First Tasting: Saison de Scully

So this beer is named after our cat, who in return is named after another red head from the X-Files.  The recipe can be found here. This is the regular version, the sour version is still souring away.

Appearance: Light yellow-orange, a little hazy then I would have preferred. I meant to put Irish moss in at the last 15 minutes but I forgot. I’m not sure how much it would have helped. The head retention is insane, a huge rocky head about 3 fingers thick from a slow pour that very slowly fades, yet remains at least a centimeter thick through out the whole beer.

Aroma: Spicy and fruity, coriander, a subtle clove aroma mixed with pineapple, green apples and peaches. I’ve very pleased with how the aroma turned out. The only hops that I used were bittering hops, so all of the aroma was provided by the yeast.

Taste: Spicy and yeasty, with a touch of clove and peach. It might be a bit sweet but it’s not that big of a deal.

Mouthfeel: Perhaps a bit over carbonated. It took me a while to get around to review this beer because at first it was too over carbonated. It is either because I used too much priming sugar or because of the nature of this yeast it was not finished eating and then I added more sugar. It has calmed down since the first bottle I tried and is no longer gushing out of the bottle. The first few sips are still very bubbly but after a minute or two it calms down to a nice level of carbonation. I also would have preferred it to be a little drier and a little lighter in body.

Overall: I’m very pleased with how this beer turned out. The aroma is complex and very nice, the taste also has a nice level of complexity. It is a little over carbonated and a little too sweet. I mentioned the carbonation issue, but didn’t go into detail about the body. The body and sweetness comes from the unfermented sugars. Typically a Saison will terminate at 1.008 or lower, mine was bottled at 1.011, which probably accounted for the extra carbonation. The reason I bottled it at that at that gravity is because I was splitting the batch and wanted some sugars for the brett and bugs to eat. What I should have done is wait for the beer to hit a lower gravity, probably 1.008 or 1.006 and then split the batch. After splitting I would then add maltodextrin to the souring batch because brett loves to eat that stuff. Oh well, either way I’m happy with the way it turned out. Tasty and refreshing!