Wild Mind Saison Terrior

Saisons and farmhouse ales have always been a staple at Wild Mind. Light, crisp, and crushable, these beers are some of the most basic, and yet equally complex, wild beers we can offer.

To draw out more of the saison’s fruit notes and develop an even greater depth of flavor, we’ve begun open-fermenting our saisons in shallow, square tanks. These tanks are left open in our wood cellar during fermentation to add additional microflora and bacteria. The shallow tanks will provide more air-to-wort surface area while also encouraging a more vigorous fermentation for our Belgian saison yeast.

Leaving the tank open during fermentation creates an environment that, coupled with the increased surface area, results in less hydrostatic pressure on the yeast. This in turn encourages the yeast to reproduce more rapidly and create more esters, drawing out more of the yeast’s fruit notes. The open tank also allows undesirable byproducts of fermentation, such was sulfur compounds, to more readily off-gas along with the CO2 produced.

The yeast culture will continue to collect microflora and bacteria from our wood cellar, resulting in each batch having its own unique array of flavors. Developing our house yeast culture will also provide each beer with an underlying terroir for each saison that will be entirely Wild Mind.