I’ve done a few saison homebrews, and I always find I enjoy the soured batches just a little bit more. Saisons are not complete strangers to sour, and some of the more famous examples of the style from Brasserie Fantôme and Brasserie à Vapeur  are amazing because of those notes.  I find souring adds more complexity to the beer, and I find myself ramping up the acidulated malt that I put into the mash a little more each time.  The idea behind this experiment was to ferment a saison and then to add brettanomyces to sour the batches and add further complexity.  Put another way, I wanted to sour these the old fashion way.

It started out as one of my standard saison batches with the not-so-secret ingredient of some acidulated malt.  It started out with an OG of 1.068, and I fermented it at around 80 degrees.  It dropped down to a 1.006 less than a week later, and then I let it sit for another week just to clean itself up and let the yeasts drop out.  (I say “yeasts” because I pitch a saison yeast, in this case WLP565, and then a clean Cal ale yeast, the Safale US-05, 48 hours later to insure the beer dries out enough.)

On Sunday (8/23/09), I split the batch evenly between two 3-gallon carboys.  Into one carboy I pitched a vial of White Labs Brettanomyces Bruxellensis (WLP650), and into the other I pitched a starter I had ramped up from the dregs of an Avery Brabant.  (Yes, this is deviation from the original souring gameplan.)

The Brett B is a pure culture of that brettanomyces strain and it is often used for secondary fermentation of Belgian beers and lambics.  It creates a medium intensity sour, and it is often pitched at bottling by brewers.  The Avery culture is a bit more of a wildcard.  It is my understanding that the Brabant undergoes a secondary fermentation brett b, too, but it probably isn’t the same culture as the tube.  In addition, it is a bottled beer so I don’t know if any Lactobacillus (Lacto) and Pediococcus (Pedio) bacteria are present which would additional tartness and perhaps add a vinegar quality to the beer.

Since the final gravity of the beer was so low, the bretts shouldn’t have too much to feast upon and that should control the souring to a certain degree.  As of two nights later, the brett b carboy doesn’t appear to be doing anything visually, but its airlock seems to be under a bit more pressure.  The Brabant carboy is getting a white foaminess to it, and may be forming a pellicle. 

I’m not sure how long I will let these beers age and evolve.  I will likely taste them every so often and see if they are in a place where I want to bottle them.  I would think the Brabant, since I don’t know exactly what was in there, might have a better chance of being bottled earlier since it might sour faster and benefit from bottling and a reduced exposure to oxygen.

We’ll see where this one ends up. 

As a sidenote, I did use my wine thief a few weeks ago to fill up a few bottles of the pre-brett saison for tasting and a homebrew competition.  I tasted one right before the split and it was very, very good.  It made it harder to pitch uncertainty into what was an amazing beer, but at least I know I have the recipe I want dialed in for the future.

The recipe for giggles:

Le Moribond – (Saison) 2009

 Starting Gravity: 1.068 (8/2/09) Days @ 80° F

Final Gravity:  1.006 (8/23/09)

8.15% alcohol (by volume)

Apparent Attenuation: 90.71

Real Attenuation: 73.35

Mash (147° 60 min)

10 lb Pilsener Malt

2 lb Golden Promise

1 lb Munich Malt

0.75 Wheat Malt

0.25 CaraMunich 40

0.25 Acidulated Malt (Sauer)

1 lb Cane Sugar

Boil (70 minute boil)

2.0 Hallertauer Leaves (4.3 AA) (60 min)

0.75 Hallertauer Leaves (4.3 AA) (0 min)

1 tablet Whirlfloc (Boil – 15 min.)

½ tsp Brewer’s Choice Wyeast Nutrient Blend (Boil – 10 min.)

Primary (>80° F)

White Labs WLP565 – Starter made

 Safale-05 – Packet pitched after 48 hours in primary