Saison /w cranberries.

You can do whatever you want. Use previously frozen, and add to secondary.

 

Great idea and definitely during ferment. Let it ride a few months in secondary and bottle while fruit is still apparent. Will probably make the beer look gorgeous. Tannic/tart qualities may make the saison more dry/harsh than base beer so use your best judgement on cranberry amount. Cranberries are usually tasted with a sweetener attached because how harsh cranberries naturally are but in the right beer would be great.

Cheers!

 

I've got a funky/dark saison aging at the moment. After about 10 months of souring I made cranberry sauce (cooked down a few pounds of cranberries with some orange peel), removed the orange peel and dumped the rest into secondary. Still sitting there, slowly working. Samples have been very promising.

 

@Generous_Beer_Lover posted a thought that occurred to me: “Tannic/tart qualities may make the saison more dry/harsh than base beer…”

The principle contribution of cranberry is tartness IMO; a few months ago I homebrewed a Cranberry Belgian Pale Ale and basically what I got from the cranberry addition was tartness.

Saison beers that I have brewed have all come out bracingly dry, I wonder if the tartness from the cranberry addition would be a complimentary quality.

@LeRose, what do you think?

Cheers!

 

I think it is a good idea. But with all good ideas....moderation is the key. A beautiful red and tart undertone would be great. Cranberry sauce in a bottle would not be.

 

The acidity will certainly offset the dryness inherent in the beer and maybe "brighten" things up a little, but the cranberry will also add some astringency due to the tannins and phenolics. While the other compnents of the beer will provide some "masking" effect, I expect the beer could initially be pretty harsh, but that harshness does calm down after a while. Since the fruit was cooked, that will actually help a bit - the heat seems to tame some of that harsh sensation you get from raw fruit/juice. I would suspect a saison as described with cranberries would be a good candidate for aging. I will assume frozen fruit was used - typically frozen fruit mellows out a little on the phenolic side while retaining the acidity.

I agree with @JackHorzempa about his Belgian Pale Ale - there was a very nice underlying tartness to the beer and a mild but detectable cranberry-ish flavor to the beer. It wasn't "slap your face" cranberry, but it was certainly present. The cranberry was melded into the beer - contributing without dominating. We also spent a fair amount of time calculating the amount of cranberry to use based on my 35 years in the cranberry business and Jack's desired flavor profile.

In contrast, the Jack's Abby sour aged on cranberries was completely the opposite - it was all about the cranberry with the beer just being the liquid delivery system. It reminded me of a dilute juice product we used to make back in the day. It was light and refreshing (like a lemonade) and had just enough of that tannin/phenolic harshness to remind you what it was you were drinking. After a bit of education about the style, I was wishing I'd bought a couple more growlers for myself and not been so generous providing it for friends here at work. It drank easy and had the fresh cranberry character nailed perfectly - a little green/grassy note that fresh fruit has for about 30 days or so. Totally different use of the same fruit. Mystic's Three Cranes might be the closest thing to this saison we're talking about - again, a completely different flavor profile. It isn't a dark saison but certainly falls into that "farmhouse" wild child category. I know they use fresh cranberries in that beer but I am not sure how they are incorporated. Maybe Mr. Greenhagen will pick up on this thread. The fruit doesn't dominate this beer either, and it is quite dry - I don't know how much of that is inherent to the base beer or how much the fruit contributes.

So it depends on what you are after and how much cranberry you actually use. You don't know unless you try, right? I made the dark Saison de Noel this year and I could see that playing nicely with some amount of cranberry.

 

Just had another thought - I have seen a slightly dark saison recipe using sweetened/dried cranberries that they are calling Saison de Craisin. It is here: Saison de Craisin

I'd like to make this one. There's sucrose in sweetened dried cranberries, but they are still far from mellow. The recipe also isn't clear on when to add the cranberries, but I suspect into the primary with the rest of the "stuff". The honey is probably the key here, I reckon.

 

I made a cranberry saison a few years back and it was fantastic. I made a cranberry puree and added it to the secondary. I used unsweetened cranberries and the tartness was fantastic with a saison. My only complaint was that the beer was pink/red.

 

Cooking down definitely makes sense. Just the act of "popping" the cranberries will allow more integration.

 

Open up a few cans of cranberry sauce from the cupbord. I'm sure they're cheap after the holidays.

 

Belgian Red finishes at something like 1.040, lots of fermentable sugars left/added. Tricky to get that much residual sweetness without kegging or sweetening in the glass.

 

I've only put cranberries in cider and mead, but they are spectacular in both. If not bright red enough I steep a little hibiscus which kinda sorta tastes like cranberry anyway. Now, as previously mentioned making something that is tart, fizzy, tannic, and dry can be a little harsh. In my case I keep the carbonation low on many of my acidic/tannic ciders which isn't an option for a saison, but I wouldn't be skeered to try it.

good luck--
--Michael