Lavender Saison: Universally Popular Panty-Dropper
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One of our most successful beers this year was a Lavender Saison recipe that we brewed twice. We had to brew it twice, because the first batch went so quickly. It was the first keg we've had that went from full at the beginning of a party to kicked before the party was over. Its universal popularity surprised me. Everyone loved it: men, women, people who like beer, people who don't. We served it two ways at our Oktoberfest party: straight up or mixed with lemon sparkling soda as part of a lavender-lemon shandy/radler. This is a beer we even received a thank you note about after the party! I don't think I've ever brewed a more popular beer.
Before we brewed this beer, Evan and I had a long debate about how to flavor the beer with lavender. We were torn between using tinctures or adding the lavender to the boil or a mix of both. We were concerned about getting too much lavender flavor and having the beer taste soapy. It seemed like it was going to be a hit or miss beer experiment, and we would be lucky if the end result was remotely appetizing. The original plan was to use lavender we grew ourselves, but our container garden was not productive enough for that, so we instead bought culinary french lavender off of amazon. I think this was the right choice. The french lavender was far more fragrant than the lavender in our garden.
Culinary French Lavender
We changed the recipes slightly between the first and second brews. The first brew had more lavender added to the boil, while the second one had half the amount of lavender, but added lemon zest to the boil. This resulted in a more subdued beer. Still delicious, but not as good for shandies as the lavender flavor got lost in all the lemon. I preferred the original recipe, which you can see below as Lavender Saison.
Lavender Saison
9 lbs Pilsner
3 lbs Wheat
1 oz Cascade @ 60 min
.5 oz Hersbrucker @ 30 min
1 oz Willamette @ 5 min
1/2oz of lavender at end of boil
Mash in @ 120, 20 min protein rest
150 for 60 min mash out
Boil for 60
OG: 1.056
FG: 1.009
Calculated ABV: 6.17%
Lavender Saison Ingredients
Lemon Lavender Saison
9 lbs Pilsner
3 lbs Wheat
1 oz Styrian Goldings @ 60 min
.5 oz Hersbrucker @ 30 min
1 oz Willamette @ 5 min
.25 oz lavender and zest of 2 lemons at flame out
Mash in @ 120, 20 min protein rest
150 for 60 min mash out
Boil for 60
OG: 1.064
FG: 1.009
Calculated ABV: 7.2%
All in all, our experience brewing with lavender was great. I'm excited to experiment with more floral flavors and herbs in future beers. High on my list of flavors to experiment with is violet. During our recent trip to Austin, Texas, I had some great cocktails utilizing violet liquors and fell in love with the flavor. Look for more fun floral recipes in 2016!
