May Brew Review Thread - Saison

[Hazelwood Brewery]

My last Saison, this one from @samale. Apologies for the poor photo, the head picked up with a gentle swirl, lasted for the whole pint and laced the glass. I drank it beside the BBQ, just like I did with the @Hazelwood Brewery Saison and the similarities didn’t end there.
The aroma had a light funk with a bit of spice thrown in. The carbonation was spot on and the last sips were just as lively as the first. Bready malt flavours balanced really well with lemony citrus hops and peppery yeast phenols. It was the perfect accompaniment to the beer can chicken that I ate with it.
Cheers @samale, what a great way to sign off on a great and varied selection of Saison’s.


View attachment 69969

Yeah, he keeps stealing my recipes

 

[samale]

@Alastair70 Saison

Nicely carbonated, darker than my previous Saison.
Spice and malt aroma, slight sweetness
Nice flavour of the yeast, good bitterness, light with a dry finish.

Interesting beer, I have looked at the recipe you used. What's your opinion of the beer, I am not too sure on the colour. Yeast profile is spot on

 

[Agentgonzo]

@Alastair70 Saison

Nicely carbonated, darker than my previous Saison.
Spice and malt aroma, slight sweetness
Nice flavour of the yeast, good bitterness, light with a dry finish.

Interesting beer, I have looked at the recipe you used. What's your opinion of the beer, I am not too sure on the colour. Yeast profile is spot on
View attachment 70031

Where's the recipe?

 

[Alastair70]

Where's the recipe?

I’ll post tomorrow, it’s the Greg Hughes recipe, there’s a decent charge of dark crystal in it, hence the colour and sweetness.
I’m enjoying it, I’ll be brewing more saisons in the future, but I’ll be going with a more traditional recipe next time based on the other beers I hit in the swap.

 

[jceg316]

3/3 @jceg316

View attachment 69874I

This opened to only a slight hiss and had very little head unfortunately.

It had a hint of Orange & Coriander smell to it, but the lack of carbonation made it taste a bit thin.

Was this transferred from a keg as I'm not sure what happened there.

Did this taste off in any way or just lack carbonation?

 

[pilgrimhudd]

@Mash Monster apologies for not having had your saison yet, the may competition has sort of got in the way. I'll have it Thursday I reckon.

 

[samale]

@Mash Monster apologies for not having had your saison yet, the may competition has sort of got in the way. I'll have it Thursday I reckon.

I am only getting around to posting your replacement

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I am only getting around to posting your replacement

No worries, my liver needs a breather to be honest.

 

[samale]

No worries, my liver needs a breather to be honest.

I was thinking that
Not an easy job

 

[Oneflewover]

I was thinking that
Not an easy job

Someone's gotta do it

 

[Alastair70]

As promised, recipe for my Saison brew. Ignore the water additions, they're for my home tap supply diluted with RO to the point that adding acid is not necessary. I overshot significantly, I have resolved an issue with efficiency since this brew, but had dialed back the software to accommodate for poorer mash performance. With that in mond, it's probably a slighly different beer than the one intended by GH.

 

[SMP Brewery]

Did this taste off in any way or just lack carbonation?

There was something about it not quite right, which I couldn’t put my finger on, it went flat very quickly and it could just have been that or perhaps there was something in the bottle.
Sorry that’s the best I can remember I should have made more notes, which I’ll do for the next swap.

 

[samale]

@Alastair70 was your Saison kegged or bottle conditioned

 

[Alastair70]

@Alastair70 was your Saison kegged or bottle conditioned

I bottle condition the whole batch. I’m having one later and will measure it up to the feedback received.

 

[FirebladeAdam]

@Agentgonzo, a good beer! Opens with a healthy pfft, pours nicely, I was able to leave the yeast largely in the bottle. No Coke taste! I'm afraid I have an uneducated nose, but was able to detect what I thought was the use of Belle Saison, a yeast I've used hence my familiarity. Not too hoppy, well balanced with the malt, good body and overall a nice taste with the Belle Saison providing that slightly dirty end taste. Nice body, not too thin and a nice white head that laced to the end. Good refreshing pint!
Thanks for sending it, thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[FirebladeAdam]

@Alastair70 , a good beer that I forgot to take a photo of, so my apologies for that.
Packaged in a plastic bottle, I had to get some pump grips to get the top off! It was definitely Royal Mail proof. Once I was in I found a good beer, slightly cloudy, slightly spicy and some slight orange flavours, and that nice (typical for the style?) Earthy yeast flavour. It was subtly flavoured, and was slightly malt forward maybe, so perhaps if I was tweaking I might put a post ferm hop charge in there somewhere. (That said my opinion of my own Saison was that it was over hopped, so shows what I know).
It seemed to lack head, although it seems nicely bodied and correctly carbonated (it wasn't flat and didn't jump out of the bottle at me) but was a good pint in spite of this.
Overall a good beer, refreshing when chilled (I didn't take it out of the fridge as early as I may have done but did let it warm) and perfectly enjoyable to drink. Thanks for sending.

 

[Agentgonzo]

@Agentgonzo, a good beer! Opens with a healthy pfft, pours nicely, I was able to leave the yeast largely in the bottle. No Coke taste! I'm afraid I have an uneducated nose, but was able to detect what I thought was the use of Belle Saison, a yeast I've used hence my familiarity. Not too hoppy, well balanced with the malt, good body and overall a nice taste with the Belle Saison providing that slightly dirty end taste. Nice body, not too thin and a nice white head that laced to the end. Good refreshing pint!
Thanks for sending it, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Your nose is spot on. It was Belle Saison. Perhaps it's more educated than you think.

Glad to hear there were no residual flavours from the ex-coke bottle. I'll continue to be friendly to the environment and reuse them for carbonation testing and postage (far easier to mail than glass bottles)

 

[jceg316]

There was something about it not quite right, which I couldn’t put my finger on, it went flat very quickly and it could just have been that or perhaps there was something in the bottle.
Sorry that’s the best I can remember I should have made more notes, which I’ll do for the next swap.

Maybe there was something wrong with the bottle, but thinking about it the batch may not have been carbed up properly when I bottled. I did bottle from keg but I used a counterpressure filler. I cracked open a bottle last night that was bottled the same time as that one, and it was less carbonated than the keg currently is. Apologies about that.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I'm going to steal this photo for my archives. You have far more attractive wood stumps to photograph the glass on than I do

@Agentgonzo, a good beer! Opens with a healthy pfft, pours nicely, I was able to leave the yeast largely in the bottle. No Coke taste! I'm afraid I have an uneducated nose, but was able to detect what I thought was the use of Belle Saison, a yeast I've used hence my familiarity. Not too hoppy, well balanced with the malt, good body and overall a nice taste with the Belle Saison providing that slightly dirty end taste. Nice body, not too thin and a nice white head that laced to the end. Good refreshing pint!
Thanks for sending it, thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Just drinking @Mash Monster Saison! NIce hiss and decent head which lasts half the glass. Well carbonated for the style. Straw coloured, hazy. Aroma, yeasty, saisony with a bit of lime maybe? Flavour wise, much the same as the aroma, i think both aroma and flavour improve as the beer warms. Light bodies, very clean and refreshing, you've made a very (if 5.4% can be) sessionable Saison here. It's bleddy lovely, thanks for sharing!