Belgian Saison Beer - Extract Beer Brewing Kit (5 Gallons)

I have not tasted the final product yet, but I was quite disappointed to see that the hops ibu was far too low to get to the listed bitterness level. It would be good to review the hops stats prior to shipping the kit

As noted in other reviews this brew turns out a dark amber color. In addition to the kit ingredients I added approximately 1-2 pounds of local and California wildflower honey 15-20 minutes before flameout, some red wheat malt, a touch of coriander, and swapped 1 oz. Saaz hops out with Cascade. I used 1 vial of White Labs Belgian Saison 565 and added about 4-5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient. No additional yeast or starter was added. Original gravity - 1.083

I fermented in the middle of a very hot east Tennessee summer, started at around 73-74 degrees and after 3 days raised 1-2 degrees per day until I hit 83 degrees. These temperatures fluctuated somewhat due to the extreme heat during the day, the relatively cool nights, and a moody air-conditioner unit. I then transferred to a glass carboy where it sat for 70 days at fluctuating 82-86 degrees on a (relatively) cool basement floor. My final gravity was 1.012, around 9.3%! The airlock bubbled continuously up until bottling even though fermentation was >95% done after 4 weeks.
Bottled approx. 3 months after brewday, priming softly with carbonation drops. 3 weeks later and carbonation is almost complete (going to give it another week at room temp before I put this batch in the fridge.)
Taste is boozy, dark, bready with a light corn aftertaste, some fruit and yeast character. I expect this flavor profile to change greatly as this beer ages.
This was a wonderful beer to brew and although I had to baby it for months due to the shifting temperatures it was definitely worth it. Highly recommended.

I used this exact kit but hit it with another vile of yeast at 1.5 weeks like another review Herr said. It came out pretty good. Almost 10% abv. Did have a lot of yeast in the bottles though. I even racked this for a week and still had a lot. Pretty good though.

This beer turned out memorable for me. Used WYeast 3724. Buyer beware that the picture up here is not accurate. It comes with Munich extract, therefore this is a dark saison. Morebeer, when you gonna change that picture?!

This beer turned out to be a Belgian Strong Dark Ale for me. The recipe's 11-lbs is a lot of malt - for reference, the Barleywine recipe has only 12-lb, versus 6-lb for Hefeweizen.

I deviated from the recipe in the following ways: They didn't have 9lb bags of liquid Munich Extract malt in the store, so I got an 8-lb bag of Munich and a 1-lb bag of Bavarian Wheat DME, along with the plain 2-lb DME in the recipe. Figured a touch of wheat isn't unwelcome in a Saison, and this made up the necessary difference. I also didn't have the heating equipment to bring this baby up to 85-deg, so it stayed in the high 70s. I used WLP565 Belgian Saison yeast. To counter the reputed possibility of this yeast to stall out, I pitched a second vial after 1.5wks of primary fermentation - didn't notice an increase in activity, so I let the beer sit in the fermenter for 28 days total.

Ended up with a tasty 15.4% (!) dark strong slightly-sweet ale which matched all BJCP characteristics of a Belgian Strong Dark Ale. So I guess that's what it is now. I would have been a bit intimidated by trying a BSDA, so I'm kind of happy with this unexpected outcome. Somehow my OG was way high (1.130) and my FG was pretty low (1.012) so it ended up pretty boozy, which as it turns out is great. But Saison it ain't. It's probably my technique to blame somehow though, because I keep getting high ABVs on my MB brews.

I'm proud of the end result though, and am now just claiming that it's a BSDA to my brewing buddies, who so far have loved it lol.

Taste pretty much right on but color will come out much darker than the pic but extract beers normally do in my experience. Considering the very low amount of hops used in this recipe the yeast is super important in making or breaking the profile for this one. Over all this came out to be a pretty good bear I'll probably be brewing this one again.

Brewed this 8 days ago using (5) gallons Crystal Geyser Spring Water, 1 # Belgian Candi Dark Rock Sugar, White Labs AHS Classic Saison Blend WLP560 liquid yeast and Mangrove Jack's M27 Belgian Ale dry yeast pitched at 78F and cooled to 75F within 12 hours. Also added AHS Brewvint Yeast Fuel. Blowoff hose started in 3 hours and chugged violently for 6 days. Original gravity was 1.088. Hydrometer reading yesterday showed a current 1.015 for a whopping 9.563% ABV. Got a buzz just from downing the hydrometer sample. Will bottle in another week into 1 liter EZ Cap flip tops with organic cane suger for bottle conditioning. It's a dark amber wife said tastes and hits like a Trappist. Not only will I brew this one again (this batch was my 12th 5 gallon), it will be in the next two batches I brew this summer.

For those curious my hop schedule was : (2) oz. Saaz @ 60m, .5 oz. Saaz @ 15m, .5 oz. Saaz @ 5m, .5 oz. Saaz @ 2m, (1) oz. Fuggle & .5 oz. Stryian Goldings at 0.

The kit is ridiculously simple and fun to brew for those whom have done a batch or two already. My next batch will use an entire pound of Ace Sorachi hops (Japan) from Oregon, 1 # Belgian Clear Candi Rocks, Mangrove Jack M27 again and Redstar Premier Cuvee Champagne dry yeast to somewhat replicate Brooklyn Brewery's Sorachi Ace (yet beat it with ABV as proven can be done with this kit). Well worth the $45 with free shipping over $59. One of the funnest and most successful kits I have ever done out of the last dozen.

The Morebeer tart cherries & candy syrup works very well with this brew