25B Saison
Summer Haze IV
Grain bill
| Gladfield Pilsner Malt | 3 kg | 49.2% |
| Gladfield Wheat Malt | 2 kg | 32.8% |
| Gladfield Vienna Malt | 0.6 kg | 9.8% |
| Gladfield Light Crystal Malt | 0.5 kg | 8.2% |
Adjuncts
| Whirlfloc | half tablet @ 15 min |
| Yeast nutrient | half tsp @ 15 min |
| Ground ginger | 20 g @ 15 min |
| Honey | 300 g @ 15 min |
Hop schedule
| Hop | 60 min | 15 min | WP | DH#1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citra | 20g | · | 30g | 50g |
| Cascade | · | 20g | 30g | · |
Yeast
| SafAle BE-134 Belgian Saison | 1 packet |
Water additions
| Calcium Sulphate | 1 tsp in mash |
| Calcium Carbonate | half tsp in mash |
Tasting notes
About This Beer
Fourth Summer Haze. The character pivot of the series — first Citra in the line, hop bill tripled, yeast switched, honey reduced, ginger doubled, fermented warmer. The notebook page captures a direct V3-vs-V4 tasting comparison that makes the recipe trade-offs visible.
Note: Brew date 14 February 2023 is a placeholder — not explicitly recorded on the notebook page. Falls between batch 32 (17 January 2023) and the next captured batch in March 2023.
What Changed vs V3
| Summer Haze V3 (Sep 2022) | Summer Haze IV (Feb 2023) | |
|---|---|---|
| Grain total | 5.95 kg | 6.10 kg |
| Light Crystal | 0.35 kg | 0.50 kg |
| Hops | Cascade only, 50 g | Cascade + Citra, 150 g |
| Bittering | Cascade 20 g @ 60 min | Citra 20 g @ 60 min |
| Whirlpool | — | 60 g (Cascade + Citra) |
| Dry hop | Cascade 15 g, day 5 | Citra 50 g, day 5 |
| Yeast | Lallemand Belle Saison | SafAle BE-134 |
| Ferment temp | 20 °C | 23 °C |
| Honey | 500 g | 300 g |
| Ginger | 10 g | 20 g |
Grain Bill
6.1 kg total, same Pilsner / Wheat / Vienna / Light Crystal structure as V3, with Light Crystal bumped:
- 3.0 kg Gladfield Pilsner Malt
- 2.0 kg Gladfield Wheat Malt
- 0.6 kg Gladfield Vienna Malt
- 0.5 kg Gladfield Light Crystal (was 0.35 kg in V3)
Hop Schedule — 150 g, Citra Introduced
| Hop | 60 min | 15 min | Whirlpool 20 min | Dry hop day 5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citra | 20 | — | 30 | 50 | 100 |
| Cascade | — | 20 | 30 | — | 50 |
First Citra in the Summer Haze line. First dry hop in the line. The Citra:Cascade ratio of 2:1 puts Citra in the dominant role.
Fermentation
1 packet of SafAle BE-134 pitched at 23 °C — mid-range of the strain’s recommended 18–28 °C window. V3 fermented at 20 °C with Belle Saison; V4 deliberately warmer.
Total fermentation 13 days. Dry hop on day 5 from pitch: 50 g Citra — the first dry hop in the series.
BE-134 attenuated hard — FG hit 1.004 vs 1.008 target, 92.3 % apparent attenuation. Both BE-134 and Belle Saison are diastaticus strains so attenuation isn’t the differentiator. Ester profile and phenolic character are where they differ — confirmed in the tasting note.
OG fell 6 points short (1.052 vs 1.058 target).
Packaging
130 g dextrose for bottle conditioning at 23.5 L = ~5.5 g/L (~4.7 g/L sucrose-equivalent).
SH3 vs SH4 Tasting Comparison
Direct head-to-head on the notebook page:
- V3 has more fizz and foam — better head retention
- V4 hop flavour comes through — the Citra + tripled hop bill delivers as intended
- V3 is smoother, more honey character — V3 reads as significantly more honey-forward despite only 200 g more honey
- V3 different odour — “body odour” / funky — Belle Saison phenolics
- V4 is estery — BE-134 yeast expression
- V4 sits between honey and hop flavour — the recipe rebalance means neither character fully dominates
A useful piece of evidence: stripping honey + bumping hops + switching yeast moves the beer from “honey-forward saison” to “hop-forward saison”. V5 later lands somewhere in between.
Numbers
| Stage | Target | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| Mash + sparge | 35 L | 35 L |
| Pre-boil | 28 L | 29 L |
| Add | 0 | 0 |
| Post-boil | 26.5 L | 27 L |
| Into fermenter | 24 L | 24.5 L |
| Bottle | 22 L | 23.5 L |
| Target | Actual | |
|---|---|---|
| OG | 1.058 | 1.052 |
| FG | 1.008 | 1.004 |
| ABV | 6.56 % | 6.3 % |
Ran 1.5 L over the bottling target — wheat-heavy grain bill plus 90-min mash extracts more efficiently than the volume plan accounted for.
Lineage
- (Summer Haze V1 — uncaptured)
- Summer Haze V2 (October 2021) — five-botanical Kölsch-style, Belle Saison
- Summer Haze V3 (September 2022) — simplified to ginger + honey + Cascade, Belle Saison
- This brew — Summer Haze IV (February 2023) — Citra introduced, hop bill tripled, BE-134 yeast, less honey, more ginger
- Summer Haze V (November 2023) — Citra + Taiheke, BE-134 retained