Four months after I pitched my starter of Wyeast's Brettanomyces Classenii 5151 on my Jib3 Saison, I deemed it ready for bottling.   In tasting it along the way, I was beginning to think that it would ever come around and taste like something I wanted to bottle.  The problem I had with it was that the amount of bitterness in the base bier didn't marry well with the excessive fruitiness produced by the Brett.

It has a big cidery, fruity, nose.  I love cider, and it smells so cider like that you might be shocked that it tastes like bier.  It has some pineapple, but also plenty of the bretty, horsey, "tacky" aroma that you associate with the other Bretts.  The conflict of fruit and bitterness aren't entirely resolved, but it does seem to have some drinkability.  Brett was added when the gravity was 1.006, and was bottled at 1.002.  Some more residual sugar might've been nice to add to the mix in order to balance the Brett character and bitterness.

N. Hjelte Claussen ran the lab at Carlsberg and gave Brettanomyces it's name.

A Saison for Big Brew 2010.  And I haven't made a Saison for more than a year so it was about time, I suppose.  I've always wanted to use triticale which is the wheat/rye hybrid so I incorporated it in at 10%.  I found it in flaked form at Fred Meyer.  Conversion was slow.  I opted to not do a protein rest because Triticale was flaked and also cause I was lazy.  Apparently, the triticale still had plenty of starch and therefore took longer to convert.  There might even be some unconverted starch in there... oops.  I plan to pitch my Brett. Clausenii starter on half of the batch as I rack it to secondary.  (I'm sure it'll love any extra starch.)  I formulated for 1.052, but I liquored down the wort pre boil, and a little too much...

Son of a Jib

17.5#       Gambrinus Pale Malt
2#            Flaked Triticale
1 oz.         Yakima Magnum - 14.4% aa  (28 ibus)  90 min.
1 oz.         UK Styrian Goldings - 5.2%      KO
1 oz.         French Strisselspalt -   2.9%      KO
.5 oz.        Citra                - 11.1%          KO

Moss & Wyeast Brewers Choice Yeast Nutrient
Wyeast 3711  French Saison starter

Mashed with 5 gallons of liquor @ 150F

OG:  1.049

Jib II

15#    Castle Pilsner Malt

4#     Wheat

1/2#  Weyermann Acidulated Malt

1/4 oz  Strisselspalt Pellets - 2% aa, First Wort Hops

1 oz  Amarillo Pellets - 8.2% aa @ 90 min.

1.25 oz  Liberty Pellets - 5% aa @ 90 min.

3/4 oz  Strisselspalt @ KO

1.5 oz  Liberty @ KO

1/2 oz  Cascade Pellets - 6.3% aa @ KO

Wyeast 3711 French Saison

Moss & Nutrient

Salts to kettle: 2 g each of CaSO4 & CaCl

22 quarts @ 127.5: 15 min.  Add heat & liquor up to 148.8: 30 min. Up to 168.

OG: 1.050

TG:  1.006: 88% aa/5.86% abv

This may be the best Saison I've brewed.  Pleasant and fully aromatic to the last bottle, which was slightly oxidized, a whole year and a half later.  (I'm writing this on December 18th, 2010.)  Big flowery, continental hop aroma.  Really floral, but a hint of citrus.  I'm still not sure if this was from the yeast, or Cascade.  I think yeast, but who knows.  Pleasant light body with some vigorous, creamy carbonation.  Bright light yellow color.  A firm and appetizing bitterness that lingers.  Dry.  A pensive Saison.  I would say that maybe Strisselspalt is most dominant for hop aroma, but it is nicely married.

Oh, dear blog, how I have neglected thee.

I've brewed some since this blog died (and I'm apparently trying to revive it.) I've created two bieres with the Wyeast 3725 Bier de Garde. (I won't discuss that they should've added an 'e' at the end of 'Bier'... uh, no.) I find it way different than any of the other Saison strains that have been offered by the wonderful folks at Wyeast. =) Way different, and I haven't even made a Biere de Garde with it yet. I have, however, tasted a homebrewed Biere de Garde made with this strain and it was very good. After I tasted my own first 3725 biere it took me awhile to put a finger on the fact that it does put more emphasis on malt (or malt and hop) in a more basic way like, for example, 1056 American Ale does. It lets the ingredients shine a bit more than other Saison strains.

So, I've made 2 Saisons with 3725. Here they are:

The Lesser

13# 11 oz Gambrinus Pale Malt
3 1/2# Wheat (Wagner Wheat)
1.75 oz US Northern Brewer 8.1% AA (90 min)
2 oz German Hallertau 4% AA (K.O.)
Wyeast 3725 Bier de Garde (24 oz starters)

Mash Schedule: 124:30min 148:60min 169:15+min

OG: 1.045 TG: 1.004 91% Apparent Attenuation, 5.5% abv.
Apparently you can be malty and attenuative at the same time.

The Bigger (Les Bon Temps)

18# 6 oz Gambrinus Pale Malt
1# Wheat
2 oz US Northern Brewer 8.1% AA (90 min)
2 oz German Hallertau 4% AA (K.O.)
Wyeast 3725 Slurry from previous beer.

Mash Schedule: 148:50+min 168:15+min

OG: 1.054 TG: 1.003 94%AA, 6.8% abv

With this biere, I also decided to dry hop the kegged portion. One ounce of Hallertau in secondary for seven days before I transferred it to keg. It seemed to add a lot more hop flavor. More than aroma, I think. I have yet to bottle this beer (and the Lesser). The Bigger is still on draft and it has changed a lot. Since all protein and yeast have dropped out and it's become bright, the head has become extra dense (but quickly fades), it has become a little spicier and less earthy. It has also become rounder and more complex.

With the Bigger biere I decided to skip the lower temperature rest because it only had 5% wheat. The smaller biere had 20%. I wanted to see if 5% of unmalted wheat without a protein rest would aid in adding head retention. I don't think it worked for me. You see, I've had a head retention problem almost all year long. The last biere to have a reasonable amount of head retention was bottled on January 9th. I feel like each successive biere has had less and less head retention. I'm bummed. I have some sort of anti-heading bug in the system, I guess. Maybe I need to tear everything apart and clean, rinse, and sanatize as needed.

Any ideas?

I bottled the 8% Saison on Tuesday, May 27th. Since it had been in secondary a good while I decided to help it along with some 1007 German Ale. It was very bright! The flavor was great and had plenty of grassy hop nose from both Saaz and Spalt. There was some late heat in the back of the throat, but the whole beer seemed fairly delicate and not one of substance. So, it's OG was 1.063 and the TG was 1.003. I know. It is hard to believe, but look at the record! Anyway, that's 95% apparent attenuation and a solid 8% abv. I noticed when I took the MarsBiere down to the lagering freezer yesterday, that the other half of the 8% had been down there since May 7th? It's already been 3+ weeks? I remember when I used to keep better records. Now I have to decide whether I should put a potentially lethal 8% Saison on draft? I dunno. I guess I'll think on it. Whaddaya think?

Biere de Mars (Biere de Yard? OG 1.056) terminaled at 1.006... with 5% crystal malt! and no sugar in the kettle! That's still 89% AA and 6.6% abv. Maybe this is the yeast for the 100% Crystal Malt beer we've talked about. CaraFoam anyone? =)

We created a biere yesterday. Bier #6 on the year. (Boo yah, in yer face, etc.) I'll be calling it a Biere de Mars even though it's just a Saison with more color and a bit more maltiness than most others I've made. Ingredients include:

19# Castle Pils (the last available from Olybrew at present time... economic downturn, etc.)
1# Wagner Wheat
1# Castle Aromatic 20L
1# Weyermann CaraHell 9-12L
2oz Weyermann Carafa Spcl 425L
2oz US Northern Brewer 8.1% aa (75 min)
1oz Kent Golding 6% aa (KO)
1oz Bavarian Spalt 2.9% aa (KO)
Wyeast 3711 French Saison





I got permission to split my nearly 1 quart of Slurry from the previous two batches into 2 seperate biers. One portion of pitch 3 was on a 1.090 Super Saison made at Big Brew on May 3rd. That bier has finished, or nearly so, at 1.008 for a whopping 11% abv. But enough about that. The Current Biere de Mars is humming along at a comfortable 74-76F. I plan to lager one half for 3-5 weeks and bottle the other half with bugs from the Yard City Sour w/ Lambic Blend in the style of New Belgium's old Bier de Mars.

On brew day I ran out of Propane -both tanks! And ran down the street to steal some from an unsuspecting neighbor. I also ran out of oxygen! Fortunately I made it to Kitsap Lumber 15 minutes before closing time. It was a lengthy late day but at least I got to see The Posies live in BREMERTON!

Holy double rewards, Batman!

Today I racked the Saison II to secondary and retrieved a boat load of slurry from the carboys. It is tasting nice and pineappley. It finished at 1.003. That's 95% AA from the 1.063 where it started and 8% alcohol by volume. This yeast is crazy. I'm beginning to think that the next beer with it needs 5% or less of sugar. I was going to use 20%! Doh! The next beer will be a super saison with a high gravity of 1.095. So, I think I'll have to tone dow the sugar to 5% or under. Maybe no sugar. Maybe all Pils.

I also racked the Tannum to a keg and carbonated it at the appropriate PSI (25) at the dispense temperature (52F) to equal my desired volumes of dissolved CO2 (3.0ish). This might work. It seemed good on first pour, but maybe most things do. We'll see. I've always had trouble dispensing Belgian's because of how much carbonation I want from them.

The first pint of Tannum tastes good. It has a light and bright character. The bitterness hit differently. Some bright grapefruit. Lemony, maybe?

...picking up the pieces of a broken lock.

The one to my front door!

Anyway, this is what I made on Friday, April 11th.

Saison II for '08

22# Great Western 2-row
l.5# Dextrose
1 oz Newport pellets 11.6% AA
2 oz US Saaz pellets 4.4% AA
1 oz German Spalt pellets 2.6% AA
1 oz Styrian Golding flowers 4.7% AA
Wyeast 3711 French Saison - pitch no. 2
Irish Moss & yeast nutrient

Infused @ 148.5 for over an hour. I was aiming for a 1.33 q/# ratio. Mashed out to 168F.

Hopping: 35 IBUs
.5 oz Saaz: First Wort
1 oz Newport: 90 min.
.5 oz Saaz: 90 min.
1 oz each Saaz, Spalt, Styrians: Knock Out

10 gallons of 1.063 OG.

It's been fermenting between 76-80F. And boy did it take off. That's what I like about the 2nd or 3rd pitch of a yeast. It takes off and there's no starter, just slurry.

I mashed in at 8:20 am on this beer. I usually can't do so until about 10 am. I thought I'd see how it was setting up the day before so I could get an earlier start. Well it would've been faster... but... I checked for conversion after 1 hour and it looked like it hadn't converted. And there also wasn't as much liquor in there as I wanted. So I put the two together and thought I needed more liquor to convert. I added about 3 gallons from the hot liquor tank and was able to remain the same mash temp. Well whether it was truly converted or not the first time, I let it go nearly another hour before I checked and it was (of course!) fully converted. Doh. So, if you're going to save yourself time, make sure you don't waste it.

This beer is the fourth I've made this year. And it's the second pitch of the 3711. I recovered the slurry on Thursday night from primary, for pitching on this beer friday afternoon. That's the goal with multiple pitchings this time. Keeping the time between recovery and repitch to a minimum. This time was ideal. Unfortunately there will be a week between this recovery and the next pitch on Big Brew. =(

I also wanted to point out that the first beer was 1.049 with no sugar. This beer was 1.063 with 9% sugar. And sensing a theme... I'd say the next one will be big grav with up to 20% sugar. I'm still futzing with the numbers on number 3.

Single day, double shot.

On the tuesday of Spring Break I opted to make a batch of beer. April Fool's! I decided I'd make 2 batches of beer back to back in one day! I know. You say Sam Calagione used to brew 2 or 3 batches a day 5 days a week when he first opened Dogfish Head. Well, it was a first for me and my body ached for days afterwards.

My friend Wade opened up his garage for use. I usually make beer in the great outdoors, so it was nice to be semi indoors and have the heat dish available. I started assembling gear at 8 am. I brewed for about 9 hours and was there for a total of about 12. When the kettle came up to a boil for the first beer I began heating the hot liquor for the second while I was cleaning out the mash tun. It worked fine, but I think I could've shaved a few minutes off at this point. The biers:

Ahtanum 'ApriFoo' Saison

14# 5oz Castle Pils
3# 12oz Wagner hard white wheat
5 oz Ahtanum pellets 5.5% AA (2.5@90min 2.5@ KO)
Wyeast 3711 French Saison

9.75 gallons @ 1.049 OG


Cracklin' Belgian Pale

17.5# Great Western 2-row Brewers Malt
1.25# Briess C-40
3/4# Castle Biscuit 25L
5 oz Slovenian Goldings 4.7% AA (3.5@90 1.5@ KO)
Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale & 3944 Witbier

10+ gallons @ 1.051 OG


That's 20 gallons in under 12 hours. Both are in primary. The Saison has fermented between 76 & 80F with the Pale at 66-68F.














Rosie Russnet: Brewing Assistant and Brown Dog

'Lil Jib is the 'Infamous Saison' made on December 7, 2007.

13.25# Castle Pils
4.5# Wheat
1# 9 oz Dextrose
2 oz US Northern Brewer 7% aa
2 oz German Spalt 4% aa
2 oz German Spalt 2.6% aa
Wyeast 3711 VSS 'French Saison'

Mash regime: 126F, 150F, 169F

10.5 gallons of 1.052 OG wort.


I thought this bier was finished at 1.006. That would've been 88.5% AA, the most I'd have had from a yeast ever. It was still turbid and I thought since it was a low floculator it was done. BUT, after it sat it finished at... 1.002! 96% AA! and 6.6% abv. Wow.