Want to learn how to brew an award winning Grisette? In this article, I’ll show my one gallon grisette BIAB recipe.
What is a Grisette?
A grisette is a crisp, low gravity beer brewed to be very refreshing. The grisette originated in the mining regions at the border of Belgium and France.
The beer is related to the more popular farmhouse ale, the Saison. However, the saison was brewed for agricultural workers; whereas, the grisette was brewed for the local miners.
There are two stories regarding where the name grisette derives from. Grisette means ‘little grey’, which may stem from the color of the dresses that the women serving the beer wore or from the color of the stone that was mined in that region. For a more detailed look at the history of this style, please see this article. A solid book on farmhouse styles as a whole is Farmhouse Ales: Culture and Craftsmanship in the European Tradition, check it out!
Though this beer is low in gravity, the farmhouse complexity makes it a very fun beer to both brew and drink!
I hope to see this style become as popular as the Gose or its close cousin, the Saison, has.
There is not much known about ingredients used in this style relative to most other beer styles. This can be both a good and a bad thing while developing a recipe.
This particular recipe uses a small amount of hay in the mash as well as an addition of crushed coriander late in the boil. The small amount of acidulated malt in the mash adds the tartness which compliments this style greatly. This beer scored very well at my local monthly homebrew competition!
Stats:
Volume: 1.0 gallons
Predicted SRM 3.86
Predicted IBU 30.42
Original Gravity 1.039
Final Gravity 1.010
ABV- 3.81%
Grain:
1lb American 2-row
0.75lb American Wheat
0.25lb Acidulated Malt
2oz Orchard Hay (yes, as in grass hay!)
Strike water 165F, mash started at 152F
Hops:
0.2 oz East Kent Goldings (60 minutes)
0.2oz Amarillo (5 minutes)
Other Additions:
3 grams Coriander-crushed (10 minutes)
Water:
Local Flagstaff Tap Water
1.75 gallon boil
Yeast:
Safale BE-134 (1/4 packet)
Directions:
Mill the grains and mix with 1.5 gallons of 165°F strike water to reach a mash temperature of 152°F (67°C). Hold this temperature for 60 minutes. Sparge the grains with 170°F water until you reach a volume of 1.75 gallons of wort. Boil for 60 minutes, following the hop schedule.
After the boil, chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, about 70°F. Aerate the wort and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 72°F (18°C) for 2-3 weeks, then cold crash the beer to 35°F. Bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately 2.25 volumes of CO2.
Notes:
How to Brew with Hay:
I recommend adding the hay to the mash.
Prior to adding the hay to the mash, I did rinse it just to make sure that it was free of any dirt or bugs. However, I did not find anything of the sort in the bagged hay that I bought.
Hay can help make a filter bed for the mash (not as important when brewing in a bag), but it can also add some grassy/farmhousy flavors that go great with the style!
Thank you for stopping by!
If you are interested in how to homebrew using the brew-in-a-bag BIAB method, please see my post here.
If you would like to see more small batch recipes like this, please click here.