- I didn't have enough wheat malt for the normal recipe
- I had a large variety of Mosaic hops and am trying to help clean out the freezer by using more hops
- The SFHG is having a SMaSH competition in a few months, and this could potentially be an entry or at least give me a better sense of how the Viking Pilsner tastes as the only malt.
I decided to increase the malt bill/gravity/abv by about 50% while the change in hop types being used (Cryo, Leaf, American Noble, in addition to the usual Pellet) makes it a little harder to say exactly what the increase in hopping rate is but the estimated IBUs were kept the same. Looking back through my brew logs I could only find one example of a SMaSH I had previously made: my take on Prairie's 'Merica. This beer should be similar to that due to also being a saison with heavy usage of a modern fruity hop. Like the 'Merica clone, I thought about splitting some of the batch later to age with brettanomyces and/or add dry hops, depending on how it tasted after primary fermentation, but decided to keg all of it as is and tweak the recipe in later attempts.
Tasting Notes:
Appearance:
Nice pale yellow with large dense white head. Slightly hazy but looks about what I'd expect for a farmhouse beer.
Smell:
Pretty similar aromas to the Saison de Champagne, Moderate-High fruitiness from both hops and yeast giving some bubblegum, grape/wine, and berry aromatic. Moderate phenols giving a white pepper impression. There is also some alcohol present, more than I would like for a beer of this strength, it's not a weak beer but more alcohol aroma than I would expect for ~7%.
Taste:
More phenolic and sharp than the aroma, less of the bubblegum/juicy fruit character and more alcohol present too. The bitterness is only medium but combined with the fairly high pepper phenol character the overall impression is on the high-end of my acceptable range, almost like a Farmhouse IPA in that sense. Alcohol is noticeable but not overwhelming. Again the overall character is reminiscent of the Saison de Champagne beer that used the same yeast but the hops are a little less wine like and a little more rounded with some berry and grass and the phenols and alcohol are more noticeable.
Mouthfeel:
Not as dry as most of the Saison/Grisettes I've made, likely due to a combination of higher starting gravity and less attenuative yeast (I often use the very attenuative Wyeast 3711 French Saison or brettanomyces). That said, I think the low-medium body helps keep the moderate bitterness and phenols from coming across too sharply. Carbonation was originally very high but I've knocked it down to more standard beer levels (~14 PSI at 45F) and I again prefer this level over traditional Saison levels with this amount of bitterness, phenols, and alcohol.
Overall:
Not my favorite example of the style in many ways with the phenols and alcohol masking some of the fruitier characters. If I were to rebrew I'd likely move about 50% of the 60 minute addition to late in the boil or after flameout and add a dry-hop to really emphasize the fruity hop flavors. I'm not sure if I'll use this yeast blend again, it's not bad but doesn't have some of the character that I really crave in this style, maybe adding brettanomyces or an additional yeast strain would help balance this but I might just go back to the Wyeast Belgian Saison and French Saison blend that I've liked in the past (with or without Brett). The Viking Pils malt does a nice job of just hanging around with a very low crackery malt note that's I notice when searching for it but otherwise it gets out of the way to let the other ingredients shine.
Notes:
3/9/19
Brewed on the stovetop as usual. Brewing went off without a hitch other than ending up with less than 5 gallons due to the hops soaking up wort and blocking the run off. Still able to exactly hit the expected 1.060 OG. Pitched 1 liter starter of previously used blend of Wyeast Belgian Saison (3724) and Farmhouse Ale (3726).
3/10/19
Large krausen and rapid airlock bubbling.
3/26/19
Transferred to keg and set in chest freezer at 40F and 30 PSI for 24 hours. No FG recorded as I broke my hydrometer but I would guess it's between 1.004 and 1.008 putting the ABV right around 7%. Tastes pretty nice, fairly hop forward with some of the same wine-like character from the Saison de Champagne that used the same yeast blend, but more bitter and with other complementary components from the mosaic hops. Excited to see how it ends up once carbonated.
4/6/19
Tasting above, not bad but not my favorite.
Tasting Notes:
Appearance:
Nice pale yellow with large dense white head. Slightly hazy but looks about what I'd expect for a farmhouse beer.
Smell:
Pretty similar aromas to the Saison de Champagne, Moderate-High fruitiness from both hops and yeast giving some bubblegum, grape/wine, and berry aromatic. Moderate phenols giving a white pepper impression. There is also some alcohol present, more than I would like for a beer of this strength, it's not a weak beer but more alcohol aroma than I would expect for ~7%.
Taste:
Mouthfeel:
Not as dry as most of the Saison/Grisettes I've made, likely due to a combination of higher starting gravity and less attenuative yeast (I often use the very attenuative Wyeast 3711 French Saison or brettanomyces). That said, I think the low-medium body helps keep the moderate bitterness and phenols from coming across too sharply. Carbonation was originally very high but I've knocked it down to more standard beer levels (~14 PSI at 45F) and I again prefer this level over traditional Saison levels with this amount of bitterness, phenols, and alcohol.
Overall:
Not my favorite example of the style in many ways with the phenols and alcohol masking some of the fruitier characters. If I were to rebrew I'd likely move about 50% of the 60 minute addition to late in the boil or after flameout and add a dry-hop to really emphasize the fruity hop flavors. I'm not sure if I'll use this yeast blend again, it's not bad but doesn't have some of the character that I really crave in this style, maybe adding brettanomyces or an additional yeast strain would help balance this but I might just go back to the Wyeast Belgian Saison and French Saison blend that I've liked in the past (with or without Brett). The Viking Pils malt does a nice job of just hanging around with a very low crackery malt note that's I notice when searching for it but otherwise it gets out of the way to let the other ingredients shine.
Notes:
3/9/19
Brewed on the stovetop as usual. Brewing went off without a hitch other than ending up with less than 5 gallons due to the hops soaking up wort and blocking the run off. Still able to exactly hit the expected 1.060 OG. Pitched 1 liter starter of previously used blend of Wyeast Belgian Saison (3724) and Farmhouse Ale (3726).
3/10/19
Large krausen and rapid airlock bubbling.
3/26/19
Transferred to keg and set in chest freezer at 40F and 30 PSI for 24 hours. No FG recorded as I broke my hydrometer but I would guess it's between 1.004 and 1.008 putting the ABV right around 7%. Tastes pretty nice, fairly hop forward with some of the same wine-like character from the Saison de Champagne that used the same yeast blend, but more bitter and with other complementary components from the mosaic hops. Excited to see how it ends up once carbonated.
4/6/19
Tasting above, not bad but not my favorite.
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