The origin of this project began with an idea I'd had for some time, to create a companion beer to our French-style Biere de Garde, Bridal Ale. The opportunity arose as we were planning a Brewer's Dinner here at the Pelican Pub & Brewery, and we decided to put on a Belgian-themed event. 
This was to be quite a challenge, since up to that point, I had never produced beers in the Belgian style before, and we were planning to build an entire five-course Brewer's Dinner around some Belgian style beers that had never been brewed. I at least had some familiarity with the Saison beer style, and some ideas about what kind of yeast I'd like to use. So I began designing a Saison, which eventually became Saison du Pelican.
Unable to bear the thought of brewing one beer with a Belgian type yeast and then abandoning it, I started thinking of a second beer that we could brew with the repitched yeast, which over time led to Grand Cru de Pelican.
For our first foray into Belgian style beers I selected the Wyeast strain 3463 "Forbidden Fruit." Years earlier, I had attended a lecture given by Dave Logsdon at the 2003 Craft Brewers Conference where he compared parallel fermentations of a wheat beer wort with different yeast strains. I was impressed with the flavors and aromas that 3463 created in the finished beer, and kept it in the back of my mind to try this yeast if I ever decided to brew a Belgian style beer. So 3463 yeast it was!
Both Saison du Pelican and Grand Cru de Pelican came out very nicely. Managing a new yeast strain was a bit tricky at times, but I'll post more on that later. For now I just want to give a little bit of overview about Belgian style beers here at the Pelican Pub & Brewery.
So anyhow, we have produced two Belgian style beers and they came out well, but I was hoping for a bit more phenol, sourness and overall complexity in the Saison. Not to take anything away from the Saison du Pelican, but when we had our in-house blind sensory panel, Saison du Pelican showed well overall but did not have as much character as one of the primary inspirations for our Saison, La Moneuse from the Brasserie de Blaugies. La Moneuse had a fantastic phenolic, tart, fruity complexity that was both refreshing and engaging. Interestingly, the Grand Cru de Pelican, fermented with the same yeast as the Saison du Pelican, developed quite a bit more phenolic character and sourness. I attribute this to several factors. First, there were more flavor precursors available in the stronger, more complex Grand Cru wort. Secondly, the Grand Cru used second generation yeast that was better acclimatized to our brewery, and finally, the Grand Cru was a very strong wort that certainly caused some stress to the yeast, which is another likely source for phenolic and acidic flavors from the yeast.
So the question came up for us here at the Pelican Pub & Brewery about trying to get some yeast from Brasserie de Blaugies for our upcoming Summer seasonal beer, Heiferweizen. In years past, Heiferweizen has been an Americanized version of a Belgian-style Witbier (fermented with our house ale yeast). After our successful introduction of two Belgian-style beers this winter, the idea was to use Belgian yeast for the Heiferweizen and make it a true Belgian-style Witbier. After our experience brewing with the 3463 yeast, we were excited to try the 3726 "Farmhouse" yeast in our Heiferweizen. This limited-availability yeast is actually the yeast from Brasserie de Blaugies, so I have high hopes for what this yeast will do for our Heiferweizen.
What I hope for is to get a nicely balanced phenolic, tart and fruity complexity in the Heiferweizen that has never been there before. Because Heiferweizen isn't a very strong beer, I think that the 3726 will give more of these flavor elements than the 3463 did for our Saison. Of course, as the Saison ages, it may well develop some more phenol and tartness. But the Heiferweizen is not designed for long maturation or aging, so we want to get these flavors from the initial fermentation and maturation.
In my next posting I hope to cover some observations about our fermentations and overall yeast performance with the 3463 "Forbidden Fruit" yeast, and give a few details about plans for the Heiferweizen.
Brews To You!
Darron
This was to be quite a challenge, since up to that point, I had never produced beers in the Belgian style before, and we were planning to build an entire five-course Brewer's Dinner around some Belgian style beers that had never been brewed. I at least had some familiarity with the Saison beer style, and some ideas about what kind of yeast I'd like to use. So I began designing a Saison, which eventually became Saison du Pelican.
Unable to bear the thought of brewing one beer with a Belgian type yeast and then abandoning it, I started thinking of a second beer that we could brew with the repitched yeast, which over time led to Grand Cru de Pelican.
For our first foray into Belgian style beers I selected the Wyeast strain 3463 "Forbidden Fruit." Years earlier, I had attended a lecture given by Dave Logsdon at the 2003 Craft Brewers Conference where he compared parallel fermentations of a wheat beer wort with different yeast strains. I was impressed with the flavors and aromas that 3463 created in the finished beer, and kept it in the back of my mind to try this yeast if I ever decided to brew a Belgian style beer. So 3463 yeast it was!
Both Saison du Pelican and Grand Cru de Pelican came out very nicely. Managing a new yeast strain was a bit tricky at times, but I'll post more on that later. For now I just want to give a little bit of overview about Belgian style beers here at the Pelican Pub & Brewery.
So anyhow, we have produced two Belgian style beers and they came out well, but I was hoping for a bit more phenol, sourness and overall complexity in the Saison. Not to take anything away from the Saison du Pelican, but when we had our in-house blind sensory panel, Saison du Pelican showed well overall but did not have as much character as one of the primary inspirations for our Saison, La Moneuse from the Brasserie de Blaugies. La Moneuse had a fantastic phenolic, tart, fruity complexity that was both refreshing and engaging. Interestingly, the Grand Cru de Pelican, fermented with the same yeast as the Saison du Pelican, developed quite a bit more phenolic character and sourness. I attribute this to several factors. First, there were more flavor precursors available in the stronger, more complex Grand Cru wort. Secondly, the Grand Cru used second generation yeast that was better acclimatized to our brewery, and finally, the Grand Cru was a very strong wort that certainly caused some stress to the yeast, which is another likely source for phenolic and acidic flavors from the yeast.
So the question came up for us here at the Pelican Pub & Brewery about trying to get some yeast from Brasserie de Blaugies for our upcoming Summer seasonal beer, Heiferweizen. In years past, Heiferweizen has been an Americanized version of a Belgian-style Witbier (fermented with our house ale yeast). After our successful introduction of two Belgian-style beers this winter, the idea was to use Belgian yeast for the Heiferweizen and make it a true Belgian-style Witbier. After our experience brewing with the 3463 yeast, we were excited to try the 3726 "Farmhouse" yeast in our Heiferweizen. This limited-availability yeast is actually the yeast from Brasserie de Blaugies, so I have high hopes for what this yeast will do for our Heiferweizen.
What I hope for is to get a nicely balanced phenolic, tart and fruity complexity in the Heiferweizen that has never been there before. Because Heiferweizen isn't a very strong beer, I think that the 3726 will give more of these flavor elements than the 3463 did for our Saison. Of course, as the Saison ages, it may well develop some more phenol and tartness. But the Heiferweizen is not designed for long maturation or aging, so we want to get these flavors from the initial fermentation and maturation.
In my next posting I hope to cover some observations about our fermentations and overall yeast performance with the 3463 "Forbidden Fruit" yeast, and give a few details about plans for the Heiferweizen.
Brews To You!
Darron
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