Can I post my… Say Son, its Apple Joose here? it just was kegged… Man… thats some very chunky yeast.
I hit it with gelatin and sealed the keg with 50PSI’s… Sample later this week…
Sneezles61
Just started reading “Farmhouse Ales” by Phil Markowski…
Sneezles61
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great. what have you learned?
He’s figuring out how to brew a saisontoberfest! 
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A mockfest-Son!!
Well, Farmhouse and Saisons are brother and sister… From the same area… Flanders. before the smarty pants decided its time to draw lines in the dirt… Alot of reading yet… The book is divided into 2 sections…
Sneezles61
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Yeah i want to read that book. Phil is the head brewer at a local brewery here. Makes very good beer hes been doing it a long time. First with New England Brewing in CT then the Public House on the Island. Now he’s partner brewer at 2Roads and Area2. Before opening Area2 which is the funky side of 2Roads he brewed all his mixed fermentation stuff in repurposed milk tankers to keep it separate.
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Get to have any discussions with him?
Sneezles61
I have not
OK readers of brew-ing… Page 74 is were he presents water stuff… 1-1/2 page… I feel like I’m on track with the theory.
Sneezles61
Beer de garde (aging)
I’m about half way through this book… next up will be the saison styles…
The water has high Alkalinity in the region… Pre-boiling and chilling isn’t going to happen… because that area isn’t a cold region… So… Enter dark malts and extended boiling times…
These beers are relatively new now… the ones before mid 1900’s were very weak. Perhaps even a bit sour… It even seems the tannins from the cork stopper was a compliment to this beer… and in alot of tasting notes… licorice…
The extended boiling also darkened these brews… which uses alot of pils base malt…
Ale yeast was the most used, some lagers… A secondary also used… Then a cold Garde (lager… Aging)…
Interesting read none the less…
Sneezles61
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Now, into the Saison side of this book…
So it seems they were very “rustic”… crude you could say? About 1920 it started to change…
Most of it attributed to getting away from wooden casks for fermenting, and using old hops… The yeast is still a fickle piece… Most was just what was in the air, but then someone decided they like a “certain” flavor from another brewery and it started about a change…
The old hops must of had lactic acid settled on it… Which were added after primary fermentation, in the secondary… This then finished the brew out to a “wine” like flavour… and a bit tart… And dry…
So the Flanders and Gueuze stills were more… Tart? Less wine?
I’ve still more chapters to finish… but quite interesting to see what makes a Saison… different.
Sneezles61
The old hops impart hoppiness to a very subtle degree and don’t have as much of the antimicrobial qualities so you can get a little more fermenting microbes in on the fun
Two months for my Saison and it is finally down to 1.010 so I am calling it done. Time to get out some kegs.
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Well my kegged saison is getting low but i have to admit it has held up the saison signature flavor and is probably the best one ive made. A few notes. This was left to cool overnight outside with a 1/2 cup or so of right off the stem black currants. As much as people freak out about quick chilling closed fermentation its overplayed. I threw in belle saison yeast and out competed any wild yeast ( for better or worse). Although i fermented in the mid 70s that’s not the high end for the style. Also i didn’t underpitch I used a full sachet. I also did a protien rest and double decoction. So what did i learn? Not sure. Im bringing my mini keg of it up to camp and I’ll contemplate that sitting around the camp fire 
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Just following info from the book, most, if not all Saison yeasts do have some “wild side” to them… They haven’t been overly cultured, like many yeasts we usually use…
Theres more to this than a bit of reading can expose… pH plays a role… or… the lack of it in the beginning stages…
I saved yeast from my Say-Son… Soon… I’ll get brewing more… I’ll tinker with this…
See what you started Squeegee? 
Sneezles61
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Glad to see so much saisoning around these parts. I bottled mine last week. It ended up lower than I would like at .98 but all of the yeast character doesn’t overwhelm its thinness.
Mine finished very low… But the X-tra carbonation made for a great schooner of brew… I server mine at 15 psi’s…
But again, I like em well carbonated…
Sneezles61
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I brewed mine last Wednesday so the brewhouse smells awful now. 
LOL
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Mine has been carbonating one week today. So far I have resisted a taste.
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