Unveiled at the Craft Brewers Conference in Washington, D.C. this past April, SafAle BE-134 by Fermentis is already making waves.
Recommended for Belgian Saison-style beer and characterized by a particularly high attenuation; this new yeast lens fruity aromas with a spicy character reminiscient of clove. This strain will help develop a highly refreshing and drinkable beer. Thanks to its superb fermentation capabilities and high diacetyl reduction, we like to call this a Super Saison Yeast!
SafAle BE-134 remains in suspension during fermentation and presents a low sedimentation rate (even lower than SafAle US-05).
This new strain delivers on both fronts making a beer that is thirst-quenchingly dry, with fruity esters and a spicy bite. It makes brewing this much-loved style that bit easier while maintaining the complex Saison-ness that demands another sip.
This new product is available in different package sizes: 500g and 11.5g.
One of the first breweries in North America who tested the SafAle BE-134, Biloba Brewing Company, already launched its Saison beer. Kristen Giljohann, the head brewer, has accepted to share her testimony about it:
“Having brewed many Saison style beers over the years using the Dupont strain I decided to challenge this strain as much as possible. The Dupont strain is known to stop fermentation at about 8 Plato if the starting wort has too many simple sugars available. In effect, the strain loses its ability to break down complex sugars and can take up to 30 days or more to finally reach terminal gravity. To get around this you either have to hold back simple sugars or add a second strain to help finish the beer off. You also need to ferment at elevated temperatures up to 90 F!
We formulated a wort with base malt, wheat, corn flakes and cane sugar. The cane sugar and corn flakes were added to challenge the yeast to see if we could get it to perform like the Dupont strain and stop fermenting, but it blew right through it. For hops, we exclusively used Mandarina Bavaria as well as adding orange peel as a spice. The performance of this strain was outstanding as we took a 14 plato beer, with simple sugars added, down to 1 plato in 96 hours. We were advised that this strain would produce the nice peppery notes, flavors typical of the Saisons we are accustomed to and be highly attenuative.
The beer has been put on tap and our customers have been giving us accolades for producing such a nice summer Mandarina Saison! We intend to brew with this strain as our house strain going forward since we always keep 2 or more Saisons on the rotation.”
Shannon Carter, founder of the Shannon Brewing Company also made a claim about the new SafAle BE-134: “Shannon Brewing Company put BE-134 through a high gravity rigor test. We brewed a Super Saison (Imperial Saison) with an original gravity of 18.7 and an FG of 1.2, giving the beer an ABV of 9.5%. We had brewed this beer before using wet yeast. We believe BE-134 provided a dryer finish and a cleaner aroma than the wet yeast. The finished beer was not filtered not pasteurized, however, it was run through a centrifuge and fined. It was our intention to have a crystal clear imperial Saison and that is exactly what we got. The flavor profile is spot on, nice citrus notes and a solid Belgian style aroma. We love this beer and will use BE-134 again.”
Steve Porcari from Four Corners Brewing Co. has also accepted to share his experience with the new strain: “We recently use the BE-134 strain for our Saison, El Super Bee, at Four Corners Brewing. The quality of the finished product exceeded our expectations. The flavor profile was everything you want in this style including clove, banana and hints of bubble gum. Until now, El Super Bee, was the only beer in our lineup that did not use a Fermentis yeast. The quality, ease of use and cost savings are the reason we use only Fermentis and will continue to do so.”
SafAle BE-134 will be available mid to late August 2017. Inquire with your sales manager or customer service representative. Find them here.