Nelson Sauvin Saison

[The Captain!!]

G’day trend setters,

As it is the season for lazy pool days, saisons and Marlborough sound white wine. I’m thinking of brewing a Nelson Sauvin Saison.

 

Has anyone had any success in this area? And did the white wine come through?

 

For all the Saison brewers out there, what’s your favourite strain of yeast and why?

 

All your thoughts and suggestions are welcomed.

 

Cheers,

Kirk

[BlackSands]

Brewed my first ever saison last Summer... single hopped with Nelson. Nelson is such an assertive hop that it's hard to imagine a beer where it doesn't make it's presence known. Having said that though the characterful flavours of the yeast I used (MJ's M29) fermented at 28º put up a good fight for dominance!

 

I can't comment on other yeasts as this was the only saison I've used so far.

 

Ask Ben about saisons... he knows....

[The Captain!!]

Thanks Blacksands,

The assertiveness of the Nelson is why I’m asking the question. Be that saison should be yeast driven I wouldn’t want to over do it with the hops.

 

I have just recently brewed my first Saison too which was a Saaz and Riwaka one. I literally took a sample today and it’s down to 1.006 which I think is pretty much done. The sample tasted amazing. And I’m thinking this might be my best brew yet.

 

Sounds like yours was spot on for balance then?

 

MJ29 keeps its head up high on this forum. I might try that next time.

[ImaginativeName]

I think this is a great idea, NS seems like a great fit, mind you, I’ve had great ideas before that, well, you know.....

 

Doing this with my next Saison in any case.

 

 

Last Saison was around 24 for the most part, current two fermented around 28, interested to see how they turn out.

 

Cheers

 

JP

[Dirtman Dan]

I did my first saison a few months ago with mangrove jacks m29 french saison yeast, with a touch of sorachi for bittering and a wee amount of citra at the end and its really damn nice. I could see nelson going well with this as the citra in this batch takes a backseat but you can taste is subtly at the finish of each sip, super refreshing. Go for it.

[The Captain!!]

Thanks for replying lads,

Jp, what yeast did you use for your current batches?

 

Great ideas are meant to be shared, I’m sure someone famously said once upon a time.

????

 

Dirtman,

So do you like the characters that MJ29 brings to the table then? Obviously so ????

 

Citra sounds interesting. I’ll keep that for later on. I have a friend who predominantly only uses Citra, yet hasn’t brewed a saison before.

Sorachi seems to be a favourite on some other forums. However they all seem to have much higher ABV, which I’m not really interested in. I like to keep my beers below or around 5%.

 

I have recently bought a chesty and this will turn up in the next few days. Which I’m very excited about.

I’m going to pitch around 20 for the first two days, Rip it out of the chesty, then ramp it up over the following week to around 28.

 

Cheers,

Kirk

[ben 10]

Nelson saison you say?!?!!??!?!

 

Style: Saison

TYPE: All Grain, No Chill

--------------------------

Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l

Estimated OG: 1.062 SG

Estimated Color: 8.8 EBC

Estimated IBU: 25.6 IBUs

 

Ingredients:

------------

Amt Name Type # %/IBU

4.00 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) ( Grain 1 66.7 %

2.00 kg Wheat Malt, Malt Craft (Joe White) (3.5 Grain 2 33.3 %

10.00 g Pride of Ringwood [9.10 %] - First Wort Hop 3 9.3 IBUs

50.00 g Nelson Sauvin [11.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpoo Hop 4 16.2 IBUs

1.0 pkg Belgian Saison II Yeast (White Labs #WLP Yeast 5 -

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Lovely, lovely drop.

 

41 saisons since 2015.

I have used Belle Saison, MJs M27 and 29, Yeast Bay Saison Blend, Biere De Garde and now White Labs Belgian Saison II.

All have been good but I am enjoying the Belgian Saison II yeast, Bridge Rd use it in their India Saison which is a cracker of a beer.

Citra works well late, as does Sorachi.

Currently drinking one late hopped with Hull Melon (light strawberry highlights) and it is great. I made a ruby grapefruit one which was nice and also a lemon myrtle. The rosella saisons were fab too.

 

So, in short Captain - go for it.

Nice and simple malt bill. No need for crystals or any of that shit.

[Beerlust]

+1 to what Ben 10 said.

 

He's arguably the 'King of Saison's' around here. I've been lucky enough to sample two of Benny's Saisons & they were both terrific. He has a real flair for them I reckon.

 

The yeast alone throws a lot of complex flavours & aromas on its own & attenuates very high, so as Ben said, a complex malt bill isn't really necessary.

 

Coincidentally, I have a Saison dry hopping with some Chinook & Nelson Sauvin right now. Am looking forward to getting it in a keg maybe on Sunday.

 

Cheers & good luck with your brew.

 

Lusty.

[ImaginativeName]

Danstar Belle Saison Kirk, it’s a dry yeast.

 

I harvested the cake from my first batch, and pitched it into the two I have going currently.

 

 

Which of those strains did you find the funkiest Ben?

 

Cheers,

 

JP

[ben 10]

 

 

Which of those strains did you find the funkiest Ben?

 

Cheers' date='

 

JP[/quote']

 

Belle

[BlackSands]

I've just put a saison down today. It WAS going to be a blonde ale but we've got unusually warm temps happening now which are going to last so I thought I'd convert it to a saison and ferment at ambient. Essentially, same grain bill as the blonde it was meant to be but now with extra sugar and MJ M29 yeast:

 

 

“Pacific Saison”

 

1 x Coopers OS Lager 40.5%

1.6kg GF Lager Light Malt 38%

400g GF Toffee Malt 9.5%

500g Sugar 12%

10g Gypsum

 

“Left over” hops:

5g Sticklebract 10mins

50g Pacifica FO steep

 

M29

 

| OG=1.050 | IBU=25 | EBC=8 | ABV=6% |

[The Captain!!]

Interesting Ben,

Thanks for the input. 41 in three years, wow. That’s cracking along. Love that you’ve used so many different types of yeast for this type of beer.

A lot of those strains are hard to get where I am but I’ll consider a move to the white labs 2 if I can get it here.

 

I really don’t want my beers to taste like “horse blanket”, so trying to keep away from the real funky strains. Ha ha ha. And definitely don’t want to go near the Brett mixtures yet.

 

All over the simple grain bills, and no crystals. Need to keep it dry.

I’ve been reading a lot about Du Pont brewery and what’s in their beer.

 

JP,

Belle was the yeast I used for my first batch, so I’m familiar with that one. It munched through the sugars real quick. It’s a monster of a strain. I think I need to harvest yeast as you have done.

 

 

Blacksands,

Nice work on the new batch mate. How long do you normally condition an extract saison for?

By the way, I really enjoy Pacifica.

 

So I’ll be putting a batch on next week I hope. Just got out of surgery and can’t lift anything for quite sometime so waiting for my brother to get back from work so he can do all the lifting and what not ha ha ha.

So boring not being able to do anything but read. I can’t even have a beer for another 10 days or so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BlackSands]

Blacksands' date='

Nice work on the new batch mate. How long do you normally condition an extract saison for?

By the way, I really enjoy Pacifica.[/quote']I don't have a 'normal' conditioning time but regardless of whether it's extract, partial mash or AG I usually allow a few weeks... and perhaps a month or more for this one. I found my recent Belgians were better after 4 - 5 weeks.

[joolbag]

Thanks for the inspiration guys. I am definitely going to brew a saison in the coming months. Probably in about 3 brews time. A Galaxy Pacific Ale that I am determined to nail, then a Nose, then a Saison. Just for something different over summer.

 

Ben10, great recipes and I will do something similar to your recipe on this thread. I got my hands on 100g of Nelson and wasn't sure what to use it in, but Saison it is. Will dig around in my deep freezer for an appropriate bittering hop. I think I have some Northern Brewer in there that I didn't like as a late flavour or aroma hop, but will be fine for bittering

[ImaginativeName]

Captain, you’ll see above that out of the strains Ben listed, he believes the Belle to be the funkiest.

 

I wasn’t keen on horse blanket either, but it’s easy to get the wrong impression from taste descriptions like that.

 

I would have no idea how to describe what I brewed, but “barnyard” seems appropriate, and I never thought I’d use a word like that to describe something so tasty.

 

I’ll never forget that first taste, it was like eating a fine cheese for the first time after only ever eating cheese slices.

 

Cheers

 

JP

[The Captain!!]

Yeah I noticed that. I look forward to tasting the fine cheese then. Even if my cheese slices have been doing the trick for a while.

 

The reason I don’t really want to get into the real funky strains is I’ve never had a sour that didn’t smell like my old footy bag or at best, a wet wetsuit that’s been in the boot for a week.

However the beers tasted good, the aroma just turned me off.

 

The sample of my first saison I tasted was no short of amazing, so looking forward to the real deal once bottled.

 

Hopefully I can let it age a bit too

 

Cheers

[ben 10]

The first taste I had of Belle was so funky it freaked me out.

 

The MJ strains are a lot more mellow

[The Captain!!]

That’s what I keep reading Ben. From what I can gather the white labs saison 2 is even more mellow than the MJ varieties?

 

Been looking into seeing if I can get rosella here in SW West Aust through diggers so I can grow some for next year. We might not have long enough season to get good fruit but it’s worth a try.

 

Joolbag,

When you say nose beer, did you mean a gose? Or nose beers? Like the Colombian type of nose beer that maybe the police would be interested in hearing about? Ha ha ha ha.

 

Cheers.

[joolbag]

HAhah Captain, nice pickup. I meant Gosé. Really enjoyed the last couple

Of commercial examples and thought they would be perfect For Summer

 

Re: nose beers, never had it, not going to start now. Real beer is my thing and it brings me Joy. Plus I won’t get arrested for making beer!

[BlackSands]

The first taste I had of Belle was so funky it freaked me out.

 

The MJ strains are a lot more mellow

 

I have MJ's M29 fermenting at 24 - 26ºC at the moment. I was actually expecting to get higher than that given the daytime temps this week... but I can say judging from samples it is tasting very mellow. Last year I fermented up more around 28º and I recall that saison being more characterful than this one appears to be. It may end up being closer to the blonde ale that it was originally intended to be! Anyway, early days....

[ImaginativeName]

Funny you say that Ben.

 

I too found it funky, but in a very pleasant way, but the 3-4 other people that tried it, described it as fruity.

 

I guess for me personally, it helped that I was expecting it to actually taste like a horse blanket, you know?

 

Cheers

 

JP

[The Captain!!]

Well, it’s time.

Brewing the Nelson Sauvin Saison today.

Going with the White labs saison yeast 2

 

See how this bad boy turns out in the glass

 

Cheers and brew well,

Kirk

[joolbag]

Mine is 8 days on the fermenter and I ramped up the temp from day 2. Started at 18C then raised 2C every 12 hrs until I got to 32C. It's sitting there now.

 

It is the upper of the temp range for this yeast (mangrove jacks M29 French Saison). I can say that I can't really taste the Nelson anymore ! The yeast has dominated the flavour. Not too funky, no horse blanket. Mainly that Belgian flavour, bit of spice and pepper. I'll leave it for another week or maybe longer to make sure it has fully fermented. Last gravity measurement I did at the 5 day mark was 1.005, down from an OG of 1.054

[ben 10]

Going with the White labs saison yeast 2

 

GREAT choice

[Beervis]

I'm enjoying this thread, looking forward to hearing how that Nelson saison turns out, Captain.

 

I'm not really up with how to describe beer flavours, but I've enjoyed a number of commercial Saison's, the best one I remember was 8 Wired when I was in NZ. It wouldn't be a Saison if it wasn't a bit funky, but that beer also had quite a 'clean' taste funky, but fruity as well, around 5%

 

My experience brewing with the Belle yeast is that while the taste was nice, and has mellowed a bit with age, it had a kind of dank, cloying taste to it that was hard work at first. I thought I'd fermented it too low in temp but after reading this thread I think thank god I did, otherwise I'd be in the horse shed!