Wicked Weed Brewing Company’s Reticent Saison: Replicator
Dear Replicator, My brewing partner went on a beer trek to Asheville, North Carolina, and brought me back a growler of Reticent Saison from Wicked Weed Brewing. it was great, plus my wife went nuts for it. She wants me to drive up there to bring back more but I told her you could help me figure out how to brew it at home.
Jim Davidson
Atlanta, Georgia
In 1519, King Henry VIII declared, “hops are a wicked and pernicious weed destined to ruin beer.” Obviously, that didn’t thwart their use, but the declaration led to the naming of one of the most successful new brewery start-ups in Southeast-ern U.S., the Wicked Weed Brewing Company. Hops are abundantly used here and reside comfortably alongside Old-World Belgian styles.
Many homebrewers have a burning desire to brew their favorite recipes on a commercial scale. Brothers Walt and Luke Dickinson had those same dreams and found a way to make it a reality.
The older brother, Walt, began homebrewing in 2001. Wanting to share the hobby, he gave Luke a homebrewing kit for his 21st birthday in 2004. Luke took the hobby the furthest after getting a copy of Sam Calagione’s book Extreme Brewing. His wife’s family was from Milton, Delaware, and in order to get his foot in a breweries’ door, Luke volunteered at Dogfish Head Brewery. After working in their merchandise and tour departments, Sam invited Luke to brew his first all-grain batch with him on their 5-barrel pilot system. It was then that Luke realized he wanted to make his hobby a vocation. In order to hone his skills he spent six weeks interning in Rossknecht Brewery in Ludwigsburg, Germany.
The brothers originally planned to open a business in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the family of Walt’s wife lived. However, around the same time the parents of a longtime friend, Ryan Guthy, were interested in opening a restaurant and bar in Asheville. After sampling some of the brothers’ beers and learning of their desire to open a brewery, a business marriage was born.
They opened the doors in December 2012. Now they brew their recipes on a 15-barrel Specific Mechanical system that includes 15 fermenters and 5 bright beer tanks. Traditional Belgian styles are even fermented in a glycol-chilled, open fermenter in a special sealed room with HEPA filtration. In 2013, production was a very impressive 2,900 barrels and growth for this year is expected to hit about 4,000 barrels.
Reticent Saison is a great representation of this classic style. This beer pours a slightly hazy golden with a fine khaki colored head that laces the glass nicely. The combination of wheat, rye and flaked oats add to the body and the heading qualities. They report that the open fermentation coupled with a higher fermentation temperature accent the esters produced by the yeast. Those esters produce flavors of clove, pear, orange and green apple. Bittering is very subdued but the late addition hops produce a delicate floral and fruity hop nose.
Wicked Weed Brewing Company’s Reticent Saison clone
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.052 FG = 1.007 IBU = 26 SRM = 4 ABV = 6%
Ingredients
3.3 lbs. (1.5 kg) Muntons, extra light, unhopped, liquid malt extract
22 oz. (0.62 kg) light dried malt extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) 2-row pale malt
10 oz. (0.28 kg) wheat malt
10 oz. (0.28 kg) rye malt
10 oz. (0.28 kg) flaked oats
4 oz. (0.11 kg) acidulated malt
3 oz. (85 g) honey malt
7.9 AAU Warrior® hop pellets (60 min.)
(0.5 oz./14 g at 15.8% alpha acids)
0.6 oz. (17 g) Tettnang hop pellets (0 min.)
0.8 oz. (23 g) Mosiac™ hop pellets (0 min.)
0.6 oz. (17 g) U.S. Saaz hop pellets (0 min.)
½ tsp. Irish moss (30 min.)
½ tsp. yeast nutrient (15 min.)
White Labs WLP566 (Belgian Saison II) or Wyeast 3711 (French Saison) yeast
Priming sugar (if bottling)
Step by Step
Steep the crushed grain in 2.5 gallons (9.5 L) of water at 151 ºF (66 ºC) for 30 minutes. Remove grains from the wort and rinse with 2 quarts (2 L) of hot water. Add the malt extract and boil 60 minutes. Add the hops, Irish moss and yeast nutrient as per the schedule. When done, add the wort to 2 gallons (7.6 L) of cold water in the sanitized fermenter and top off with cold water up to 5 gallons (19 L).
Cool the wort to 75 ºF (24 ºC). Pitch your yeast and aerate the wort heavily. Keep the beer at 68 ºF (20 º C) for 48 hours and then let it free rise until fermentation is complete. Condition 2 weeks and then bottle or keg.
All-grain option:
This is a single step infusion mash using an additional 2 lbs. 2 oz. (0.96 kg) 2-row pale malt and 5.5 lbs. (2.5 kg) Pilsner malt to replace the liquid and dried malt extract. Mix all of the crushed grains with 3.5 gallons (13 L) of 170 °F (77 °C) water to stabilize at 151 ºF (66 ºC) for 60 minutes. Slowly sparge with 175 ºF (79 ºC) water. Collect approximately 6 gallons (23 L) of wort runoff to boil for 60 minutes. Reduce the Warrior® hop addition to 0.4 oz./11 g (6.3 AAU) to allow for the higher utilization factor of a full wort boil. The remainder of this recipe is the same as the extract with grains recipe.
