My First Grisette - For Your Review

Hey everyone. Had a great Grisette this past September that has stuck in my mind as being Saison-like, but even drier and slightly more spicy than a 3711. Researching this lost but now re-emerging style, there doesn't seem to be a lot of info out there other than the general history behind "grey", those attempting to add spiciness to the grain bill, and almost taking a nod from a Witte grain bill - with a quarter to half of the bill being wheat for a crisp bite, slight haze and good head retention.

Here is my session Grisette, aka "Ocean Front Grisette" - appropriate summer-themed brew, named by the wife. Let me know what you think. Thanks in advance!

Estimated OG: 1.042 / Estimated FG: 1.000
ABV: 4.45% / IBU: 26.40 / SRM: 3.35
Boil Size: 7.5 gal / Batch Size: 5.5 gal / Boil Time: 75 min
Yeast: Wyeast 3711 French Saison or Belle - not sure yet - thoughts?

Fermentables:
5.2 lbs Castle Pils/2-row - 58.1%
1.5 lbs White Wheat - 16.8%
1.25 lbs Unmalted Wheat - 14.0%
0.5 lbs Rye - 5.6%
0.5 lbs Flaked Oats - 5.6%

Mash Steps
125F 25 min rest
150F 75 min mash
170F Fly Sparge, followed by batch sparge

Hops
1 oz Citra (12 aa) - 10 min, 17.82 IBUs
1 oz NZ Wakatu (8 aa) - 6.8 min, 8.58 IBUs

Ferment 2 weeks
prime with 4 oz cane, 1 oz turbinado solution in bucket
Bottle for 4 weeks

20+ views and no thoughts?

40 views and no constructive criticism? :rockin:

Did you brew this? Just had a grisette at a brewery here in Denver. They said they used 565 as the yeast, and they also used lacto for some sourness. It was excellent. I'll be making one once it warms up some. How'd it turn out?

tgmartin000 said:

Did you brew this? Just had a grisette at a brewery here in Denver. They said they used 565 as the yeast, and they also used lacto for some sourness. It was excellent. I'll be making one once it warms up some. How'd it turn out?

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I tend to stay away from the sour stuff, however - adding 3% of acidulated malt will give it a nice tang and I have done so in my favorite saison. Not sure how that would play with my dry, bitey, citrus thing here.

I did and I actually changed the process up slightly
First - I did the NZ Wakatu at 14 minutes and the Citra at 5 minutes. Absolutely no bittering hops were required - I decided I wanted a good amount of lime citrus in the nose and taste and that's exactly what I got, mixed in with the touch of rye spice, great wheat and high carbonic bite. If you ever want something to clean your palette - this will do it IMO. Perfect in the warmer months with grilled meats - especially grilled shrimp, chicken and steaks.

Also, I had used the zest of 2 limes, pitched into carboy right before I pitched the yeast, and then stirred - ended up fermenting for 24 days, bottled for 4 weeks. If I had to do it again, I would only do 1 lime zest or omit altogether. I was making it for my mother's 60th to take to the beach and there were lots of women there. So, I figured how do I get that lime flavor without having to stick a damn lime right into the beer. It was definitely there, but it is more of a man's summertime beer while the ladies still love it too.

The wheat and rye is what makes it and the head and bite it creates is perfect with the dryness and pepperyness of the 3711. Make no mistake - there is only 26 ibus, but what you have to consider for this is the BU/GU ratio for a 4.4 whatever% abv brew - this is slightly bitter beer, but it works great with the citrus/crisp theme. Saisons are usually .49, whereas this is in the .6 to .64 range and I did that on purpose. By no means is this IPA bitter, and it would be a great segway into more bitter brews.

If you brewed something similar - I would be interested to hear what your mash and wort looked like. Grisettes are known as little Greys and the mash and worth were actually grey. I think that is because I was using nothing but light malts/wheat and the darkness of the rye mixed with that. I was worried at first about having literally a Grey colored beer as odd as that sounds, but it settles together fine and is very, very beautiful. Mmm, gettin thirsty for another one.

I know this is a few months old, but I just brewed a recipe similar to this today. It's in my ferm. chamber right now. My question for you is - at what temperature did you let this ferment? I have it at 68F right now but was thinking of stepping it up one degree every day for two weeks OR just keeping it at 68F until fermentation is done.

Thoughts?

tgmartin000 said:

Did you brew this? Just had a grisette at a brewery here in Denver. They said they used 565 as the yeast, and they also used lacto for some sourness. It was excellent. I'll be making one once it warms up some. How'd it turn out?

Click to expand...

sorry been so busy - had twins

I did brew it last summer and it was a big hit. I had actually used some freshly grated zest of 4 limes in the primary per womens' requests on our beach trip - I have to say - between this and the Citra and Wakatu - it was def. a limey grisette - what was great though:

Wheat was nice and fluffy. Rye gave it a fantastic bite along with 3711 to clean off the palate - that mixed really well with the lime theme here.

I was shocked at the balanced bitterness from the late only addition hops - keep in mind this was (I think) a .64 bu/gu - so, not in IPA territory but the slight bitterness played well with the lime, wheat, rye bite - very carbonic too - kind of weird though - it seemed fuller at 4.45% ABV because of these attributes

scottycope said:

I know this is a few months old, but I just brewed a recipe similar to this today. It's in my ferm. chamber right now. My question for you is - at what temperature did you let this ferment? I have it at 68F right now but was thinking of stepping it up one degree every day for two weeks OR just keeping it at 68F until fermentation is done.

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

brewed with 3711
70F First 24 hours
80F with brew belt for 3 days
Additional 10 days in primary at 70F
Bottle condition for 4 weeks.
Here was the revised recipe for this summer - brewing this in 2 weeks
OG: 1.041 Final Gravity: 1.008(more like 1.000) ABV: 4.30% IBU: 26.05 SRM: 3.20

5.69 lb Belg Pils -65.5%
1 lb Belg Unmalted Wheat -11.5%
1 lb American - White Wheat 40 -11.5%
8 oz Rye -5.8%
8 oz Flaked Oats -5.8%

Wakatu - .6oz - 60 min - 18.6 IBU
Wakatu - .4oz - 16 min -6.45 IBU
Citra - 4.oz - 1 min - 1.01 IBU
Citra - .6oz - Flameout

125 F at 30min rest - 3 gal
148 F at 75 min mash - 3 gal
170 F fly sparge, then batch sparge - 1.5 gal

.64 bu/gu - only very slightly less bitter this time
also - only using freshly grated zest of 1 lime in primary instead of 4.

Here was a picture of it from last summer, "Ocean Front Grisette"

Looks tasty!

Working on developing more saison style recipes for the coming summer heat, so this style (and recipe) will be filed away for the dog day brewing season.