🎶 I should have known better with a 🍺 like you🎶

Brewed my first saison recently and boy what a surprise. NB lemon drop saison. I was expecting / hoping for something like a stronger lemon shandy. I can’t taste any lemon at all in this brew. The saison is like nothing I’ve ever tasted before. I have decided to try the Summer Squeeze kit w extra dme and crystalized lemon.

A shandy is beer with lemonade added to it lemon drop hops won’t give you that but the crystalized lemon might if its flavor not sugar. A shandy is easier if you keg. If you bottle you need to add extract or pasteurize the beer. Probably cant get it as sweet as some of the stuff you can get in cans if that’s what you’re looking for. You can squeeze a lemon into saison

2 Likes

Saisons are by nature “lighter” beers. Meant to be more subtle and easier to drink a few of without ending up on the couch. Try to appreciate it for what it is. I like your approach for the next brew.

Saisons by style can be lighter but the Saison yeast doesn’t care that much. @DantheMan Saisons are typically driven by yeast produced flavors. These flavors can be all over the map. Saison yeasts often ferment to be very low final gravities and result in a drier finish. You might want to balance your crystalized lemon, which works well but is not very complex, which a yeast like Philly Sour which produced some lactic acid on it’s own.

Saisons happen to be one of my favorite styles and I make them a lot.

Same here love to drink and brew saison. This beer a light beer. The original idea. On the border of belguim and france. The farmers used to drink it at the end of their haverst month. Not sure left over grains. They did brew this style. Me try different. Kind of yeast strains now. Kviek us4. And a saison yeast. Taste wise they come out the same.

I respectfully disagree with the yeast profile being the same between Kviek, US4 and the Saison strains I’ve used. Saison yeasts tend spicy in their phenols and fruity in their esters. For me if it doesn’t have that distinctive earthy yeast quality then it’s not a Saison

Some of my favorite strains for Saisons are…
OYL-500 SAISONSTEIN "genetic hybrid of two Saison strains, the French (OYL-026) and Belgian (OYL-027). "

Saison Blend II “While one strain will create an ester profile of grapefruit and orange zest, the other is extremely attenuative and will produce a mild earthiness and spiciness”

Marañón Canyon Wild Cacao Yeast “This yeast was isolated from the thought to be extinct Pure Nacional variety of cacao. In 2007, this rare variety with white beans was rediscovered in the remote Marañón River Canyon in Peru. The fruity, phenolic, and wild-like characteristics of this strain make it an ideal choice for farmhouse and saison-style beers.”

I’m brewing with Safale BE-134 for the first time right now. “This typical yeast strain is recommended for Belgian Saison-style beers. It gives fruity aromas with a slight spicy character (POF+) such as clove notes.”

POF+ stands for "phenolic off-flavor positive” and is standard in these yeasts

1 Like

Which do you believes throw the pepper, spiciness?
Sneezles61

All of these throw off some spice and fruit. I really like the Cacao Yeast

1 Like