I’ve been on a bit of a saison kick lately, starting mixed fermentation batches in April and May. Those are still bulk aging with probably a few months left to go before bottling. In the meantime, I feel like experimenting with a quicker 100% Saccharomyces saison.

I’m going to try out a new (to me) yeast for this brew, Omega Saisonstein’s Monster (OLY-500). It’s a hybrid strain, bred from Belgain and French saison parents.

I came across this yeast in Union’s Tart Saison, and liked it enough that I thought it was worth a try at home.

Omega says:

“[Saisonstein] is versatile, aromatic and attenuative with a silky mouthfeel. It excels in high gravity and it ferments more reliably and thoroughly than its parents. It is spicy, complex, tart, dry and crisp with some bubblegum character present from its Belgian parent, and more fruit and fewer phenolics than its French parent.”

This test batch won’t be as tart as Union’s. Theirs was definitely soured somehow, but I couldn’t find a firm answer. This beer will use a simple recipe with just the Saisonstein’s Monster to let the yeast show what it can do.

Sometime soon I’d like to try a variation on this where I kettle sour it to a moderate level of tartness like the original Union beer. Maybe thow in some brett like they did too.

Recipe

I really liked the way my rustic saison was tasting when I transferred it to secondary recently. The grain bill for that was Pils, Rye, and some light Candi Sugar.

I’ve never brewed much with Rye, but I think I’ve been missing out. For this batch I’m going to use just Pils and Rye.

The hopping schedule is inspired by The Mad Fermentationist’s hoppy french saison.

Batch size:      5.5 gallons
Target OG:       1.052
Target FG:       1.003
Calculated IBU:  29.3
Calculated SRM:  4.0

Grain bill:
9.25 lb  Pislner Malt (84%)
1.75 lb  Rye Malt     (16%)

Mash (Batch Sparge): 148 °F @ 1.5 qts/lb

Hops:
0.35 oz Columbus @ 60 minutes
2.25 oz Czech Saaz @ 15 minutes
1.75 oz Czech Saaz @ Flameout

Yeast:
1.5L starter (stir plate) of Omega Saisonstein's Monster (OLY-500)

Notes

2020-07-06 - Thought the grains looked a little too intact after milling. Milled a second time.

Overly high efficiency. Added 0.7G water after getting pre-boil OG. The water addition either wasn’t enough or I boiled too much. OG 1.056 instead of targeted 1.052

2020-07-07 - Fermentation started around 70 °F, ramped up to 76 °F over the course of the first day. About one degree every two hours. Going to leave it at 76 °F for the rest of fermentation.

2020-07-18 - Looks like there hasn’t been any activity the last few days. FG 1.005, ~6.8% abv. The gravity sample tastes pretty nice!

Transferred to a keg and added 1 tsp gelatin dissolved in 4oz of 150 °F water. Into the kegerator to chill and carb.

2020-11-24 - This kicked back in late October, just after I filled some bottles to send off to a local BJCP competition. It was my first time entering a competition. I wasn’t expecting this beer to win, but I was curious to get some educated feedback on it.

It ended up placing 3rd out of 10 entries in the Belgian ales category. Not bad! Especially since the beer was a bit old at judging time (mid November). I’m tasting the one extra bottle I filled now while reading the judges notes.

The beer got a final score of 35, with pretty consistent opinions from the four judges who scored it. It was rated as being mostly to style but the judges would’ve liked to see more overall aroma, more hop influence specifically, and a little more Belgian yeast character.

Some of the judges correctly guessed that this might be an older bottle.

Aroma: I agree with the judges that the aroma is quite muted. There is a bit of yeast character but it is restrained. The beer was never overly hoppy, but there is basically no hop character to speak of at this point.

Taste: Similar to what I remember. No pronounced off flavors, though I think I detect just a hint of oxidization. That might be from my bottling technique, or it might just be the age of the beer. None of the judges mentioned oxidization or any other off flavors.

There are some nice spicy yeast notes. Not much estery fruitiness. The yeast character is tasty but turning up the volume would be good. There is still some light bitterness from the hops, but not much discernible hop flavor.

Overall: This bottling held up pretty well but it’s definitely showing some age. I think the judges feedback was useful, and I enjoyed the competition experience. I wish I had started participating in competitions sooner.

I’m setting a goal to submit to this category for the competition next year and I hope to improve on my score and placing.

Changes for next time

• Higher carbonation
• Spend a bit of time researching other successful homebrew efforts in this style
• I’d like to try out some of the classic saison yeast strains
• If brewing with saisonstein again, try pushing the temp a bit higher
• Overall bitterness was pretty good but more hop flavor and aroma would be good. Maybe move the 15 min hops to 10 or 5, and consider upping the flameout addition bit.
• Schedule this beer so it’s fresh for competition time.