The Project
When I started this series of beers, I was hoping to build on what I had learnt in the past two years with saison brewing. I had experimented with a diversity of techniques, yeasts, malt bills and hops, but I found myself unsatisfied and equally mystified with the style as before. When I began at Mediamatic as their brewer, I was tasked with designing a "house beer" that would be light, refreshing, 5% or less and something that people would want to drink in the sun all summer. My immediate thoughts went between pale ales and saisons. We decided to go for saison for a host of reasons, but I'm so glad that we did. I've never been as methodical as I have been with any other beer style/ series.
I began with wanting to trial various malts in a very simple saison recipe. The recipe for each was the same, with the exception of the grain bill. My interest in beginning with malt was that I knew I wanted our house beer to be made with French Saison 3711 - I fell in love with the strain through Thiriez's Train to Mars, and wanted to keep the yeast simple. Dry, refreshing, fruity/spicy. The malt trials were aimed at understanding how we could create a perception of body in a beer that was so dry and low in alcohol. How did each interact with the yeast and create unique flavour profiles? Here are those four trials:
I began with wanting to trial various malts in a very simple saison recipe. The recipe for each was the same, with the exception of the grain bill. My interest in beginning with malt was that I knew I wanted our house beer to be made with French Saison 3711 - I fell in love with the strain through Thiriez's Train to Mars, and wanted to keep the yeast simple. Dry, refreshing, fruity/spicy. The malt trials were aimed at understanding how we could create a perception of body in a beer that was so dry and low in alcohol. How did each interact with the yeast and create unique flavour profiles? Here are those four trials:
Grain Trials
Saison #1 (Vienna and Wheat)
Grain: 60% Pilsner, 20% Vienna, 20% Wheat
Yeast: 3711
Hops: Magnum, Saaz, Styrian Golding
ABV: 6%
We liked the overall flavor, but found that the Vienna created a toasty/perception of sweetness that we thought wouldn't work well towards a lighter flavored saison. This beer was slow to ferment initially, and was moved in the warmer fermentation chamber at 1.030. We feel this made this version fruitier than the others in this series. Instead of moving these beers into the "warmer" fermentation chamber at an arbitrary 4 days like we had planned, we soon found that once it was at 1.020 created a better. final product, closer to what we were looking for.
Saison #2 (Rye)
Grain: 70% Pilsner, 30% Rye
Yeast: 3711
Hops: Magnum, Saaz, Styrian Golding
ABV: 6%
We liked the spiciness of the rye, the lightness of its character, but found that 30% of rye/ especially rye by itself was not complex enough. Still worth using in the house beer though.
Saison #3 (Wheat)
Grain: 50% Pilsner, 50% Wheat
Yeast: 3711
Hops: Magnum, Saaz, Styrian Golding
ABV: 6%
Way too much Wheat! But we like how full it made the beer. The wheat in this version really created a bold, grainy, full bodied perception to the beer. Wheat will definitely be at least a component of the final beer.
Saison #4 (AHA Gold)
Grain: 64% Pilsner, 12.8% Flaked Oats, 12.8% Flaked Wheat, 6.5% Vienna, 4% Crystal 80L
Yeast: 3711
Hops: Magnum, Saaz, Styrian Golding
ABV: 7.6%
Hard to go wrong with this beer. It won gold at American Homebrewing Association's NHC this past year. We loved the composition of the malt bill, but found the Vienna and the C80L took away from the lightness we were looking for. Our beer has ended up becoming inspired by this beer's malt bill/ process/ hop bill.
Grain: 60% Pilsner, 20% Vienna, 20% Wheat
Yeast: 3711
Hops: Magnum, Saaz, Styrian Golding
ABV: 6%
We liked the overall flavor, but found that the Vienna created a toasty/perception of sweetness that we thought wouldn't work well towards a lighter flavored saison. This beer was slow to ferment initially, and was moved in the warmer fermentation chamber at 1.030. We feel this made this version fruitier than the others in this series. Instead of moving these beers into the "warmer" fermentation chamber at an arbitrary 4 days like we had planned, we soon found that once it was at 1.020 created a better. final product, closer to what we were looking for.
Saison #2 (Rye)
Grain: 70% Pilsner, 30% Rye
Yeast: 3711
Hops: Magnum, Saaz, Styrian Golding
ABV: 6%
We liked the spiciness of the rye, the lightness of its character, but found that 30% of rye/ especially rye by itself was not complex enough. Still worth using in the house beer though.
Saison #3 (Wheat)
Grain: 50% Pilsner, 50% Wheat
Yeast: 3711
Hops: Magnum, Saaz, Styrian Golding
ABV: 6%
Way too much Wheat! But we like how full it made the beer. The wheat in this version really created a bold, grainy, full bodied perception to the beer. Wheat will definitely be at least a component of the final beer.
Saison #4 (AHA Gold)
Grain: 64% Pilsner, 12.8% Flaked Oats, 12.8% Flaked Wheat, 6.5% Vienna, 4% Crystal 80L
Yeast: 3711
Hops: Magnum, Saaz, Styrian Golding
ABV: 7.6%
Hard to go wrong with this beer. It won gold at American Homebrewing Association's NHC this past year. We loved the composition of the malt bill, but found the Vienna and the C80L took away from the lightness we were looking for. Our beer has ended up becoming inspired by this beer's malt bill/ process/ hop bill.
House Beer Trials
Immediately following these trials, I designed a beer that incorporated the lessons we had learnt from the first four trials. This was structured from #4, inspired by Tired Hands, based on our previous four trials.
Saison #5
Grain: 62% Pilsner, 12.5% Flaked Oats, 12.5% Flaked Wheat, 10% Wheat, 3% Rye
Yeast: 3711
Hops: Magnum, Saaz, Styrian Golding
ABV: 6.5%
We then brewed it again, only 6% instead of 6.5% this time.
Saison (Work Shop)
Grain: 62% Pilsner, 12.5% Flaked Oats, 12.5% Flaked Wheat, 10% Wheat, 3% Rye
Yeast: 3711
Hops: Magnum, Saaz, Styrian Golding
ABV: 6.0%
Interesting, in that the yeast expressed itself differently in this version somehow. We wanted to continue pushing the ABV down, but in the process play with three distinct directions for the future of this series.
Saison #5
Grain: 62% Pilsner, 12.5% Flaked Oats, 12.5% Flaked Wheat, 10% Wheat, 3% Rye
Yeast: 3711
Hops: Magnum, Saaz, Styrian Golding
ABV: 6.5%
We then brewed it again, only 6% instead of 6.5% this time.
Saison (Work Shop)
Grain: 62% Pilsner, 12.5% Flaked Oats, 12.5% Flaked Wheat, 10% Wheat, 3% Rye
Yeast: 3711
Hops: Magnum, Saaz, Styrian Golding
ABV: 6.0%
Interesting, in that the yeast expressed itself differently in this version somehow. We wanted to continue pushing the ABV down, but in the process play with three distinct directions for the future of this series.
Three Directions
1. A New Yeast
From the beginning I knew I wanted to culture yeast from French Saison's source brewery: Brasserie Thiriez. I contacted the owner/ head brewer Daniel Thiriez and received this response about the yeast:
Thanks for your message and your nice comments about my beers. Indeed, a side by side test with my house yeast strain and the 3711 one would be quite interesting, but I already know these yeast strains are rather different. Whenever you have the opportunity to visit the brewery, then we would have a chance to talk and share experiences.
Interesting, given that the bottle of Train to Mars I drank with colleagues was so different/unique, we had a feeling this might happen.
Saison #6 (Thiriez)
Grain: 62% Pilsner, 12.5% Flaked Oats, 12.5% Flaked Wheat, 10% Wheat, 3% Rye
Yeast: Thiriez Yeast
Hops: Magnum, Saaz, Styrian Golding
ABV: 4.5% (Thiriez)
ABV: 5.5% (3711)
In addition to attenuation differences, it's hard to believe these yeast strains are related. I'm planning to write an entire post about this shortly. Keep posted.
2. A Hoppy Saison
Based on Saison #5's process, with the important distinction being that the hop bill and gravity of this beer are different. The Cascade bill in this came from a Grimm Artisan Ales video clip on YouTube. My god is it delicious. I wasn't tasting anything necessarily rustic about 3711 until I brewed this. Something stunning about the interaction between hops and this strain. Interesting.
Saison #7 (Hoppy, Cascade)
Grain: 64% Pilsner, 12.5% Flaked Oats, 9.5% Flaked Wheat, 10% Wheat, 3% Rye
Yeast: 3711
Hops: Magnum, Cascade
ABV: 5.1%
3. Back to the Original
Even though I find it unoriginal and boring to drink, the original is probably the simplest version of this beer. We decided to make it one last time to decide if it will become our house beer or not.
Saison #8 (The Original)
Grain: 64% Pilsner, 12.5% Flaked Oats, 9.5% Flaked Wheat, 10% Wheat, 3% Rye
Yeast: 3711
Hops: Magnum, Saaz, Styrian Golding
ABV: 5.4%
Moving Forward
We had a tasting session with a chef and the director of Mediamatic, and have decided to work on the Hoppy version of our House Beer: Saison #7. I couldn't agree more. This beer is special, potentially the best I have ever made, and the beer that I wish I could drink forever and ever. I really do feel that it has it all: full bodied, dry/ refreshing, hoppy to about as far as possible without being bitter or abrasive, just super juicy, perfect interaction between the Cascade and 3711, and slightly tart. I'm excited to keep making this beer. Moving forward I plan to play with smaller details in this series that I feel could be really interesting to understand:
Hops: Using other fruit-forward hop varieties (single hop)
Water: Currently we do no additions to the salts in our source water, but we will soon experiment with adding Gypsum into this beer to increase our Calcium level and SO4 level – making a crisper and more refreshing tasting beer. Also potentially playing with a touch of salt as well.
pH: Reading and correcting pH from Mash, Sparge, pre-boil, post-boil and post-fermentation as a tool for repeatability and creating the best results in our beer. Targets found from a Shaun Hill interview.
Oak: How about adding Oak for a handful of days into the beer, or having an older beer to blend into the fresher.
These ideas have a shared goal: to refine our beer. How do we sit a the cross section between hoppy without being bitter, full-bodied without being sweet, low-alcohol without being watery? The concept is to maintain our yeast profile. We love how dry and slightly tart it gets. But to combat this dryness, we will maintain our rich grain bill to maintain body and creaminess in the beer as it gets lower in ABV. To create an overarching body, we will study our water to make it both fuller (CaCl/ hardness), while also being crisp (Gypsum) - to make the pH lower to accentuate dryness and tart character. It's the subtle balancing act between all of these moving parts that I'm most excited about with moving forward.
More to come..
Hops: Using other fruit-forward hop varieties (single hop)
Water: Currently we do no additions to the salts in our source water, but we will soon experiment with adding Gypsum into this beer to increase our Calcium level and SO4 level – making a crisper and more refreshing tasting beer. Also potentially playing with a touch of salt as well.
pH: Reading and correcting pH from Mash, Sparge, pre-boil, post-boil and post-fermentation as a tool for repeatability and creating the best results in our beer. Targets found from a Shaun Hill interview.
Oak: How about adding Oak for a handful of days into the beer, or having an older beer to blend into the fresher.
These ideas have a shared goal: to refine our beer. How do we sit a the cross section between hoppy without being bitter, full-bodied without being sweet, low-alcohol without being watery? The concept is to maintain our yeast profile. We love how dry and slightly tart it gets. But to combat this dryness, we will maintain our rich grain bill to maintain body and creaminess in the beer as it gets lower in ABV. To create an overarching body, we will study our water to make it both fuller (CaCl/ hardness), while also being crisp (Gypsum) - to make the pH lower to accentuate dryness and tart character. It's the subtle balancing act between all of these moving parts that I'm most excited about with moving forward.
More to come..