Wanted: Saison Advice

I tend to think most saison strains work best if pitched in the mid 60s and allowed to free rise to the mid 70s.
So far as choke cherries, I don't even really know what they are, just that they exist. Are they a western thing? I seem to recall Papazian using them in a couple of recipes.

 

Chokecherries should not be used in beer, Way too astringent in my opinion. Had them one time and it sucks the moisture out of your mouth.

 

Belle Saison doesn’t need to get really hot and from everything I’ve read doesn’t taste that great when it’s fermented really warm. Pitch it mid 60s and let it do its thing.

No advice on choke cherries.

 

I only brewed with Belle Saison once (I got it for free at a NHC). The yeast performed (and the beer tasted) like Wyeast 3711.

If you have brewed with 3711 before, perhaps just do the same thing with Belle Saison.

Cheers!

 

I’ve never used or tasted chokecherry so I can’t speak to their suitability in beer. I have made a cherry Saison using that yeast and a 50/50 blend of bing and sour pie cherries and I was quite happy with it. I pitched it at 68 and held it there for the duration because I didn’t want the yeast flavor to overwhelm the cherry flavor. No free rise in temp for this batch. When the krausen fell I ran the cherries through the blender and poured them right into the primary.

 

The other name for chokecherry is bitter berry

 

Only advice I have is that I have tried a saison with choke cherries before - saison aux baies ameres by left hand, and it was pretty good. I don’t remember the choke cherries adding any sort of bitterness whatsoever. They did, however, add a nice level of tartness to the saison.

Sounds like they probably fermented it with chokecherry juice added, and then aged on macerated choke cherries.