The Saison beer style is one I have wanted to brew for some time having first discovered the joys of the traditional Belgium & French Saisons 18 months ago whilst stewarding at the Australian International Beer Awards. These yeasty fruity light aromatic ales typify to me the 'harvest' ales of Spring to be enjoyed post a hard days work in the fields. Whilst not many of us toil a day in the fields these days I suspect it would go down a treat post gardening, lawn mowing or with friends over for a BBQ in the heat of Summer.Taking guidance from the excellent La Sirene Saison brewed by Costa Nikias and shared in the recent Spring issue of Beer & Brewer magazine. My thought was it be good to get this down and out of the way before the Silly Season (it is more likely I will be bottling in the midst of the silly season!) and there is a famous Saison called Silly, so I was silly enough to call my home brewed on "Silly Season Saison".

Time to reach for the leaderhosen, funny pants, knee high socks, put the hair in piggy tails or try on some skin tight skivvies and put on some strange German techno and put down a traditional Marzen or Octoberfest bier!  Using all Gladfield Malt and a moderate hopping regime for me with just under 40g of Hallertau Mittelfruh and a dash of Warrior at the 60 mins boil mark to hit target 28IBU.  In place of a traditional Weyermann Caramunich III I have substiuted 10% of the grain bill with Gladfield toffee malt. Read on for Brewers Friend recipe and brew day notes - Sat 10 Aug 2013.  Will be targetting a 1 month extended cold lagering post racking after primary and secondary fermentation and pre-bottling which should hit its straps right on time for octoberfest - umpha umpha :-)