Grisette is a style I see popping up more and more lately. If you’re not familiar with it think light, or session Saison. Though there are some minor differences in the grain bill, the comparison is sound. While most Saisons have a fairly simple, and clean grain bill, a Grisette tends to have more adjuncts like wheat, oats, spelt, etc. Or at least that’s my approach. I won’t pretend to be a purist when it comes to traditional styles.

The first commercial example I had of the style was a great one, Grizacca by Oxbow in Maine. What I enjoyed most about the beer was how well the hops worked with their yeast strain. This is what I believe is the most difficult aspect of brewing hop forward styles with a Belgian strain. See my last blog post here where I made some choices that didn’t work so well.

Grisettes are especially enjoyable in the summer, having character of a Saison on a smaller scale. For me they tend to be pale in color, light to medium mouth feel, finishing dry with some subtle spice from a Saison yeast strain. Add some carefully chosen hop varieties to that, and you have a perfect beer for a hot summer day, or any day really.

While planning my recipe I remembered that I have also been wanting to brew a long term Brett Saison of late. I felt that a Grisette comes close enough that I could possibly take care of both beer on the same brew day. I’ve never brewed a mixed fermentation beer, certainly not with a Brett and Sacc strain combined. I’m not sure if I should have pitched either strain ahead of the other to give it a head start. Or simply pitch both at the same time. For simplicity’s sake, I decided to just pitch both as primary strains. I planned to leave this in carboy for a minimum of six months and see how it’s coming along. Most likely I would bottle half at that point and transfer the other half to a small carboy with a fruit addition. Either way both iterations should be ready by next spring.

The most recent commercial example of the style that I’ve enjoyed would be Saison Brett by Les Trois Mousquetaires out of Quebec, Canada. I loved how crisp and dry it was, backed by just enough Brett funk, yet still had some Saison character coming through as well. I really should have picked up a few extra bottles to age.

Those styles that need a good amount of time in primary are always hard to fit into my brew schedule. There never seems to be enough time to get everything I have planned into a carboy. Family time takes priority and now with two kids in the picture, brew time is harder and harder to come by. So when I do get the chance to get a brew day in, I tend to go for something hoppy to keep my taps flowing. A solution to this would be to simply brew larger batches. My system can accommodate 10 gallons of low to moderate abv wort. But, like I said, I have too many ideas and I tend to get tired of drinking the same beer after a while. Especially when those delicious hoppy beer start fading off after a few weeks.

But, why not get two different batches from the same mash, split prior to the boil and voila! A hoppy beer to drink in two weeks and another incorporating both a Saison and Brett strain that I could ferment long term. This does take a little more work and time in BeerSmith, or whatever software you use. You need to plan the 10 gallon batch for the mash, then each 5 gallon batch for the boil and fermentation. It’s not really that much more to take on really, just a few extra things to keep in mind and take note of on brew day. With that decided, I went ahead planning both recipes.

Planning the hoppy Grisette half was pretty easy. I had brewed a clone of Oxbow’s Grizacca following a friend’s recipe (found here) about a year and a half ago. At the time it was the best beer I had brewed to date, likely setting my expectations a little too high this time around. It is fairly consistent with how I brew any hop forward style. Low bitterness with most of the hops used at 10 minute, steep and dry hop additions. I decided to keep most of the recipe intact, though I did want to change the hops a little. That beer was brewed using mostly Azacca (another favorite on mine), and Falconer’s Flight, though the original recipe was a little different. I did have Simcoe, so I could have brewed that exact clone, but I felt using another favorite variety of mine with Azacca would make for an interesting combination.

The descriptors for Azacca are as follows. Aromas of tropical fruit, fruit and citrus. Flavors of pineapple, mango, citrus, lemon and pine. I keep meaning to brew a single hop beer with it, I think it would certainly work well in a SMaSH recipe. I wanted to keep the majority of the hop bill to be Azacca because it worked well the first time around. I also wanted to keep the yeast strain consistent with last time because it’s my favorite Saison strain and it’s always reliable. My favorite hop to pair with the Wyeast 3711 French Saison strain has to be Nelson Sauvin. It’s an elusive hop to describe though goose berry, and sauvignon blanc is commonly cited. I did want to use some Nelson in this recipe, but I only wanted it to add a little complexity and compliment the beer overall, instead of being the stand out flavor.

I kept the grist close to a recipe I brewed before. Bohemian Pilsner for the base backed up with a small amount of malted wheat and flaked wheat along with some acid malt for water chemistry adjustment. I would have liked to use spelt this time around but my LHBS didn’t have any in stock. I also used a small amount of rice hulls as I routinely do anytime I add wheat to a recipe. I’ve only ever had one stuck sparge and I plan to never repeat that awful brew day.

This did turn out fairly well, though I remember enjoying the original version with Falconer’s Flight a little more. This was a big surprise to me considering how much I enjoy both of these hops. Perhaps next time I will just stick with Simcoe, I’m sure it would work really well with Azacca, it obviously did for Oxbow.

As for the Brett Grisette half, I had a hop addition at 75 (beginning of the boil) and of course the grist had to be the same. Only time will tell how that turns out, I’ll update when I finally get to taste it.

Hoppy Grisette

Recipe Targets: 5 gallons, OG 1.042, FG 1.006, ABV 4.8%, IBU 34, SRM 3.0

Grain:

0.06 kg Rice Hulls 1.8 % 1.80 kg Pilsner Bohemian 52.4 % 0.75 kg Wheat, Flaked 21.8 % 0.75 kg White Wheat Malt 21.8 % 0.07 kg Acid Malt 2.2 %

Hops:

40.00 g Azacca [8.24 %] - Boil 10 min 17.0 IBUs

40.00 g Azacca [8.24 %] - Steep 10 min 8.5 IBUs 30.00 g Nelson Sauvin [11.40 %] - Steep 10 min 8.8 IBUs

40.00 g Azacca CHILLER [8.24 %] 0.0 IBUs 30.00 g Nelson Sauvin CHILLER [11.40 %] 0.0 IBUs

50.00 g Azacca Day 4 [8.24 %] Dry Hop 25.00 g Nelson Sauvin Day 4 [11.40 %] Dry Hop 50.00 g Azacca Day 8 [8.24 %] Dry Hop 25.00 g Nelson Sauvin Day 8 [11.40 %] Dry Hop

Yeast:

1.0 pkg French Saison (Wyeast Labs #3711)

Extras:

1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins)

1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 mins)

Brewed on June 5th with my son, mashed in with 19L of strike water to hit mash temp of 148F for 50 minutes. Mashed out with 11L of 208F water for 10 minutes. Batch sparged with 6.6 gallons of 168F water. Two points low on pre-boil gravity at 1.030. Wort split between two kettles.

Hoppy Grisette – 75 minute boil, OG 11 points high at 1.052. Chilled to 60F, transferred to primary which was shaken prior to and after pitching yeast starter. Fermentation temperature peaked at 72F. Vigorous within 36 hours, and seemed to be winding down within 72 hours.

June 8th – 1st dry hop addition

June 13th – 2nd dry hop addition

June 17th – Kegged (FG 1.005), pressure set to 35 for 48 hours then reduced to serving

Brett Grisette – 75 minute boil, OG high at 1.045, chilled to 60F and both the Saison and Brett starters were added.

I realized when I measured the OG’s that I neglected to take into account the greater boil-off volume loss splitting this batch. As opposed to simply doing a single kettle boil and splitting afterwards. Lesson learned.

Appearance: Pours with a medium white, fluffy head which fades to a ring after several minutes. Golden yellow/light orange in color.

Aroma: Moderate hop aroma. Mango, slight pineapple and citrus.

Flavour: Carries over from the aroma. Mango, pineapple, lemon, light to moderate intensity. Something near the end that detracts from the beer. Perhaps very light astringency. Light bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Light mouth feel, medium-light carbonation, finishes dry.

Overall: This turned out pretty well, though not nearly as well as I had hoped. I felt it wasn’t quite as punchy as I expected given the hops I used. The possible slight astringency it barely noticeable, not at all by some that tasted it. Still, something I’ll be looking for in my next batch. The beer you have the highest hopes for always seem to be the ones that fall short of expectations. Still good, but as I mentioned earlier, I remember enjoying my first shot at this clone just a little more.

Brett Grisette

Recipe Targets: 5 Gallons, OG 1.042, FG 1.002, ABV 5.6%, IBU 21, SRM 3.0

Grain:

0.06 kg Rice Hulls 1.8 % 1.80 kg Pilsner Bohemian 52.4 % 0.75 kg Wheat, Flaked 21.8 % 0.75 kg White Wheat Malt 21.8 % 0.07 kg Acid Malt 2.2 %

Hops:

28.00 g East Kent Goldings [5.26 %] Boil 75mins 21.9 IBUs

Yeast:

1.0 pkg French Saison (Wyeast Labs #3711) 1.0 pkg Brettanomyces Amalgamation (The Yeast Bay)

Extras:

1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10 mins) 1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10 mins)