Saint Germain Saison | Beer Recipe

Saint Germain Saison | Beer Recipe

Dermott Dowling

There is something about the funky soul and jazz of Saint Germain de Pres and the Saison style of beer from France that I can't resist.  Time to funk it up a little by using some smoke and brett and clash that with the traditional Saison style beer and see what we get.  Oh, and why not some English noble hops and Ale malt base.  Who ever said in Saint Germain you play by the rules.  After all there are no rules in this part of Paris.  You live by the hour and what takes your fancy and I fancy a Smokey Funky French Saison, so here we go...

Smokey Funky Saison Gladfield Malt Bill

Hops:

                      grams Variant                Time
Bittering:    30 East Kent Goldings  60 mins
Aroma:        50 East Kent Goldings 10 mins
                      40 East Kent Goldings 0 mins
                      120g Total Hop Bill

Yeast:

  • The Yeast Bay Saison/Brettanomyces Blend
Thanks Nick Race @Barleyman Brewing Supplies - what a yeast mate!

Target Method:

1. Mash - the brewer should do normal mash regime, mashing at 64 C for at least 60 mins
2. Sparge - once again the brewer should do normal regime at around 75C
3. Boil - vigorous boil for 60-90 mins
4. Add 30g of EKG @60 mins, 50g of EKG @50mins and 40g of EK Goldings at 0 mins.
5. Yeast & Fermentation - Aerate well and ferment at 23C until FG is reached
6. Yeast off, mature for 19 days before carbonating.
Batch Size: 21.0 L Boil Time: 60 min
Efficiency: 70.00%
Target: 1.052 OG1.014 FG
25 IBU 5.0% ABV6 SRM 0.49 IBU/OG Balanced

Brew Day: Sun 19 Nov

  1. Put on 29.5L of water in the trusty crown urn @80C @6:45am
  2. Mash in @65C @8:45am pouring grain into 13.5L @80C strick and adding malt and 1L Cold Water to hit 65C in the Rubbermaid (or at least I thought that was the case!).  Later after 60 mins mash tested with two other thermometers and arrggghhhh nooooo!!!! its 70C - F##$%^&KKK! Let's see how this one turns out - argghhhh!! Brewing its like golf - one bad hole ruins a good round and your overall scorecard (end result in the glass).  My bad hole is Mashing for the moment.
  3. 10:20am Sparge complete an put onto boil 26L - First wort runnings SG 1.070
  4. Start Boil @11am - add first hop edition
  5. Pre-Boil wort SG 1.040
  6. Boil goes as planned - lid off - then lid one to get rid of DMS.
  7. Chill down using immersion chiller and esky ice method
  8. Pitch the vial @18C @2pm - SG 1.048 - I'm off to Westgate Brewers with some Eternally Greatful ESB for a well earned beer or two with the homies @Westgate Brewers.
  9. Ferment @23C for 6 days.

Music to brew by:

  • Salmonella Dub - Outside the Dubplates - why not?
  • Scribe

Racking:

  • Sat 22nd Nov - FG 1.010 and tasting divine in the glass, smokey and quite drinkable - fingers crossed on this one.  Into a Glass Carboy and plan to leave at 22C for next 2-3 days then crash chill to 2-4 and hold it for 2 weeks conditioning before bottling - champagne bottles for this puppy I think at least for most of it anyway.
Inspirational Recipe Sources: Beer & Brewer Iss: 26 Spring 2013, Costa Nikias La Sirene Saison, Owen Johnston Moo Brew Saison