I was in the mood for a dry lemon flavored beer for the summer. It was 90 in the garage and I wanted to brew something that did not make my fermentation chamber work so hard. I was fermenting a Rye Ale and it was ready to keg, so I wanted something I could ferment a little hotter around 74-75.

To begin with here is what we are brewing:

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5 gal 90 min Style Details Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV Saison 16 C 1.048 - 1.065 1.002 - 1.012 20 - 35 5 - 14 0 - 0 5 - 7 % Fermentables Name Amount % Pilsner (DE) 10 lbs 100 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Strisselspalt (FR) 3 oz 90 min Boil Pellet 1.2 Miscs Name Amount Time Use Type Lemon Zest 3.0 5 min Boil Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature French Saison Wyeast 80% 32°F - 32°F

Starter

I did a starter the night before,





Boiled it for 15 min,







Gave it a quick cool down,







Pitched the yeast,



Got it stirring,









Brew Day

This was a full boil BIAB session. I started with strike water at 153F and hit my mash at 150.





I mashed for 70 min and it held at 149 for most of the mash.

When finished I pulled the bag and squeezed out the excess wort and brought it to a boil.

Added the 3 oz of hops,







Then while it boiled I pulled the zest of 3 lemons,







The moon looked great too, it’s a crappy photo but it a crescent with Jupiter and Venus. Pretty breath taking.







I boiled for 90 min because it is an all Pilsner beer.

5 min until the end of the boil I threw in the lemon zest. I then cooled the wort and pitched the yeast.

Fermentation

I put the carboy in my fermenter and because I had a good healthy starter I started seeing activity I less and 6 hours. I set the temp to 68 and stepped it up to over the next 2 days.

6 hours and we have activity.

Later that same day I had another look and the WY3711 was going nuts.

And about 2 hours later it was blowing off in the tube.

Finishing Up

After about 7 days I tested it and the saison had dropped to 1.007. I then dropped the carboy into my keezer to cold crash for another day. Racked it into a keg.

Tasting



I have to say this beer turned out pretty good, dry, with just a hint of lemon character. The color and mouth feel are great. It’s a very refreshing summer brew.

I do think I will use a smaller amount of a higher alpha acid hop on the next batch. My LHBS was out of Halertau hops and that’s what I wanted to use. To be honest that is the one thing missing from this beer. With a little tweaking this will be a standard summer beer for me.



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