Spring Saison - 2026 edition

If you look at my posts over the past few years you will see that I always brew a saison in the spring but tweak the recipe, hop additions, or other variables each time. This year I decided to start experimenting with Abstrax hops as a dry-hopping substitute.

The recipe was pretty similar to last year https://share.brewfather.app/q9yP85RoYvp530. A simple malt bill of pilsner with small additions of light crystal, white wheat, and a touch of rye. Hopped on the hot side with sorachi ace and mosaic and then - new for this year - added 0.5ml of Nectaron Abstrax at primary fermentation. The other change this year was the yeast. This is the first time I used Fermentis BE-134, which is described by the manufacturer as "ideal for dry and spicy Belgian-style beers like Saisons." Sounds perfect to me!

The fermentation on this one was very aggressive. I fermented at room temp (around 70 - 72F) and it was a good thing the fermentation vessel (keg) was sitting in a bathroom shower. It turns out that I didn't initially hook up my blowoff tube properly so when, after the first couple of days, I didn't see any bubbling, I decided to re-connect the tube. This immediately resulted in a massive blowoff of a spray in the shower due to the sudden release of pressure! I probably lost a quarter of the volume but otherwise everything seemed ok and after a few more days it was done.

So, how did it turn out? I think the use of the sorachi ace and mosaic plus the Nectaron Abstrax really gave this beer some nice layering of hops. That said, the sorachi ace was still the dominant flavor (ok by me!) with big, bold, intense lemongrass and a bit of dill. Next time I might add a higher dose of the Abstrax to see if I could get more Nectaron. This yeast really dried out the beer which is what I was looking for in this style. It added some really nice peppery notes as well that I think complemented the sorachi ace very well. I'm looking forward to more experimentation with these new advanced hop products this year!

Cheers to Spring!