Homegrown Green Apples in a Saison?

[Bramstoker17]

I moved into my house last year and this is the first full summer we have been in the house. It turns out that we have an apple tree in the back yard that yielded a pretty nice crop of medium sized green apples. Being a homebrewer, I naturally feel obligated to make these apples into booze!

I've never brewed a Saison, but the ones I have loved that were commercially brewed usually have some sort of light sourness or tartness to them. I'm considering brewing a Saison, and then adding about a pound of these apples per gallon. I've got a Mr Beer fermenter I save for small trial batches, so I'll give this a whirl with a two and a half gallon batch.

I'm considering just quartering the apples and putting them into the Saison after primary fermentation has finished without sanitizing or pasturizing them and seeing what happens from any wild yeast on the apples. Is there any chance that this could produce desirable results?

If this does result in some sort of tasty brew, my other concern is that I don't have a secondary fermenter that can be used in this small of a batch to age it. If it does pick up a bug from the wild yeast on the apples that tastes good, when can I bottle it without worrying about bottle bombs?

 

[Bramstoker17]

If anyone is interested, I just thought I'd update.

I brewed a 2.75 gallon batch of a Brett Saison last night. Here's the recipe:

OG: 1.054

4 lbs Pilsner
.5 lb White Wheat
.5 lb Flaked Oats
.5 lb Munich 10
.25 lb Acidulated Malt

.25 oz Warrior 60 min
.5 oz Cascade 15 min
.5 oz Saaz 15 min
.5 oz Cascade flameout
.5 oz Saaz flameout

Wyeast 3031 Saison Brett


I'll ferment this for a couple weeks, then I plan on adding two pounds of my fresh picked green apples. I hope to get a little of the subtle apple tartness to compliment the funky Brett flavors.

 

[m00ps]

ive never heard of that yeast. Is it a private collection one? Or not commercially available? Youll likely get a mini fermentation from adding the apples

 

[Bramstoker17]

ive never heard of that yeast. Is it a private collection one? Or not commercially available? Youll likely get a mini fermentation from adding the apples

Yea its one of the Private Collection strains, my LHBS carries it. It'll be interesting to see if I went way in over my head with this beer. I've never brewed a Saison, a Brett beer, or with fruit! I've done enough reading that I think I have a grip on what to expect, but this should be interesting! Once I get an idea in my head I have to brew it!

 

[m00ps]

i think youll be alright. Temp control isnt a factor, just let it free rise. Grain bill looks fine for a saison. Mash low for a dry body and the yeast will take care of the rest. With a co-pitched mixed fermentation, you should rach FG within a month Id guess and have a decent amount fo brett character after 2 months or so. Ive never had to go like 6 months like I used to see people doing for their brett beers. Although I always did a decent sized starter of brett instead of adding the tiny amount they give you