Bootleg Biology Saison Parfait vs East Coast Yeast Saison Brasserie (ECY08)

I’m planning to brew a few traditional saisons this year, with the hope to home in on something tasty to submit to a competition this fall.

Today, I’ll be trying a couple of new-to-me saison yeasts to see which I like better. Last year I brewed a similar batch with Omega Saisonstein’s Monster. I’ll try to make some comparisons to that from memory as well.

For yeast choice, I took some inspiration from Drew Beechum’s great Guide to Saisons and Saison Yeasts. He says ECY08 is his favorite for a classic saison. Bootleg’s Saison Parfait seems less talked about, but I like Bootleg so I thought I’d give it a try.

Recipe

This brew will be split evenly into two 3 gallon brew buckets and fermented together in a heated fermentation chamber. There seem to be a lot of opinions about temperatures and temperature schedules for saison. I don’t have much first hand experience with warm saison ferments, so I’m taking a bit of an educated guess with my schedule:

• Start the fermentation at 67°F ambient temp for 48 hours
• Bump up to 68°F for 12 hours
• After that, Increase 2°F every 12 hours until getting to 80°F (on day 5)
• Hold 80°F for a total of 4 or 5 days
• Transfer to kegs to condition at room temp for about 5 days
• Finally, chill, carb, and serve

Time will tell if this was a good schedule.

Batch size:      5.5 gallons
Target OG:       1.047
Target FG:       1.004
Calculated IBU:  28
Calculated SRM:  3.8

Grain bill:
8.5 lb  Pislner Malt (85%)
1.5 lb  Rye Malt     (15%)

Mash (Batch Sparge): 148 °F @ 1.4 qts/lb

Hops:
0.35 oz Columbus            @ 60 minutes (15 IBU)
1.0 oz Hallertau Mittelfrüh @ 25 minutes (6.5 IBU)
1.0 oz Styrian Golding      @ 25 minutes (6.5 IBU)
1.0 oz Hallertau Mittelfrüh @ Flameout
1.0 oz Styrian Golding      @ Flameout

Yeast:
Split between Saison Parfait and ECY08

Notes

2021-03-13 - Preboil gravity was quite high, at 1.046. Pulled off some wort for a future starter and added some more water, but it didn’t seem worth the hassle to get all the way down to my planned gravity. Ended up with OG of 1.050. Not too bad

I forgot how old my Bootleg yeast was (3 months). Even just going into ~2.5 gallons, this is under pitching. Meanwhile ECY gives you 250 billion cells and my vial is fresh, so that one is a bit of an over pitch. I wish I’d made a starter for the Bootleg.

First brew with heating in my fermentation chamber. I hope that works out ok.

2021-03-14 - Strong fermentation from the ECY in the morning. Bootleg lagged about 12 hours but both were going strong in the evening.

The new heating setup seems to be working well

2021-03-20 - Holding at 80 for a couple days now. Still some slow activity from the Bootleg half. Not much visible activity from the ECY.

2021-03-24 - Transferred to purged kegs. Divided 1 tsp dissolved gelatin and half a campden tablet between the two fermenters before transferring. Had some issues transferring the ECY and introduced a bit of air. Gravity samples definitely tasting distinct. Both are tasting pretty good. I’ll let these condition at room temp for a week, then chill and carb the kegs. ECY is 1.002 and Bootleg is 1.005.

Harvested the yeast from both fermentations.

2021-07-11 - Almost forgot to post tasting notes for these ones. The hops are fading a bit at this point, but the yeast was the star of this experiment anyway. One reason I haven’t gotten around to writing notes on this brew is that the two beers are very similar and I don’t have a clear favorite between the two.

Aroma: ECY has the edge on aroma but not by a lot. It has a bit more aroma overall and a slightly fruitier smell that I prefer.

Flavor: Really hard to pick a favorite here. They’re both pretty similar. Lots of peppery notes, neither is too fruity. They’re both tasty. Slight preference for the Bootleg Biology. ECY has slightly nicer mouthfeel.

Overall: Both are good. Neither is clearly amazing. I’m sure I’m more to blame there than either yeast is. I’d recommend both of these yeasts if you get the chance to try them.

Changes for next time

Tough to decide what yeast I’ll use in my next saison. These were both tasty and a lot more similar than I was expecting.

The batch I made last year with Saisonstein’s Monster was also really good. Definitely in the same ballpark as these two in quality.

Of these two, I think I’d try ECY next just for the slight edge it had in the aroma department. I am tempted to ferment it even warmer, ramp up the temperature sooner, or maybe both. I feel like both yeasts from this batch had more expressiveness to give.

The hop bitterness is at a good level but I could go for even more hop aroma/flavor. I might add more flameout hops or even try dry hopping. I’m not trying to make an IPA here, but I would like to notice the hops a bit.