Juniper Saison (September 2021)

About This Beer

A re-brew of Owen’s January 2021 Juniper Saison — a Saison with an experimental post-fermentation juniper tea addition. Notebook batch 16, brewed 26 September 2021. Four brews before his transition to original recipe design at batch 20 (Hazy IPA I).

Grain Bill

5.3 kg, clean Saison structure:

• 4.5 kg Gladfield Pilsner Malt (base)
• 0.6 kg Gladfield Wheat Malt (body, head retention)
• 0.2 kg Gladfield Supernova Malt (subtle malt depth)

Simple and intentional — the goal is to let the yeast and the juniper carry the character. No crystal, no specialty malts beyond the small Supernova contribution.

Hop Schedule

Restrained two-hop schedule, 48 g total:

• 14 g Pacific Jade at 60 min — bittering
• 34 g Motueka at flameout — flavour and aroma

Motueka at flameout brings a lifted citrus and lime character that complements the Saison ester profile without overpowering it. Pacific Jade is doing IBU duty only.

Fermentation

1 packet of Mangrove Jacks M29 French Saison pitched at 26 °C — a deliberately warm pitch to encourage the spicy, fruity ester development M29 is known for. At cooler temperatures M29 stays subdued; at 26 °C it leans into character.

Water treatment split across mash and sparge: 4 g calcium chloride per side, 2.2 g calcium sulphate mash + 2.1 g sparge, 0.8 g magnesium sulphate in the mash only. A balanced calcium profile suited to a continental pale malt-driven beer.

The Juniper Tea Addition

Six days into fermentation (2 October, day 6 from pitch), Owen took 30 g of juniper berries, ran them through a coffee grinder, and steeped the ground material in 1.5 cups of boiling water to extract as a tea. That tea was then added to the fermenter.

The tasting verdict: too subtle.

Three things likely contributed to the under-extraction:

1. Dose was modest — 30 g into ~24 L of beer is at the very low end for juniper character to read clearly. Traditional Sahti and juniper-forward styles use 100–300 g per 20 L.
2. Steep volume was small — 1.5 cups (~350 mL) of hot water is not a lot of liquid to extract from 30 g of berry material; much of the volatile aromatic likely stayed in the grounds.
3. Hot-water steep loses aromatic — juniper’s gin-like character is largely in volatile terpenes (pinene, myrcene, limonene). Boiling water extracts them and then releases them as vapour. A cold steep, or adding bruised berries directly to the fermenter, would retain more aroma.

For a follow-up: scale berries up to 60–100 g at minimum, consider a cold steep, or add bruised berries directly to the fermenter post-primary.

Numbers

OG fell 2 points short — likely the pre-boil under-shoot plus extra boil-off compensation. FG over-shot by 2 points; M29 at 26 °C normally attenuates harder. ABV finished at 5.5 % vs 6.0 % target.

Tasting

• Nice flavour
• Belgian style (M29 doing its job at 26 °C)
• Juniper tea too subtle

Lineage

Part of Owen’s early saison work. Sits in the saison family that runs through Owen’s later Summer Haze series (V2 in October 2021, V3 in September 2022) and the Sour Citra Saison series. M29 French Saison reappears in the 2022 Hazy IPA III as the high-attenuation yeast choice — a different role for the same strain.