Greetings from a lazy saison brewer and ex floor maltster from Sacramento CA

[AltBrau]

Hello! Home brewer since ~2012(ish) getting back into it. Was once on a trajectory to try and launch a saison brand before Covid changed the world and the beer industry got turned on its head. Back to the drawing board and falling in love with the hobby again with simple funky beers in my backyard. Been fortunate enough to brew with amateurs and pros in 3 states and 4 countries and pour my home brew at festivals in USA, Belgium, and Netherlands. Former floor maltster, beer sales rep, and brewery tour guide from the SF Bay Area now living in Sacramento.

Primarily focusing on mixed culture saisons and farmhouse style beers. Base of my boys is always California grown floor malted grains and often bittered with CA grown hops. Hoping to connect with folks making similar weird and rustic ferments!

Setup = 14g kettle BIAB going into 8g Speidel fermenters. No temp control fermentation. Everything gets bottled.
Conditioning = Saison conditioned on Cab Franc Pomace and Saison with light dry hop of Saphir and Contessa
Fermenting = Saison conditioning on Arkansas black apples and Saison with aged hops conditioning on oak cubes

 

[Brew Cat]

yeah Ive done some wild stuff. I've done open fermenters for spontanious fermentations. Brewed with Brett and inoculated an old wooden wine barrel. One thing that was fun was having a dedicated keg that I never cleaned just kept pushing new beer into it. I actually have bottles still around that I'll try once in awhile. I frequented other forums that had a more active group doing the funky stuff who taught me a lot. I don't make them anymore though. Their is a brewer near me OEC that used to do them exclusively I believe the started brewing more tame stuff as well now to keep the lights on

https://oecbrewing.com/beers/
here is a link I actually worked on a greenhouse for them

 

[Craigerrr]

Welcome to Brewers Friend
I don't do anything funky, IPA's, Hazy's, Porters, and Stouts.

 

[Dave Y]

+1 on the welcome

You mean 1970’s funky, not 2025 funky, right? I love farmhouse style ales, and try to wedge at least one per year in.

Looking forward to hearing more on your efforts.

 

[Zambi]

Welcome
I like saisons and Belgian beers.
I'm just a very small scale biab brewer though (about 8 to 10 litres at the time)
Just curious what festivals you went to in the Netherlands and Belgium

 

[Brew Cat]

Welcome
I like saisons and Belgian beers.
I'm just a very small scale biab brewer though (about 8 to 10 litres at the time)
Just curious what festivals you went to in the Netherlands and Belgium

its easy small scale these days with some of the yeast you can buy
We used to use good belly for lactic and get used wooden barrels for brett
also buy commercial brett beer and build up, my Saison I sometimes left my open fermenters outside in the orchard overnight
I infected my brewery once but being small scale I was able to get that cleaned up. I still have an inoculated keg that Ill never open

 

[AltBrau]

Welcome
I like saisons and Belgian beers.
I'm just a very small scale biab brewer though (about 8 to 10 litres at the time)
Just curious what festivals you went to in the Netherlands and Belgium

I've poured multiple years at Carnivale Brettanomyces (Amsterdam NL, Utrecht NL, Aywaille BE), my friend Janos at Dok brewing in Ghent BE poured my beers at his festival, and I poured at a saison festival in Spy BE held by Brasserie de la Sambre. Here in the states I poured at several years at Brews For New Avenues in Portland OR.

BIAB small scale is great. Highly recommend for folks new to the hobby.

 

[AltBrau]

yeah Ive done some wild stuff. I've done open fermenters for spontanious fermentations. Brewed with Brett and inoculated an old wooden wine barrel. One thing that was fun was having a dedicated keg that I never cleaned just kept pushing new beer into it. I actually have bottles still around that I'll try once in awhile. I frequented other forums that had a more active group doing the funky stuff who taught me a lot. I don't make them anymore though. Their is a brewer near me OEC that used to do them exclusively I believe the started brewing more tame stuff as well now to keep the lights on

https://oecbrewing.com/beers/
here is a link I actually worked on a greenhouse for them

Open primary fermentation is always nice, especially for saisoin strains that stall. I used to have 20 barrels at a friends place but that ended back in 2022. Been looking for a place to house barrels.

I have 2 kegs with built in PRVs and removable spears on 4" TCs. I recently bought some reducer plates to bring the opening from 4" down to 1.5" so I could use a regular bung and airlock and ferment in them. I'm thinking about either double batching into them or supplementing my BIAB setup with some DME to do a higher gravity batch and then water back to hit volume and then use these 2 kegs as kind of a perpetual blend/solera project. Time will tell.

OEC makes some cool stuff. Don't get much of it out here, though.

 

[AltBrau]

+1 on the welcome

You mean 1970’s funky, not 2025 funky, right? I love farmhouse style ales, and try to wedge at least one per year in.

Looking forward to hearing more on your efforts.

 

[Sandy Feet]

I have done a few Saisons, but nothing crazy. Shit, I'll listen to improve. I like making the cleaner Saisons with the French yeast. We do have a contributor that makes a Lemon Saison, and I kind of played a little with that once. It turned out good. I had a Blueberry that wasn't bad, but that is a pain in the ass to put in primary at this level with BIAB. I ended up making a puree, which was a royal PITA.

 

[Bigbre04]

welcome welcome! I have some experience from a past life brewing saisons and kettle sours on a large scale. I am running a small brewpub at this point. Personally i am gun shy of saisons because of diasaticus. I have experience with barrels and that side of things as well. Happy to help where i can!

 

[AltBrau]

welcome welcome! I have some experience from a past life brewing saisons and kettle sours on a large scale. I am running a small brewpub at this point. Personally i am gun shy of saisons because of diasaticus. I have experience with barrels and that side of things as well. Happy to help where i can!

Hello! Fingers crossed I will be able to find a spot to house barrels again someday soon.

What kind of beers do you enjoy making at your brewpub?

I think there are decent non-diastaticus yeast strains available these days to make saison... as long as they attenuate fairly high.

"Yvan De Baets, cofounder and head brewer at the Brasserie de la Senne in Brussels, has been researching (and brewing) saison for more than two decades. He has argued that “yeast is the biggest myth about saison.” We asked him to elaborate."

- Yvan De Baets Explains Saison’s Greatest Myth: the Yeast​

 

[Bigbre04]

Hello! Fingers crossed I will be able to find a spot to house barrels again someday soon.

What kind of beers do you enjoy making at your brewpub?

I think there are decent non-diastaticus yeast strains available these days to make saison... as long as they attenuate fairly high.

"Yvan De Baets, cofounder and head brewer at the Brasserie de la Senne in Brussels, has been researching (and brewing) saison for more than two decades. He has argued that “yeast is the biggest myth about saison.” We asked him to elaborate."

- Yvan De Baets Explains Saison’s Greatest Myth: the Yeast​

im SMALL. 2bbl out of a 2hl braumiester system. filling 3.5bbl tanks(can squeeze 4 full bbls into them).

i brew everything(but saisons lol) i have a session juicy ipa, black lager, cran/tangerine sour, WC IPA, golden lager, Belgian tripel(9.2% aged for 7 months), clean light kolsch, and a chocolate raspberry stout(6.7%) on right now. brewing a ~7% juicy ipa tomorrow to follow the WC. Maybe a Rye Pale ale on friday to follow the tripel or whatever kicks next.

I like to drink crispy lagers, but i am starting down a clean crisp kolsch journey. I really love my black lager(schwartzbeir) that is on its last keg, got a lovely amber ale following it. I make most styles, but a lot of golden lager and IPAs(gotta pay the bills). I am gonna brew a belgian Dubbel(probably around 8%) early in the new year to age for a few months.

big love for Voss for hazy/juicy ipas.

I use lallemand sour pitch for my sours, it is pretty awesome and can get VERY sour, while still being safe to toss into my fermenters.

 

[Sandy Feet]

Something I never used to appreciate, but I do very much now:
A nice, simple Kolsch, made with a Kolsch yeast, and that was able to sit for a couple of weeks to get rid of the Sulphur.

 

[Brew Cat]

Open primary fermentation is always nice, especially for saisoin strains that stall. I used to have 20 barrels at a friends place but that ended back in 2022. Been looking for a place to house barrels.

I have 2 kegs with built in PRVs and removable spears on 4" TCs. I recently bought some reducer plates to bring the opening from 4" down to 1.5" so I could use a regular bung and airlock and ferment in them. I'm thinking about either double batching into them or supplementing my BIAB setup with some DME to do a higher gravity batch and then water back to hit volume and then use these 2 kegs as kind of a perpetual blend/solera project. Time will tell.

OEC makes some cool stuff. Don't get much of it out here, though.

pull the spear and replace with a tri clamp then you can serve or ferment with a spunding valve

 

[Brew Cat]

 

[Dave Y]

Maybe a Rye Pale ale on friday to follow the tripel or whatever kicks next.

Now we're talking.

 

[Brew Cat]

haven't changed out the spear in my zoo keg but now maybe I will use that for some Brett inspired beer

 

[Brew Cat]

im SMALL. 2bbl out of a 2hl braumiester system. filling 3.5bbl tanks(can squeeze 4 full bbls into them).

i brew everything(but saisons lol) i have a session juicy ipa, black lager, cran/tangerine sour, WC IPA, golden lager, Belgian tripel(9.2% aged for 7 months), clean light kolsch, and a chocolate raspberry stout(6.7%) on right now. brewing a ~7% juicy ipa tomorrow to follow the WC. Maybe a Rye Pale ale on friday to follow the tripel or whatever kicks next.

I like to drink crispy lagers, but i am starting down a clean crisp kolsch journey. I really love my black lager(schwartzbeir) that is on its last keg, got a lovely amber ale following it. I make most styles, but a lot of golden lager and IPAs(gotta pay the bills). I am gonna brew a belgian Dubbel(probably around 8%) early in the new year to age for a few months.

big love for Voss for hazy/juicy ipas.

I use lallemand sour pitch for my sours, it is pretty awesome and can get VERY sour, while still being safe to toss into my fermenters.

never used the sour pitch, always felt like it was cheating. I would make the wort and add goodbelly sit it on my furnace hold the temperature then monitor with my taste buds and ph meter. Then boil it when I liked the taste.

 

[Brew Cat]

Open primary fermentation is always nice, especially for saisoin strains that stall. I used to have 20 barrels at a friends place but that ended back in 2022. Been looking for a place to house barrels.

I have 2 kegs with built in PRVs and removable spears on 4" TCs. I recently bought some reducer plates to bring the opening from 4" down to 1.5" so I could use a regular bung and airlock and ferment in them. I'm thinking about either double batching into them or supplementing my BIAB setup with some DME to do a higher gravity batch and then water back to hit volume and then use these 2 kegs as kind of a perpetual blend/solera project. Time will tell.

OEC makes some cool stuff. Don't get much of it out here, though.

way back in 2022