collect the runnings before the boil, leading to supposedly smooth bitterness, a more "classic European" flavor, and supposed to be less boil-overs (not in our case).

WHIRLFLOC: Not to be confused with Campden tablets (idiot), this is processed Irish Moss (carageenan) that precipitates proteins leading to clear beer.

CAMPDEN TABLETS: Not to be confused with Whirlfloc (idiot), this is Potassium Metabisulfate that removes chlorine/chloramines from the water.

YEAST: The fungus among-us that transforms the sugary wort(unfermented beer) into beer! Saison yeasts prefer warmer temperatures and contribute unique phenols and esters that provide the distinctive flavors.


BREWING EQUIPMENT
Spike Kettles and glass carboys for this one. (the fancy Flex+ fermenter was in use)

Fun Fact: This was brewed/filmed in between the Kellerpils and the Mexican Lager, but fermented longer than the latter. We also had to reshoot the tasting video because I filmed the most important part out of focus. Ooops. Sorry for the delay.

VIDEO EQUIPMENT
Panasonic GH5 shooting 10bit HLG profile
Panasonic 25mm f1.7, Laowa 7.5mm f2, Voigtlander 17.5mm f0.95
Edited and Color Graded in DaVinci Resolve Studio
Film Emulation with Filmconvert Nitrate plugin
Music and Sound Effects from Epidemic Sound