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In terms of specifications, there seem to be few beer styles in the world that are more all over the map than the bière de saison. Bière de saison is a farmhouse ale, brewed originally in Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium. The range of alcohol by volume alone fluctuates wildly: In current commercial examples it easily varies between 5% and 8.5%. Also, bière de saison can be brewed with or without spices, flavored with English or German hops, dry-hopped or not, and fermented with any number of yeasts, as long as they are top-fermenting. The finished beer can be pale or dark amber, full-bodied or thin, sweet or dry. Its flavor profile can be dominated by cloves, pepper and some banana, or by maltiness. There may be spicy, hoppy, acidic and alcoholic notes upfront and vanilla or liquorish in the finish . . . or not!
   
A bière born of homebrew freedom

Considering the bière de saison’s genesis as a farmhouse brew, we should expect a natural amount of variation. Uniformity in ingredients and brewing practices across a wide geographical region is a phenomenon only of the modern age, and Belgium in particular has been loath, unlike its neighbor Germany, to abandon its idiosyncratic medieval beer-making habits. As farmer-brewers have done for eons all over the world, Wallonian country homebrewers have obviously relied mostly on ingredients they were able to raise themselves. Not surprisingly, their beers were more dependent on what they might have had at hand when the annual brew season was upon them than on broad brewing guidelines.

The Walloons usually brewed their saisons no later than in April or May, right before the hard labor started on the farm. Their beers were designed to be laid down. They had to be powerful enough to last through the summer, but still quaffable enough to serve as thirst quenchers during the harvest. The brews were unfiltered, of course, and chill hazes would have been normal on a crisp morning on the farm (as they will be when you take your saisons out of the refrigerator).

Many commercial bière de saisons are packaged in Champagne bottles. This presentation, however, is not as a sign of snobbish opulence but of solid farmers’ frugality: The custom was born in the 19th Century, when poor farmer-brewers collected and recycled bubbly bottles that were carelessly discarded by the rich as trash. Once these bottles were stripped of their metal collars and were washed, filled, corked, and secured with wire cages, they made for excellent, cheap, sturdy and reusable beer containers.

It’s all in the yeast!

In spite of the bière de saison’s broad range of specifications along just about any brew-technical variable, all descriptions of the brew seem to agree more or less on one fact: The brew does exhibit a certain amount of spiciness. Once you mention “Belgian” and “spices” in one sentence, however, the knee-jerk reaction of most brewers is to empty their spice racks into their brew kettles. How could one go wrong with cloves, coriander, ginger, passion fruit or orange peel? The saison is a Belgian after all!

Not so fast! A careful study of the different saisons reveals that some do and some do not contain spices. As far as I am concerned, there are essentially two ways of getting peppery spiciness into the brew — the bold, sure-fire, predictable way . . . and the subtle way. I prefer the subtle way. Let me explain: The sure-fire way involves indeed adding real spices to the brew. The more spices you add, and the stronger the spices, obviously, the more dominant will be the spice component in the finished beer (and the better you can cover up any brewing mistakes, too). To make a brew without spices, by contrast, involves finesse, and — given the ever-present risk of failure — mistakes will affect the flavor. The key to the subtle way of brewing a spicy saison is . . . the yeast!

In the old days, farmer-brewers of saison probably re-pitched their yeasts for decades, if not centuries. As a result, the yeasts that evolved over time in splendid isolation, must have taken on their own peculiarities. It is a fair guess that these house yeasts imbued the farm ales brewed with them with distinct, proprietary notes. Unique, yeast-derived flavors are not uncommon in the history of brewing and in the emergence of beer styles. The Hefeweizen yeast, for instance, is very important to a German Weissbier’s phenolic and spicy clove, banana and bubblegum flavors. Wheat beers brewed without it do not really taste like Weissbier. For a bière de saison, just like for an authentic Hefeweizen, let the yeast be the source of the typical saison flavor, without the aid of spices. In a saison, I believe, you want to taste the beer, and the beer alone.

This approach is not shared by all craft brewers (or all commercial saison brewers in Belgium either). Especially brewers working in brewpubs are sometimes reluctant to maintain more than one or two yeast strains in parallel, so they use their standard ale yeasts to ferment their saisons, with or without spices. This pitching practice and my bias notwithstanding, there are some excellent renditions of both spiced and non-spiced saison-style beers on the market. One excellent American spiced example is the 8% ABV Ommegang Hennepin from Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, New York. It is flavored with ginger and orange peel and is an excellently refreshing brew. A widely available bière de saison imported from Belgium is the 6.5% ABV, un-spiced, Vieille Provision Saison Dupont from Brasserie Dupont in the country village of Tourpe. Fermented with the brewery’s house yeast, this bière de saison is a fairly blond, understated brew of profound maltiness with a faintly peppery note upfront, a smooth hop middle, and a tangy finish.

I consider the saison yeast, above all else, as the defining characteristic of a proper bière de saison. It is the one sine qua non of the style, the element that holds all its diverse interpretations together. High or low alcohol levels, a sweet or dry finish, acidity or not, mild or strong hop flavors and aromas . . . they do not matter as long as the yeast is right. To prove the point, divide your next standard pale or brown ale batch in two and pitch one half with a typical London ale yeast —  such as Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) — and the other half with a saison-style yeast specialist such as White Labs WLP565 (Belgian Saison I) or Wyeast 3724 (Belgian Saison). I assure you, one batch will have spicy, peppery notes, the other will not. Also, the saison yeast, unlike the London yeast, keeps the diacetyl level well below the taste threshold of even an experienced palate.

White Labs describes its WLP565 (Belgian Saison I) yeast as a classic saison yeast from Wallonia. It produces earthy,
peppery and spicy notes. This yeast shows medium flocculation and has a typically ale-like optimum fermentation temperature of 68–75 °F (20–24 °C). Bière de saison yeasts tend not to be strong and resilient attenuators and they may go dormant in higher-gravity brews before their job is done. Therefore, either expect some residual sweetness in the finished beer or add, as White Labs recommends, an optional “drying” yeast (perhaps an English ale or German Alt yeast) when fermentation is about 75% complete. Wyeast’s saison offering is the 3724 (Belgian Saison) yeast . It produces a classic farmhouse ale with, according to the Wyeast website, spicy and complex aromatics including bubblegum. It finishes crisp and mildly acidic, with mild fruit, and produces a brew that is very tart and dry on the palate. Wyeast points out that this strain is slow to attenuate and benefits from a relatively high fermentation temperature of 70–85 °F (21–29 °C). The Wyeast Saison has low flocculation.

Bière de saison brewing tips

With a bière de saison grain bill, it seems, you simply cannot go wrong. While some saison grain bills are nothing but Pils malt, others may contain 5–15% caramel malts for added color and a bit of sweetness to balance any estery spiciness. You can also use small amounts of Vienna, Munich or aromatic malts for more breadiness and as a balance to the hops. Even raw grains, malted wheat, flaked barley or adjuncts would not be out of style. These lighten the body and add flavor nuances. However, to avoid lautering issues and conversion problems for lack of enzymes, you might not want to use more than 40% adjuncts in the grain bill.

For malt sources, there really is no hard and fast rule. You can use Belgian malts from Dingemans, British malts from Muntons or Hugh Baird, German malts from Weyermann or American malts from Briess — or a combination of these. The grist composition suggested in our recipe, therefore, is just a guideline. It is for a light amber brew of about 10 SRM, with an OG of about 1.064 (14 °P). But, by all means, feel free to vary this recipe to your heart’s content. Note that our total grain bill of 13.5 lbs. (6.1 kg), based on an extract efficiency of 65%. If your setup is better or worse, adjust the grain quantity accordingly, or just live with the result. After all, bière de saison is a flexible style.

For hops, you can use Tettnanger or Northern Brewer from Germany, Willamette from the U.S., East Kent Goldings from England, Styrian Goldings from Slovenia or even Saaz from the Czech Republic. I picked the citrusy Tettnanger as bittering hops and the floral Styrian Goldings as flavoring and aroma hops. Again, this is not dogma! Some commercial saisons are dry-hopped. In our recipe, we will simply add plenty of aroma hops to the whirlpool.

After primary fermentation, I suggest racking, priming and bottling the bière de saison in one process, and laying it down for three months of bottle-conditioning and maturation at a toasty room temperature of 73 °F (23 °C). However, serve the brew at a cool cellar temperature of roughly 50–55 °F (10–13 °C).

Extract-plus-grain brewers can replace the base malt with a European pale Pils liquid malt extract and obtain the additional color and flavor from the steeped specialty grains. Assuming no contribution to gravity from the specialty grains, the entire bière de saison grist can be replaced with roughly 8.8 lbs (4 kg) Pils liquid malt extract. Weyermann Bavarian Pilsner liquid malt extract is convenient for this purpose, because it comes in a 4-kg (8.8-lb.) plastic container. Because the sugar content of liquid malt extracts is not always constant even among consecutive batches from the same supplier, always use a hydrometer to verify your gravity.

Because there appears to be no pre-fab extract on the market that replicates the grain bill proposed here, the best solution for an all-extract bière de saison is to replace the entire grain bill with Pils liquid malt extract. At our original gravity, straight Pils liquid malt extract makes a brew of roughly 7.5 SRM. To darken the brew to our target beer color of 10 SRM, consider adding about 0.5 fl. oz. (15 mL) of Weyermann SINAMAR® Color Malt Extract to the kettle.  

‘Tis the season to be jolly . . . so try this spiceless spiced farmhouse brew from Wallonia as a neat holiday project. Joyeux Noël and Santé!

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Saison of the Season

5 gallons/19 L, all-grain; OG = 1.064  FG = 1.012; IBU = 20  SRM = 10  ABV = 6.8%

Ingredients:

10.4 lbs. (4.7 kg) Dingemans pale malt (~2°L)
2.1 lbs. (0.95 kg) Briess flaked wheat (~2 °L)
0.50 lbs. (0.23 kg) Weyermann Munich Type I malt
0.50 lbs (0.23 kg) Hugh Baird Carastan malt (15 °L)
0.50 oz. (15 g) Briess roasted barley (300 °L)
6.0 AAU Tettnanger hops (45 min) (1.3 oz./38 g of 4.5% alpha acid)
1.0 oz. (28 g) Styrian Goldings hops (flavor/aroma)
1 package of White Labs WLP565 (Belgian Saison I) or Wyeast 3724 (Belgian Saison) yeast
1 cup light dried malt extract (for priming)

Step by Step:

Bière de saison is a simple farmers’ brew, so let’s keep the mash process simple, too. Because modern homebrewers probably start out with much better grains than were available to the farmer-brewers of yonder, a simple infusion mash with two saccharification steps is probably sufficient. Mash in at about 144 °F (62 °C) for a 30-minute hydration and beta-amylase rest. Then raise the temperature to around 154 °F (68 °C) for a 30-minute alpha-amylase rest. Sparge with about 180 °F (82 °C) water until the grain bed reaches the mash-out temperature of
168 °F (76 °C).

Maintain that grain bed temperature and keep on sparging until the kettle wort is about 1.058 (14.5 °P), that is, the wort is roughly 10% thinner than at the target OG at the end of the boil. Boil for about an hour. Add the
bittering hops at the standard 15 minutes into the boil. If evaporation losses are greater than 10%, liquor the
brew down in the kettle with some cold water. But note that precision is not crucial when brewing a bière de saison.

Add the flavor/aroma hops after shut-down and create a gentle whirlpool in the kettle. Let the brew spin for about 30 minutes. Then siphon the wort off the trub. Heat-exchange to a pitching temperature of roughly 72 °F (22 °C) if you pitch the WLP565. Heat-exchange to roughly 80 °F (27 °C) if you pitch the Wyeast 3724. Aerate the brew thoroughly. Let primary fermentation run its full course. Fermentation may slow down once the brew approaches terminal gravity. Be patient. It may take up to three weeks before the brew comes to rest completely. Rack, prime and bottle all in one process. Of course, you can also rack the brew into a keg. In either case, allow for about three months of conditioning and maturation time at or above room temperature, preferably at 73 °F (23 °C).

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Saison of the Season

5 gallons/19 L, extract w/ grains; OG = 1.064  FG = 1.012; IBU = 20  SRM = 10  ABV = 6.8%

Ingredients:

8.0 lbs (3.6 kg) Pils liquid malt extract (such as Weyermann Bavarian Pilsner)
2.1 lbs. (0.95 kg) Briess flaked wheat (~2 °L)
0.50 lbs. (0.23 kg) Weyermann Munich Type I malt
0.50 lbs (0.23 kg) Hugh Baird Carastan malt (15 °L)
0.50 oz. (15 g) Briess roasted barley (300 °L)
6.0 AAU Tettnanger hops (45 min) (1.3 oz./38 g of 4.5% alpha acid)
1.0 oz. (28 g) Styrian Goldings hops (flavor/aroma)
1 package of White Labs WLP565 (Belgian Saison I) or Wyeast 3724 (Belgian Saison) yeast
1 cup light dried malt extract (for priming)

Step by Step:

Mill the specialty grains and place into a steeping bag. Steep grains in about 3 gallons (11 L) of hot water (at about 160 °F or roughly 71 °C) for about an hour. Raise the bag and rinse with 2 or 3 cups of cold water. Do not squeeze the bag. Transfer the steeping liquid to the brew kettle and bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat. Stir in the LME. Bring to a boil again and add the bittering hops after 15 minutes. Boil for another 45 minutes and shut off. From here on, follow the equivalent instructions for the all-grain brew.

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Saison of the Season

5 gallons/19 L, extract only; OG = 1.064  FG = 1.012; IBU = 20 SRM = 7.5–10  ABV = 6.8%

Ingredients:

9.75 lbs (4.4 kg) Pils liquid malt extract (such as Weyermann Bavarian Pilsner)
0.50 fl. oz. (15 mL) of Weyermann SINAMAR® Color Malt Extract
6.0 AAU Tettnanger hops (45 min) (1.3 oz./38 g of 4.5% alpha acid)
1.0 oz. (28 g) Styrian Goldings hops (flavor/aroma)
1 package of White Labs WLP565 (Belgian Saison I) or Wyeast 3724 (Belgian Saison) yeast
1 cup dried malt extract (for priming)

Step by Step:

Heat 3 gallons (11. 4 L) of brewing liquor to the boil. Shut off. Stir in the liquid malt extract and the SINAMAR®. Return to a boil and add the bittering hops immediately. Boil for another 45 minutes, shut off and adjust the gravity. From here on following the equivalent instructions for the all-grain brew.

This is Horst Dornbusch’s final “Style Profile” column for BYO. Farewell!