Batch 223: Little Life (Smoked Thyme Saison)

This is the very first beer brewed at our house. We've barely brewed at all for the last year; our last apartment had perhaps the most claustrophobic kitchen out of all the homes we've shared, and house projects have been keeping us busy since moving. With this beer, I was hoping to replicate and improve on last year's Three Minute Record Saison. In my first year gardening here, I've got a mountain of thyme in the yard, and I always love herbs in a saison. Plus, the homebrew store had a fine selection of smoked wheat that probably won't make a large difference in flavor, but I hope it's noticeable. I also used my own records from the batch above as instructions, which allowed me to sidestep the frustrations with Brewing Classic Styles I covered in that post. I went with Saaz over Hallertau this time; I wanted to play with it since it's one of the hop varietals we planted this year.

I named this brew after one of my favorite songs off Frank Turner's most recent album. In part because I brewed this the weekend before a 500-mile trip to see Mr. Turner live two nights in a row; in part because the song resonates with my feelings about moving from Denver to claustrophobic Minnesota during the pandemic. And in part because--let's be real--it's a great name for a weak summer saison.