Saison: Keg or bottle age?

[chilitom]

My first attempt at a Saison is going well so far. Successfully managed to get good attenuation with WLP565 (gravity = 1.005 after 7 days in the primary; Jamil's BCS recipe). I'm looking for advice on how to handle the beer from this point forward. I was going to give it another week or so in the primary, allowing the temperature to drop back from the current 80 F. to 68-70 F. room temp. Then maybe keg half of it and bottle the other half. It seems that most folks bottle condition their Belgians, and I am interested in following the aging behavior of the beer. Doing this in the bottle rather than tying up a keg for an extended period makes sense. Bottling is such a pain. Could I force carbonate the whole 5 gallons in a keg, and then bottle as much as I want using a beer gun? Is there any disadvantage of doing this vs. traditional bottle conditioning with priming sugar? This would minimize oxygen exposure and give better control over carbonation level. I'm a little concerned about foaming when bottling a highly carbonated beer, but I've had pretty good luck using the plastic mixing elements in the outlet line of the keg to reduce pressure and minimize foaming.

 

[smizak]

There is something about Saison that lends very well to aging, in spite of being a pale beer. I had a 6 month old Saison score a 44 and take a medal at the NYC Homebrewers Guild competition. If that was my Dortmunder instead, with very similiar grain bills and hopping schedule, it would have been terrible. I've wondered if Saison yeast drops the pH more than other beers and that's the secret. Shaun Hill of Hill Farmstead is very pro-aging of Saisons, and his are some of the best in the world.

No harm in aging half of it, unless you really need the beer now or it's drop dead incredible right out of the fermenter.

 

[youreanimpulse]

Some of the magic in aging saisons seems to be related to bottle conditioning. You could always keg it then bottle from there still or slightly carbed and add carbonation tabs to the bottles.

 

[jimyson]

I am a huge fan of Rockmill here in OH and they bottle condition all of their Saisons. Such fantastic beers they have. I've not done a Saison yet but when I do I will surely bottle condition it.

 

[helibrewer]

You could get the same effect by keg conditioning. Prime the keg, give it a few weeks to fully carb, then bottle off what you like. If you were going to condition with Brett, I would suggest doing everything in the bottle.

 

[ArthurDigbySellers]

I brewed a Rye Saison off a recipe on these forums and bottled 3 bombers and kegged the rest. The bottling/kegging was done in early October. Since I was only bottling those 3 bombers, I just used table sugar to prime each individual bottle and then put them in the closet to forget about. The Saison has been good from the keg, but I could never get the carbonation where I wanted it to be and it just seemed a little off. I cracked open one of the bombers over the holidays and damn if that bottle wasn't WAY better than the kegged version. It was better carbonated and just had an overall better taste than the beer in the keg. I'm really glad I bottled some of it because I think it will only get better with age. I think with my next beer I am going to split the batch 50/50 between bottles and keg.

It was my first time kegging so I have a lot to improve on in terms of getting my carbonation levels correct, line length figured out, etc., but I think I agree that Saisons might actually be better after bottle aging.

 

[itsme_timd]

Some of the magic in aging saisons seems to be related to bottle conditioning. You could always keg it then bottle from there still or slightly carbed and add carbonation tabs to the bottles.

This would be my suggestion as well. I really like the bottle conditioning of saisons/Belgians in general. I've started carbing them in the keg with priming sugar then bottle some to age from there, works out well and gives you less trub in the bottles than full bottle conditioning.

 

[Twinkeelfool]

I think they get better with age in the bottle. Champagne bottles work well, even non brett saisons IMHO