Best Practices Saison Solutions
Saison (French for “season”) is a beer style originating from Wallonia, Belgium, originally produced to provide Quick facts Strain Comparison Chart beer to workers during the farming season. Traditional Saison beers are refreshingly dry with notes of fruit and spice. The Saison beer style is de ned by the yeast strain. Traditional Saison yeast (i.e. LalBrew Belle Saison™) is capable of fermenting larger sugars (starch and dextrins) and producing fruity esters and phenolic ATTENUATION ATTENUATION ATTENUATION compounds that impart the characteristic pepper and High Very high High clove avors. STA1 GENE STA1 GENE STA1 GENE The high attenuation of traditional Saison yeast is Negative Positive Negative achieved by the expression of a glucoamylase enzyme SUGARS METABOLIZED SUGARS METABOLIZED SUGARS METABOLIZED expressed by the STA1 gene. Saccharomyces yeasts that Glucose, maltose, maltotriose Glucose, maltose, maltotriose, Glucose, maltose, maltotriose possess the STA1 gene and express a glucoamylase Dextrins enzyme are referred to as diastaticus variants due to FLOCCULATION FLOCCULATION FLOCCULATION their increased diastatic potential (Saccharomyces Low Low Medium to high cerevisiae var. diastaticus). FERMENTATION RANGE FERMENTATION RANGE FERMENTATION RANGE Special attention needs to be paid when 20 - 30°C (68 - 86°F) 15 - 35°C (59 - 95°F) 17 - 25°C (63 - 77°F) using diastaticus yeast strains. If any ALCOHOL TOLERANCE ALCOHOL TOLERANCE ALCOHOL TOLERANCE dextrins are present in the nished 13% ABV 15% ABV 14% ABV product, the yeast may continue to ferment these sugars resulting in Flavor & Aroma overcarbonation, higher alcohol
PLE TROPIC PLE TROPIC PLE TROPIC AP AL AP AL AP AL content and altered avor pro le. Sanita- ED FR ED FR ED FR R U R U R U IT IT IT
B B B tion best practices must be followed to avoid cross L A L A L A A N A N A N R R R T A T A T A U N U N U N E A E A E A contamination of diastaticus strains in the brewery. N N N
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To avoid potential cross-contamination, some brewers I
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choose to use other non-diastaticus yeast strains to P C C C
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produce “Saison-like” beers. Abbaye ale strains (i.e.
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LalBrew Abbaye™) produce fruity esters and spicy
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A A A C C C D D D I I phenols, but have lower attenuation than traditional I Saison strains since they do not metabolize dextrins. Clove, pepper, fruit notes Citrus, pepper Spicy, fruity, tropical, banana Recently, selective breeding methods (non-GMO) have been used to isolate a non-diastaticus Saison hybrid: LalBrew Farmhouse™. This new hybrid strain does not possess the STA1 gene while conserving greater than FIG.1: Belle Saison V Abbaye V Farmhouse Saison, 20°C, 100g/hl 70% of the genome of the traditional Saison parental LalBrew Belle Saison™ LalBrew Abbaye™ LalBrew Farmhouse™ strain. 12
Beer fermented with LalBrew Farmhouse™ presents 10
avor and aroma characteristics of traditional Saison (°P) 8 y t beer styles without the over-attenuation and contami- s i n
e 6 nation risk of a diastaticus yeast. D For more information on how to brew with diastaticus 4 strains and detect potential diastaticus cross contamina- 2 tion please refer to our Best Practices - Diastaticus 0 document or contact our technical team at 0 50 100 150 200 250 Time (h) brewing@lallemand.com
www.lallemandbrewing.com Best Practices saison Solutions
FIG.2: Apparent attenuation & Relative flocculation Flavor Control: Esters and Phenolics of Belgian yeast strains The yeast-derived avor pro le of each yeast strain is in uenced by many factors. In general, higher levels of esters are achieved by pitching ATTENUATION FLOCCULATION less yeast, fermenting at a higher temperature or addition of adjunct 100% 90% sugars. Higher levels of phenolic compounds such as 4-vinyl-guaiacol 80% (4VG) can normally be achieved by using a combination of barley and 70% wheat malts and performing a ferulic acid rest (~45°C) during the mash. 60% 50% Fusel alcohol levels tend to be positively correlated with fermentation 40% temperature. We have provided below a snapshot of the avor 30% 20% compounds produced by LalBrew Belle Saison™, LalBrew Abbaye™ 10% and LalBrew Farmhouse™ in laboratory fermentations using a standard 0% LalBrew Belle Saison™ LalBrew Abbaye™ LalBrew Farmhouse™ wort. Flavor development is complex and there are exceptions to these general rules, so brewing trials are recommended in order to optimize Fermentations were performed using a standard pale 12°P wort prepared from malt extract, pitched with 100g/hL of yeast and fermented at 20°C. Relative occulation was measured the recipe and brewing process to achieve the desired avor pro le. according to ASBC method Yeast-11 (Helm assay).
FIG.3: Relative concentration of acetate esters, fusel alcohols and 4-vinyl guaiacol
ACETATE ESTERS FUSEL ALCOHOLS 4VG 21°C 24°C 27°C 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% Rela�ve concentra�on 10% 0% LalBrew LalBrew LalBrew LalBrew LalBrew LalBrew LalBrew LalBrew LalBrew Belle Saison™ Abbaye™ Farmhouse™ Belle Saison™ Abbaye™ Farmhouse™ Belle Saison™ Abbaye™ Farmhouse™
Fermentations were performed using an all-malt standard pale 12°P wort pitched with a liquid yeast propagation at a rate of 9 million viable cells/ml and fermented at 21, 24 and 27°C. Relative concentrations were calculated separately for each class of compounds and comparisons should not be made between di erent compound classes.
Attenuation Control for non-Diastaticus strains Yeast Strain by Beer Strains BY
BEER STYLE SAISONBELLE ABBAYE FARMHOUSE Despite the inability to metabolize dextrins, it is possible to achieve greater Style Chart attenuation with non-diastaticus yeast strains in order to better mimic the A traditional Saison yeast strain BELGIAN BLOND ALE performance of a traditional diastaticus Saison strain. The goal is to increase such as LalBrew Belle Saison™ is BELGIAN DARK STRONG ALE
wort fermentability using one or more of the following methods: used to produce dry Belgian beer BELGIAN GOLDEN STRONG ALE styles, whereas non-diastaticus - Lower the mash temperature BELGIAN PALE ALE Belgian yeast such as LalBrew - Add sugars or other adjuncts BELGIAN QUAD Abbaye™ are used to produce BELGIAN TRIPEL - Decrease the amount of special malts malty, full-bodied Belgian ales. BERLINER WEISS - Avoid the use of unmalted grains When using a modifed process and recipe as described above, BIÈRE DE GARDE - Add chemically pure glucoamylase enzyme such as ABV LalBrew Farmhouse™ and FARMHOUSE ALE Glucoamylase 400 to the mash and/or pre boil wort (the enzyme will LalBrew Abbaye™ can be used to GOSE be denatured in the boil, so it is not active in the packaged beer) produce beer styles normally SAISON
produced only by traditional WITBIER Saison yeast.
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