Dandelion Saison w/ Brett B Brewday

We can officially declare this one more of the same; I wanted to make another version of this with hops so that it would have some staying power. I also used MFB Aromatic rather than Pilsen malt, and whole dried dandelions from this summer—I combined cleaning up the yard with gathering brewing supplies. Genius, I know. The no-hop version tasted delicious when I transfered it over—a light earthy herbal bitterness with the brett character just starting to manifest in the background. Here’s to more of the same.

102. Dandelion Saison w/ Brett B
Mash:
8 lbs. MFB Aromatic
1 lb. Weyerman Dark Munich
1 lb. Dingemans CaraMunich 20° L
1 lb. Breiss White Wheat

Mashed @ 153° F w/ 4 gallons of RO water for 70 minutes; collected 2 ½ gallons @ 1.064
Batch sparged @ 172° F w/ 3 ¾ gallons RO water for 20 minutes; collected 3 ¾ gallons @ 1.026

Collected 6 ¼ gallons; brought to a boil (70 minute) and added:

w/60 to go: 2 oz. New Zealand Pacific Hallertau pellet 4.5% AA
.75 oz. dried dandelion (whole)

w/15 to go: 1 tsp. Irish moss

w/10 to go: 1 oz. German Hallertauer leaf 4.1% AA
.7 oz. dried dandelion (whole)

w/5 to go: 1 oz. German Hallertauer leaf 4.1% AA
.6 oz. dried dandelion (whole)

Chilled, and racked onto Wyeast 3711 French Saison & Wyeast 5112 Brettanomyces bruxellensis cake from 101. No-Hop Dandelion Saison

Brewed: 10/27/2011
Secondary: 12/16/2011 @ 1.002
Bottled: 3/2/2012 w/ 4 oz. table sugar

OG: 1.048
FG: 1.002

Tasting Notes (7/27/2013): I’ve held out on typing up notes on this because I wanted to see the effect aging had on it. Dandelion Saison pours a copper orange—the pound of dark Munich is really showing here—with a creamy white head that laces the glass well. The head also has better retention than some of the Brettanomyces beers I’ve made in the past—we’ll see how that goes in the future. In the nose, I get candy, floral earthiness, and spiciness with a touch of mineral mustiness, or in other words, pretty much what I’d expect from Brett B. Flavors follow suit: there is bread crust and candy sweetness in the front that gives way to the dry, spicy earthy funk of the middle. There is hay and fresh fall dry leaves in the finish, alongside just a touch of alcohol and a mix of lingering funk and herbal bitterness. While the beer has some sweetness, it is bone dry in the body—crackery bone dry. Besides the herbal bitterness in the finish, there is less dandelion that I expected, although at this point, everything has blended together virtually seamlessly, so even picking it apart this much has taken some time. I’m happy I have a fair amount of this left; I’m looking forward to seeing how it continues to progress.