Sour Citra Saison - Same Grain Same Style Different Brewers No.1

The OG beer signal 

A few months back Steve J and Daniel F came up with the idea for "a different kind of 'collaboration'". One that involved brewing the same style of beer and the same grist percentages.  After that, every other aspect (gravity, hops, yeast/bugs, spices etc) was up each brewer. The style for what I am assuming/hoping will be the first of many rounds was determined to saisons. The grist percentages were set at 86% Belgian Pilsner, 11% Spelt and 3% Rye As I've mentioned before saisons aren't my favorite style as they tend to have a wide range of flavor and aroma profiles considered to be "in style" however certain saisons, such as Fifth Element from Squatters, are among my favorite all time beers.

I knew right away that I wanted to team up with Shawn O on this one.  My idea for how I wanted to collaborate with Shawn was pretty simple, 1 mash and 2 kettles.  Basically do the mash for around 11 gallons of wort production and split it into two kettles.  This would allow each of us total control on hops, spices etc.   Initially I figured that he would brew a clean to version while I would sour it in some way.  It quickly became apparent that he also wanted to play around with some bugs, which I was in no way surprised by.  

After a couple of weeks of swapping ideas between each other over various conversations, calls, texts and emails we settled on plan of attack.  Each of us would do our own sour starter which we would combine and add to the mash when we got together.  I would take 6 gallons of wort and add 1.5 gallons of RO with a 60 minute boil targeting a 1.048 SG. Shawn would take the balance adding slightly more RO and do a 90 minute boil looking have 1.037/8 SG.

If you are going to brew a sour saison...

To prep for brewday I made a gallon starter with pilsner DME which I split between two vessels.  The first vessel was a quart mason jar with a half a cup of raw unmilled grain. This became my sour starter as lactobacillus is naturally present on the hulls of grain.  I tried my best to keep it at 120°F using an old Polystat Constant Temperature Circular I had rescued from the trash at work.  Unfortunately the reason it was tossed was that it couldn't cool, which at the time I wasn't concerned about, however as I learned this meant that it would continue to drift up over time.  I was able to remedy this by setting an upper limit which shut it off if it was above, this was accompanied however with a nice alarm. The remaining gallon became the start for an old pitch of ECY04 Brett Blend #1

ECY04 Brett Blend #1 - Three individual Brettanomyces isolates from lambic producers combined to give an aggressive brett presence in any beer. Vigorous, funky, and acid-tolerant, the blend can be added at any stage of fermentation and is excellent for priming or re-yeasting. Contains B. anomala, B. clausenii and B. anomulus

A new saison that I approve of

For the hops I decided I wanted a BIG Citra presence so I planned to hop burst with a good amount of at 20 and 0 while keeping the IBUs contrained (more pale ale level than IPA).  For the bittering hop I decided to go with some Cascade given it's dual use potential.

Brewday itself was a blast.  I headed over very early to find the mash water almost at temp and Shawn waiting for me to mill.  After getting everything set to go we tasted and tested our sour starters.  Both had a pleasant sour bite and combined for a 3.63 pH so we tossed the liquid into the mash.  My brother Ryan (who recently moved to Cali from MN) soon arrived to hangout and help me brew.

In the end we both beat our target gravity with me coming in at 1.051.  It was great to brew with Shawn again as every time I do I learn so much.  The beer is currently fermenting in a poor-man fridge and smells absolutely incredible, I can't wait!

Santé 

-SNB

Saison Du BUFF

The Victory version

Overall I’m not a huge fan of most “saison style” beers.  The “style” in general is too all over the map which generally has lead to me often being let down. That does not mean that I am completely dismissive of saison beers in a couple of my favorite beers have been saisons. Among my favorite commercial beers are Guava Grove from Cigar City and Colette by Great Divide both of which are saisons.  On the homebrew side my BeanyTink’s Farmstead Ale is a saison/farmhouse style ale and is one of my favorite beers not to mentions some of my friends saisons.

One saison style beer that I’ve enjoyed several times is the Victory/Stone/Dogfish Head collaboration Saison Du BUFF.  A few weeks back I was waiting for some guys to come over and decided to warm up with a bottle I had in the BeerVault and give it a quick review.  This review is for the Victory version to date I’ve had all three versions and think the Victory is one of the better versions.

12 ounce Victory bottle poured into homebrew fest glass.  The enjoy or best by date is smudged so I can’t read it.

Appearance: Crystal clear, pale yellow almost straw like gold.  Pours with a good ½ inch whitehead made up of small tiny bubbles, lacing holds the side of class well.  

Great color and clarity

Aroma: Immediately I get the spiciness I’ve come to expect from this beer, there is some clove not overly funky.  I can slightly perceive the herbs they’ve used.  It took me a while to identify what I smelled; it was familiar but not something that I associate with beer.  Upon reading the side of the bottle I determined it was the rosemary.  

Mouthfeel: The beer is medium to light bodied, the bubble dance on the back my palate.

Taste:  Probably my favorite non-farmhouse / funky saison.  The spiciness from the yeast is not overpowering nor is it underwhelming, just an all around clean crisp beer.  I’m detecting no off flavors from fermentation and the finish really nice and crisp, very enjoyable

Overall: This is probably my favorite of the Stone collaboration beers that I have had to date.  Ironically I don't really get much Stone influence in it,  I get the Victory, I get a little bit of the Dogfish Head but not the Stone, probably due to the restraint in the hops.  Overall really nice summer beer that was a great follow up to the spicy smoked gouda pizza that I had made for dinner.  As I said definitely a good commercial saison, it is borderline between the ones that I like and the ones I do not.

In closing I am going to offer up the official collaboration video that Stone put out about a year ago when the beer was launched 

Dogfish Head / Victory / Stone Saison du BUFF from stonebrew on Vimeo.

La Choulette Framboise

I decided on the night of Bonnie and My anniversary that I needed to get a review on the site sooner than later.  So I went out to the beervault and pulled out one of my newer procurements, La Choulette Framboise, that I picked up at The Bruery Provisions the day before.   While drinking it I used the voice to text feature on my phone to send myself an email with my notes and impressions.

12 ounce bottle poured into a Bruery tulip, served at around 44-50. Label lists it as a French farmhouse ale brewed with raspberry juice.

Appearance: Purple-red with a slight garnet tint in head. Reflective light off the glass is a very deep red color. The frothy head clings well to side of glass with some lace lacing which barely sticks to the side of the glass

Aroma: Slight funky with tart raspberry. Bonnie detects an almost metallic smell, it’s very subtle and only something her super sniffer would pick up.  I can barely detect it, it similar to the difference between stainless steel aged chardonnay and chardonnay aged in oak barrels.  Somewhat of a “clean” smell in the back in my nose, by clean I mean the way a room smells after a thorough cleaning.  Not as much funk as I would've hoped for in a “farmhouse” ale but the aroma is very enjoyable and improve slightly as warms.   Swirling definitely helped bring out the raspberry character.

Mouthfeel: very small bubbles, some twang, bubbles pickle my upper lip. It has a very raspberry juice and champagne feel 

Taste: It’s definitely a raspberry beer, this is by far the most predominate flavor in the beer however it is not overpowering like some fruit beers.  The raspberry is very much in balance in this beer not overly raspberry.  It does have very little funk and is not as complex as I would've hoped

Overall: A decent beer but nothing extraordinary. Still it’s very clean very well brewed.  I went in wanting a nice funky soured beer and that probably clouded my review.  While I’ve stated a lot that I would have preferred more funk I am a lot happier with this beer than if it were listed as a farmhouse saison.  A little too fruity of a beer for what I would like in a farmhouse but to me farmhouse means a beer with a great funky bretty character smell and taste.

Cheers,

SNB