Out of the Bottle: Session Saison

My Session Saison is ready.

Having recently moved to the mountains, I've come to learn one thing about brewing beer here. Even in the middle of summer, the evening temps drop into the 40s and 50s. This is great news for keeping the house comfortable. Open the windows at night, let the temp in the house drop, close the windows in the morning and have a nice cool house all day.

This isn't the best scenario for a Saison, unfortunately. Most of the "city folk" I know brew Saisons during the Summer months because the yeast actually likes high fermentation temps. As in 80 degrees or more.

I could wrap my fermentors in blankets in the warmest part of the house and never reach those temps. Of course, I could buy extra equipment to warm my fermentors, but that goes against the grain of what I'm trying to do here: brew great beer with cheap gear.

With all that background out of the way, it's time to see how my Saison did.

First off, the clarity of the beer is excellent. The deep gold hue is quite brilliant for bottle conditioned beer. A soapy eggshell head slowly falls to a ring of foam and leaves a patchwork lace behind.

Because the fermentation never got all that hot, the esters from the yeast are rather subdued. There's a mild lemon sourdough aroma that sits alongside bready grain and a bit of earthy hop. In the mouth, the theme continues. Biscuit flavors get things going, followed by a moderate earthy bitterness. Mild lemon and sourdough flavors finish things off.

With an ABV of around 4.5%, I was surprised with the weight of the body. It's not heavy by any means, but is far more substantial than I was expecting from a beer this light.

Overall, I like my Saison, but wanted more from the yeast. In a few weeks, this beer's Dark Saison brother will be along. I'm anxious to try the two side by side.

Update 9/9/13:

Oh what a difference a few extra weeks in the bottle can make for a Saison.

The lack of yeast character I complained about has been resolved. The beer now has a greater amount of sourdough aromas, plus a bit of barnyard funk (I mean that in an Orval sort of way) at work. All in all, it's a much more interesting beer now.

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