Saison Rustique

In the book, Farmhouse Ales, Yvan De Baets' chapter on the history of saison gives awesome insight into the farmhouse ales of old. He describes them as rustic beers that were relatively low in alcohol, light in color for the time, very well attenuated, sometimes quite bitter, and most interestingly, having a dominant lactic sourness and vinous, wine-like character. This sourness was present in most farm beers at the time and was considered a desirable trait. Over time, as sanitation practices improved, this vinous character became less prevalent.

There aren't many breweries today who make saisons that fit the profile above, although there are a few that come to mind (Crooked Stave, Hill Farmstead, Jester King, Jolly Pumpkin, Fantôme). It seems that when most folks think of saison these days, they often think of an easy-drinking, refreshing beer with spicy and/or fruity notes. From Mr. Baets' description though, the original farmhouse beers weren't quite as easy-drinking as we might picture the style today. They were often bitter or sour, sometimes bitter AND sour, subtly spicy, incredibly dry, interesting, complex beers. As Baets describes them, they were beers of extraordinary character.

I decided to brew up a beer in the same vein as these rustic farmhouse beers. I used a fairly simple grain bill of Pilsner, Vienna, and a small portion of flaked oats. I also added some acid malt to get my pH in the right range, although I'll probably cut it back to 2-3% next time as I undershot my target a bit.

I had previously made a clean saison fermented with a combination of White Labs Saison II and Wyeast's French Saison strain so I re-harvested that yeast for this beer. To get my sourness, I decided to go with Lacto Brevis which I pitched at the same time as the saison yeast. Even though it's supposed to be a more hop tolerant strain, I decided to keep the IBUs under 10 to ensure that it takes hold. To get some funk in there, I'm planning to pitch the dregs from a bottle of Lodgson Seizoen Bretta once the primary fermentation has finished up.

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (fermenter): 3.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.045 SG
Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 8.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 71.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Fermentables:
65% - Belgian Pilsner  
26% - Vienna Malt
5% - Flaked Oats
4% - Acid Malt

Hops:
.25 oz. East Kent Goldings (Pellet, 5% AA) @ 60 minutes - 8.8 IBUs

Yeast:
50/50 Blend of Wyeast French Saison & White Labs Saison II - re-harvested from a previous saison
White Labs WLP672 Lactobacillus Brevis - pitched in primary
Logsdon Seizoen Bretta dregs - pitched after primary

Water:
RO filtered water - added brewing salts

Mash:
Single-infusion @ 149 degrees

Notes:
Brewed on 4/4/15. Ended up getting higher efficiency than normal. Hit an OG of 1.052.

4/7/15 - Krausen has settled down and a thin pellicle has already formed.

4/14/15 - Racked to secondary and pitched dregs from a bottle of Logsdon Seizoen Bretta. SG is already down to 1.004.

5/23/15 - Took a sample. Has a subtle, clean lactic sourness. It's tasting great. SG down to 1.003.

6/23/15 - Bottled the batch.

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