Joie de Vivre - Soured Saison

This is another beer I brewed not too long ago for a friends wedding. I have the advantage of living in a house with a peach tree in the front yard. And when life gives you peaches... you ferment them. Earlier in the year I made a peach saison that was very nice and refreshing but somewhat lacking. For this batch I decided to sour it a little bit. I wanted to control the souring as much as possible so I went with a partially soured mash, in lieu of adding bugs.

This beer ended up being quite exceptional. The first bottles I opened were very funky on the nose... smelled a lot like vomit. However three months later, by the time the wedding rolled around, the smell had been down-graded (to as the guests called it) "feet". I saved a few bottles for myself and as they aged (6 months was perfect) the fruit in the beer came out quite well and the lactic smell degraded immensely. The acidity of the souring accentuates the fruit in a big way. The taste is very fruity without being sweet, in fact this is a very dry beer.

The grist is primarily Belgian pilsner malt to provide a sense of sweetness with a little bit of Vienna malt to add some body and then torrified wheat to fill out the body. The 40L crystal is to add a little color.

For the fruit I used some of my homegrown peaches that I blended into a puree and then froze. I threw those into the wort at flameout (great way to help chill the wort). And then after primary fermentation I added some under-ripe plums. I went with under ripe to add some tartness.

I went with two different yeasts. The WLP 530 is for the nice fruitiness and spiciness, and then saison is for the great silky mouthfeel. Plus the 3711 is a fast fermenter.

I wanted to keep the sour to a minimum. As dry as this beer is, too much souring could be overwhelming.

Here's the recipe.

9lbs. Belgian Pils
2 lbs. Vienna Malt
1 lb. Torrified Wheat
8oz. C-40L

2 oz. Willamette 5.5%AA - 45min.

6.8 lbs. Homemade Peach Puree
5 lbs. Underipe Plums

Sour - 1 lb. belgian pils 1 lb. Light LME.

The day before brew day prepare the sour by adding the LME to 2 quarts of water and heat to 130 degrees. Pour the water in a bucket and add the 1lb. of pils. Do everything you can to keep this as warm as possible. In the central Texas summer heat I just left it outside, but you can wrap it in a heating pad too. Within 24 hours it should smell like satan's anus.

Mash the grains at 152 with 4.25 gallons of water, along with the sour. This may seem like a high mash temperature for a saison, but the fruit in this beer is 100% fermentable and will be enough to dry it out. Do a 10 minute 168 degree mash out, then batch sparge with 4.5 gallons of water.

Boil for 90 minutes to drive off the DMS. At the end of the boil add the frozen peach puree.

I pitched a 750ml starter of WLP530 Abbey Ale and a vial of Wyeast 3711 French Saison (love this yeast). Ferment for 2 days at 68 then ramp up to 75 over the course of four days. Once the krausen has dropped add the plums to the fermenter and let set for two weeks. Final gravity for me was 1.005. Rack and condition to 3 volumes.