John’s Generation White’s Split Personality

I recently picked up a keg of John’s White Ale and while we were loading it into my car, the fellow helping me mentioned something I hadn’t thought about before.

He asked me if I had tried the kegged and bottled John’s White side-by-side before.  He said they were completely different beers because the beer in the keg had no oxygen permeation and was much more orange-y citrusy and the bottled version.  On the other hand, the bottled version was more spicy because the bottle cap allows oxygen into the bottle,and the oxygen works with the yeast to produce a completely different beer.

I had seen this before in terms of carbonation, etc. but not to this extent.  I tried it, and sure enough, he was right, and I was amazed.

Do you have any experience where two different packaging techniques create two different beers?

Brewing a Saison

Today I brewed my first Saison.  I usually use White Labs yeast, but in this case, I salvaged the yeast from the bottom of 2 Boulevard Smokestack Series Saisons.  I plan to crank the heat up on this one, to 75 for a couple of days, then to even 80.  I read from Phil Markowski in Farmhouse Ales that brewing a Saison is not like any other type – particularly in the temperature department.  It is kind of neat because in the old days, the farmers would have their own house yeasts, and sometimes swap with neighbors to “liven up” the little buggers.

Not that this is the same, but borrowing some friends from Boulevard kind of makes me feel the same way.

What’s your experience “harvesting” yeast?  Has it worked out for you?