Category Archives: saison

Nectaron Saison

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I increasingly enjoy and appreciate saisons, for their easy drinkability and interesting flavors. A good saison can do a lot with simple ingredients! Many homebrew recipes out there are way higher alcohol than I want in five gallon quantities, though, often in the 6 or 7 or even 8 percent range. The first page of results in the AHA recipe archive averages 6.9% abv, and the smallest recipe clocked in at 5.8% abv; that’s just not to my personal tastes.

So, I was intrigued by an article in the Summer 2025 issue of Craft Beer & Brewing, which highlighted saisons and presented a clone recipe for a recent interpretation of the style. Upright Saison Elani originated at Upright Brewing in Portland, Oregon; it was light (4.8% abv), simple (only three grains in the grist), and featured the relatively new hop Elani. This sounded fantastic!

Because Elani is a somewhat new and niche hop, my local homebrew shop didn’t have it in stock, but they did suggest Nectaron as an alternative. I haven’t done anything with Nectaron previously, and the citrus/tropical/stone fruit profile seemed like a good substitute for Elani and a great match for a summer saison. I had some Belle Saison yeast in my stash, so opted for that instead of the Imperial B56 or Wyeast 3276 in the original recipe.

In the spirit of my Brew Year’s Resolution to increase my percentage of “small batch” beers, this was a 3 gallon batch. So far, three out of 13 batches this year (23 percent) have been in this smaller format; by comparison, I had three out of 23 batches in the 3 gallon size last year. I have one or two more 3 gallon batches planned for 2025, so I’m feeling on target to meet my goal. Beyond the metrics, it has been nice to have smaller batches for recipes in the “good beer but I don’t want 5 gallons” categories.

Nectaron Saison

  • 4 lb 2 oz. 2-row pale malt (Rahr)
  • 12 oz. white wheat malt (Briess)
  • 4 oz. Carapils malt (Briess)
  • 1.5 oz. rice hulls
  • 0.25 tsp. BrewTanB, added to mash
  • 0.5 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hop pellets (2.5% alpha), 75 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Nectacron hop pellets (10.1% alpha), 10 minute whirlpool
  • 1 pkg. Belle Saison yeast (Lallemand)

Target Parameters

  • 60 minute infusion mash, 147°, full volume mash
  • 1.044 o.g., 1.007 f.g., 4.8% abv, 21 IBU, 3 SRM
  • Water built from RO, to hit targets of 63 ppm Ca, 11 ppm Mg, 105 ppm SO4, 67 ppm Cl, RA=-52

Procedure

  • I built my water up from scratch, starting with 4.8 gallons of RO, to which I added 2 g epsom salt, 2 g gypsum, and 2.5 g calcium chloride.
  • Then, I heated the water to 151° before adding the grains and holding at 147° with recirculation for 60 minutes. I raised the mash temperature to 168° for 10 minutes, before removing the grains.
  • In total, I collected 4.5 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.035, for 81% mash efficiency.
  • I brought the runnings to a boil, boiling for 75 minutes and adding hops and finings per the recipe.
  • After the boil, I turned off the heat and chilled to 78° before transferring to the fermenter and pitching the yeast.
  • I brewed this beer on 7 June 2025. Starting gravity was 1.045.
  • I used an open fermentation, putting a bit of foil across the top instead of an airlock. I fermented at ambient temperature, in the mid-70s.
  • A good crown of krausen was on the beer within 24 hours of pitching, and the fermenter temperature was around 76°. The krausen had mostly fallen by 14 June 2025, and I put a blow-off tube on the beer on 16 June 2025.
  • I kegged the beer on 21 June 2025, with 1.8 oz. of corn sugar added. I allowed it to carbonate at room temperature.
  • The final gravity was 1.003, for 5.5% abv. This is drier than stated in the original recipe or predicted by software (1.007 at each), but I’m not surprised given the diastatic yeast strain and low mash temperature.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Pale yellow, slightly hazy beer; pours with a persistent and fluffy white head.
  • Aroma
    • Pineapple, lemony and slightly spicy aroma at a medium-low level; slight doughy character, too. Pineapple and peach come out as the beer warms, and a stronger peppery character.
  • Flavor
    • Medium low malt with slightly grainy quality; medium bitterness which is more apparent due to the dryness of the beer. Pineapple at a low level and peach appear as the beer warms.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Light body, high carbonation, dry finish.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • This is a highly drinkable, refreshing saison! I could see this becoming a house recipe, especially one against which to try out yeast variants. Because Belle Saison is no longer available in homebrew quantities, I suppose the issue is somewhat forced. I really like that strain’s subtlety here, though, and that it’s not a phenol bomb, even with ambient fermentation temperatures. I don’t know that Nectaron really stands out here; it might be better as a dry hop. That said, the hops show more character as the beer warms. It might be interesting to try a dry hop addition or a warmer fermentation, for more hop and yeast character–if that’s what I was looking for. As I have sampled the beer more recently, I’m happier and happier with the current level of things. So maybe it doesn’t need to become a dry hop bomb?
  • Overall
    • 8/10

Session Saison

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I’ve been spending lots of time in LagerTown (a few miles over from Flavertown) and overall feel like I have a good handle on many of these styles, especially pale lagers. So, I’m looking for some new challenges. The saison style has been of variable success for me, with the last saison session producing a good beer despite a ton of mishaps in the process. I’ve only made six batches of this style previously, most centered around the “Thumbspike Saison” incarnation.

For 2024, I decided to try a saison yet again, to have a drinkable and interesting brew on tap. I generally prefer lower alcohol beers, so used the Session Saison recipe at Great Fermentations as a starting point. It was a chance to use up some grains I had sitting around, while also experimenting with yeasts and techniques. Previously, I’ve never really been able to hit the attenuation I want in a saison consistently, so I focused on the areas of mash technique, ingredients, and yeast choice to move a few levers towards a drier beer.

The grain bill is pretty close to the original recipe, although I swapped in flaked oats instead of flaked barley based on what was accessible at home. I used honey instead of corn sugar, because I had a container of Costco honey and figured it would create the same result. This element of the recipe is important for getting towards a dry beer. Finally, I used up some of my hop stash–Ariana, a newer and high alpha German variety seemed like a good fit.

I haven’t used Lallemand’s Belle Saison strain before and wanted to give that a try here. It’s a diastaticus yeast, so I needed to keep this in mind in terms of separating out equipment later on, but I also hoped it would give me a better result than the diastaticus-negative yeasts I’ve used in most previous batches. I coupled this with creating a highly attenuative wort–I elected for a long mash of 120 minutes at only 149 degrees, in addition to the honey mentioned above.

Oddly enough, despite the low starting gravity (1.046 or so), the high attenuation takes it out of session territory — 5.3% calculated, and 5.9% actual when all was said and done! It’s not the monster 9.5% abv upper bound for the BJCP style, but it’s also not one anyone should chug by the pint.

I had an interesting experience on consumption of this one — the temperature probe on my keezer got knocked to the bottom of the chamber by accident, with a net result of the overall keezer temperature being around 50° instead of 40°. I was fairly disappointed in the carbonation and flavor of the saison–it wasn’t anywhere near highly carbonated, and the beer was a bit flabby. Once I figured out the temperature issue, things fell right into place with a more proper level of carbonation and a crisper beer. Beer held at 40° and 23 PSI will hit 3.5 volumes of CO2–but the the same PSI at 50° will be only 3 volumes. It was an amazing example of how critical temperature and carbonation are for beer enjoyment!

Session Saison

  • 3 lb. 9 oz. pilsner malt (Rahr)
  • 2 lb. 2-row malt (Briess)
  • 2 lb. Munich I malt (Weyermann)
  • 8 oz. Aromatic Munich malt 20L (Briess)
  • 8 oz. flaked oats
  • 0.5 tsp. BrewTanB, in mash
  • 1.25 oz. Ariana hop pellets (8.9% alpha), 15 minute boil
  • 0.5 tsp. BrewTanB, 10 minute boil
  • 1 lb. wildflower honey, 10 minute boil
  • 0.75 oz. Ariana hop pellets (8.9% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. yeast nutrient (WLN1000, White Labs), 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. Belle Saison dry yeast (Lallemand)

Target Parameters

  • 1.046 s.g., 1.005 f.g., 5.3% abv, 26 IBU, 6 SRM
  • Full volume infusion mash to hit target of 149°, 120 minutes, no sparge
  • Claremont tap water, neutralized with lactic acid to reduce carbonates, target parameter of 60 ppm CA, 22 ppm Mg, 136 ppm Na, 175 ppm SO4, 150 ppm Cl, 10 ppm HCO3, RA=-48 ppm

Procedure

  • I added 6.5 mL of 88% lactic acid to 7.25 gallons of tap water, to remove the carbonates. As a result, no pH adjustment was needed (per calculations) for the mash.
  • I heated the water to 153°, added the grains, and held at 149° with recirculation for 120 minutes.
  • At the end of the mash, I raised the temperature to 168° for a 10 minute mash-out, before removing the grains.
  • In total, I collected 6.75 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.035, for 74% mash efficiency.
  • I brought the runnings to a boil and added hops and finings per the recipe. After 60 minutes, I turned off the heat and chilled to 75° before transferring the wort to the fermenter and chilling to 65° in the fermentation chamber before pitching the yeast.
  • I brewed this beer on 9 May 2024; it had a starting gravity of 1.048.
  • I held the fermentation at 68° until 14 May 2024, when I pulled the probe from the side of the fermenter and let the chamber free-rise to 85°.
  • I removed the beer to ambient temperature on 19 May 2024. At this point, final gravity was 1.003, presumably terminal.
  • I kegged the beer on 26 May 2024, adding 4 oz. of corn sugar to do some natural carbonation.
  • The abv on the final product was 5.9 percent — the combination of mash and yeast strain seemed to really do the trick for a dry beer!

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Golden beer, slightly hazy, pours with a creamy white head that settles to a persistent blanket.
  • Aroma
    • Pear aroma, with a bit of spice/pepper alongside that, somewhat reminiscent of a pear cobbler. A light bit of maltiness as the beer warms.
  • Flavor
    • A fairly bitter beer with a spicy, peppery flavor from the yeast. Low level of grainy flavor from the malt. The fruitiness doesn’t come through as intensely as in the aroma, until the beer warms up a bit.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Very dry, highly carbonated, light body.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • Once I got temperature and carbonation dialed in, this was a fairly excellent saison. It could use a touch more malt character; perhaps a bit of Vienna in for some of the 2-row or pilsner malt? The aroma and mouthfeel are about perfect! I’m very pleased that I finally achieved “dry beer” status.
  • Overall
    • 7/10

Sideways Saison

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It has been a long time since I last made a saison, back in 2018. It’s an interesting style, but one that I’m usually content to enjoy in a sporadic bottle, rather than a full keg. But, inspired by some reading and podcasts, I decided to give the style another go. My friend Justin was in town, so it was fun to have a brewing partner.

I patterned my recipe after Odds & Ends Saison from Modern Homebrew Recipes, and followed Drew Beechum’s guide to yeasts and yeast techniques via the Maltose Falcons. I used the saison article in the July/August 2018 Zymurgy magazine for my water profile.

This was a complicated batch in the end. The breaker on my Foundry gave up mid-boil, so I had to transfer to a kettle and finish over a propane burner. There’s never a dull moment while brewing! Things really went sideways on this batch, which conveniently provided the name. (Thankfully, it was an easy fix for the breaker issue, which involved swapping in a new breaker)

Sideways Saison

  • 4.5 lb. Lamonta pale malt (Mecca Grade)
  • 1 lb. flaked rye
  • 1 lb. Viking Pilsner Zero Malt
  • 1 oz. roasted barley (Bairds)
  • 4 oz. rice hulls
  • 0.5 lb. white sugar, added at end of boil
  • 1.5 g. WLN1000 yeast nutrient (White Labs)
  • 1 oz. Moutere hop pellets (19.5% alpha acid), 15 minute whirlpool
  • 1 pkg. Belgian Saison yeast (Wyeast 3724), prepared in vitality starter

Target Parameters

  • 1.057 s.g., 1.006 f.g., 6.7% abv, 30 IBU, 10 SRM
  • Full volume mash, 149° for 60 minutes, 168° mash-out for 10 minutes
  • Claremont tap water and RO water adjusted to hit target water parameters of 33 ppm Ca, 18 Mg, 34 Na, 103 SO4, 49 Cl, 63 HCO3, 18 ppm RA

Procedure

  • A few hours before the mash, I made a vitality starter with a 16-oz. can of Propper Starter (Omega) along with 16 oz. of distilled water.
  • I combined 2.25 gallons of Claremont tap water and 3 gallons of distilled water, adding 1 g gypsum and 3 g of epsom salt to hit my water parameters. Once I got the water to 154°, I added the grains (except for the roasted barley) along with 3.4 mL of 88% lactic acid, to adjust the pH.
  • I held the mash temperature at 149° for 60 minutes, with recirculation. Then, I added the roasted barley, raised the mash to 168°, and held it there for 10 minutes before pulling the grains.
  • In total, I collected 5 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.037, for 78% mash efficiency.
  • The Foundry crapped out on the way to the boil, so I transferred the runnings to my big 10 gallon kettle and continued the process over my propane burner. I boiled for 90 minutes total, to up the gravity.
  • I added hops and finings per the recipe.
  • For some reason, I didn’t record the gravity, but I think it was around the target. I was able to estimate the starting gravity by measuring the final gravity and taking a final refractometer reading–which worked out to 1.055.
  • I brewed this beer on 28 May 2023.
  • Once the initial chill was done, I transferred it to the fermenter. I chilled the wort to 64° before pitching the yeast, and set the fermenter to 65°. I held it here for 3 days, before letting it free-rise.
  • I raised the temperature to 72° on 31 May 2023, and then to 85° on 2 June 2023. This was a free-rise with ambient heat, rather than measuring the temperature of the fermenter.
  • Despite using an “open” fermentation (aluminum foil over the airlock, rather than liquid in the airlock), I still got the “saison stall.” Gravity was only at 1.032 on 8 June 2023, so I left the beer at 85°.
  • The beer was finally down to 1.009 on 19 July 2023. This works out to 6.1% abv.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Pours with a fluffy and persistent ivory head. The beer itself is medium amber and has a decent haze..
  • Aroma
    • Slightly earthy aroma, with a moderate level of pear character alongside some peppery spice. A tartness also comes through, which is really delightful.
  • Flavor
    • Spicy, slightly peppery flavor and a decent bit of ripe pear at the forefront, with only moderate bitterness. I get a bit of the rye flavor, but most of the flavor is in the world of the yeast.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Medium-light body, moderately high carbonation, moderately dry finish.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • This is a pretty good recipe! It is a bit darker than I am used to for a saison (especially the classic Saison Dupont), but I think it’s still well within the style. I personally might like one that is a little lighter bodied, and I wonder if the rye didn’t complicate matters some. I also might go for 100 percent pilsner malt, rather than American pale malt as the dominant grain, in order to streamline the flavor. The yeast qualities are quite nice, and hit a nice balance of interesting but not in-your-face. I feel that I got the fermentation parameters just about perfect. It was worth the extra fuss!
  • Overall
    • 9/10

Thumbspike Saison 2.2

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The Lake Arrowhead Brew Festival is around the corner, and I’ve promised to bring some beers for my club’s booth. A nice saison seems in order–it’s the same recipe I brought last year, with only a minor change for the pilsner malt variety (Barke instead of Château Pilsen). I really liked this beer, and it went over well at the festival, too. I guesstimated on the hop alpha acid, following that from last year’s laboratory-verified measurements.

img_20180707_085341.jpg

Thumbspike Saison 2.2

  • 9.25 lbs. Barke Pilsner malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.75 lbs. Munich I malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.75 lbs. white wheat malt (Great Western Malting Co.)
  • 0.8 oz. Carafa Special II (Weyerman)
  • 1 oz. whole wild hops (est. 5.8% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 0.5 oz. whole wild hops (est. 5.8% alpha), 10 minute boil
  • 1.5 oz. whole wild hops (est. 5.8% alpha), 2 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. French Saison Ale dry yeast (Mangrove Jack’s M29)

Target Parameters

  • 1.056 o.g., 1.003 f.g., 6.9% abv, 25 IBU, 6 SRM, 5.5 gallons into the fermenter
  • 60 minute mash at 150°, batch sparge, 60 minute boil

Procedure

  • I mashed in with 1.5 gallons of RO water and 2.2 gallons of Claremont tap water (3.7 gallons total) to hit a mash temperature of 150°. I added 1 tbs. of 5.2 pH stabilizer. The mash was down to 147° after 60 minutes. At this point, I batch sparged with 1.2 gallons of water (10 minute rest after addition, vorlauf, collect runnings) and 3.5 gallons of water (10 minute rest after addition, vorlauf, collect runnings).
  • In total, I collected 6.75 gallons of runnings at a gravity of 1.044, for 74% efficiency.
  • I brought the runnings to a boil, adding hops per the schedule.
  • After cooling, I transferred to the fermenter and pitched the yeast.
  • Starting gravity was 1.055, pretty much right on target.
  • I brewed this beer on 7 July 2018, and am fermenting it at 75°.

Thumbspike Saison 2.1

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The Lake Arrowhead Brewfest is coming up in August, and I’ll be there with the Horse Thief Brewing Association to serve up some tasty homebrews! I’ve promised two beers–one is the second iteration of my raspberry Belgian, and the other is my wild hop saison! I recently kicked the keg on this one, and I was overall pretty pleased with it.

The latest version of Thumbspike Saison is virtually identical to the last, with only a few very minor changes. First, I did a mix of Bohemian and Belgian pilsner malt for the grist, because my floor-malted Bohemian pilsner malt was nearly gone. Second, I ditched the rice hulls from the grist, because the percentage of wheat was so low as to be a non-issue for sparging (and this was proven in the easy collection of the first and second runnings). Finally, I modified the hop schedule very slightly to try and increase the hop character in the brew.

20170625_205023

Thumbspike Saison 2.1

  • 5.25 lbs. Château Pilsen malt (Castle Malting)
  • 4 lbs. floor-malted Bohemian pilsner malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.75 lbs. Munich I malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.75 lbs. white wheat malt (Great Western Malting Co.)
  • 1 oz. Carafa Special II (Weyerman)
  • 1.1 oz. whole wild hops (5.8% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 0.5 oz. whole wild hops (5.8% alpha), 10 minute boil
  • 1 oz. whole wild hops (5.8% alpha), 2 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
  • 2 pkg. French Saison Ale dry yeast (Mangrove Jack’s M29)

Target Parameters

  • 1.056 o.g., 1.003 f.g., 7.0% abv, 26 IBU, 7 SRM, 5.5 gallons into the fermenter
  • 90 minute mash at 148°, batch sparge, 60 minute boil

Procedure

  • To use up my RO water and thin out the Claremont waters a bit, I added 1.5 gallons with 2.2 gallons of tap water for my mash water. I heated it up to 160°, added the water to the mash tun, and let it slide to 157°, before adding the grains. This hit a mash temperature of 148.3°, which was down to 144° after 90 minutes.
  • After 90 minutes, I added 1.2 gallons of water at 170°, let it rest for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the first runnings. I then added 3.5 gallons of water at 170°, let it sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the remainder of the runnings.
  • In total, I collected 6.75 gallons with a gravity of 1.048, for 80% efficiency.
  • I aimed for a 60 minute boil, adding the various hops and finings per the schedule.
  • After 60 minutes, I turned off the flame and started chilling. Once I hit 85° (which is pretty close to the limit of what I can chill with our water during the summertime!), I transferred to the primary fermenter and pitched the yeast.
  • I brewed this beer on June 25, 2017. Starting gravity was 1.055, nearly exactly hitting my target gravity.
  • I plan to ferment at ambient temperature, which is around 75°. It will probably sit for a few weeks, because I am in no particular rush to get this batch on tap.