Saison additions

Raspberries.

 

Fresh orange zest, fresh grapefruit zest, and lemon grass/vodka tincture have all been great for me.

 

That's cheating. You can add raspberries to any style and it's killer.

 

I like to add a significant amount of honey to my saisons (maybe 10% of my total fermentables). Depending on what type of honey you use, you can get really distinct flavors that compliment the Saison style. Orange Blossom honey is classic here, but it's wide open for experimentation.

 

I like to make them with just water, hops, malt, unmalted grains, and yeast, and let the yeast express the spicy aromas/flavor, depending on fermentation temperatures and maybe under pitching, also brett.

 

Mmmm, raspberry schwartbier...

 

Yes, to all of the above. Saisons are quite flexible.

 

strawberry rhubarb...

 

I bought a 2g bucket to experiment with one offs, and my latest creation was my 8.4% Saison/ Belgian Strong Ale recipe that I transferred 1.5g onto Blackberries/ Lemon Zest along with dregs from Bruery's Limonello. FG was already 1.005 but the sugars/yeast combo dried out even more to 1.002 (lowest ever for me). By far the best fruit/dregs experiment I've ever pulled off.

 

My favorite additions are copious amounts of humulus lupulus after fermentation.

 

Do it Fantome style. Grab random objects from the forest and toss them directly in the fermentor before pitching yeast.

 

Dany's brasserie was the dirtiest place I visited in Belgium, great beer though. Cantillon, while fairly clean, was horrid smelling (was there in late November), the newly fermenting barrels were beyond barnyard. Think rotting horse flesh. Love that Fou, Rose, and Mamouche, doe.

 

I recently had Smog City's Kumquat Saison and its fucking awesome. So, kumquats.

 

I've added 2 lb orange blossom honey and 2 tsp black pepper (both at 5 min) to a saison, and it turned out great. Herb additions can be good too.

But, I've also had success with keeping it super simple – all belgian pils malt, few oz of czech saaz. It's amazing how much flavor you can get from such a simple recipe.