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Burning Sky Saison Provision: tasting note

Tasted 2025-12 · done

Isolated

Saison Provision bottle, Burning Sky: green bottle held in a hand, with a tan label showing a garland of hop leaves and cones, Burning Sky Artisan Brewers & Blenders, 10th Anniversary, Saison Provision 2023, over an illustration of hay bales in a field Bottle.

Impression

This beer disappointed me slightly, but I say this knowing that the bottle I got was relatively young, and perhaps I was expecting to find the complexity and flavours I expect from more matured beers. I felt this beer was neither here nor there. Almost like it was missing the courage to become a proper mixed-fermentation beer: too much of the Saison DNA found in this bottle. I wanted a more aggressive wild character and sourness complexity.

The beer

Researched 2026-11-08 from published sources (numbered below), not the author's own observations.

Item Finding
Brewing Pale saison; the homebrew kit made with the brewery has lager malt, pale wheat, spelt, CaraGold and acidulated malt, East Kent Goldings to bitter and Saaz, Celeia and Sorachi Ace late, 26.5 IBU [6]
Organisms "first fermented with Saison yeast and then with a blend of Lactobacillus and Brett" [1]. The Saison strain was isolated from a Belgian brewery; the Brett and Lacto are the brewery's own; none is sold [3]
Fermentation and ageing Oak foudres, three to six months (sources from 2017 to now) [4][5][6]; the kit page says the Saison yeast and mixed culture now go into the same tank before the oak [6]
Packaging 750 mL bottle, 6.7 % ABV, 2023 10th-anniversary release [1]; bottle conditioning not public. The brewery ages bottles of Provision for ten years [3]

What it means for the bugs:

  • Three house organisms to expect: the Saison Saccharomyces, Brett and Lacto, none commercially available [3].
  • Whether the bottle carries the house culture or a separate bottling yeast is not public [Low].
  • Lacto fades fastest with bottle age; Brett should hold [Med].

Sources: 1. Saison Provision 2023, Untappd (brewery description), accessed 2026-11-08. 2. Provision 2025, Burning Sky, accessed 2026-11-08. 3. Taming the Wildflowers: The Beautiful and Distinctive House Yeasts of British Brewing, Neil Walker, Good Beer Hunting, 2022-06-22. 4. Kick Up the Fire and Let the Flames Break Loose: Burning Sky Brewery in Sussex, UK, Matthew Curtis, Good Beer Hunting, 2018-11. 5. In conversation: Mark Tranter, Burning Sky, The Brewers Journal, 2017-01-05. 6. Saison Provision Recipe Kit, Burning Sky, 30 L, The Malt Miller, accessed 2026-11-08.

The bugs

Plated from diluted dregs: a Saccharomyces (presumed to be the Saison strain), Brett with colonies of a single morphology and lacto. I wanted the Brett; the Saison yeast I took from cans of Saison Houblon instead. The full story, including a shortcut that let a Saccharomyces colony into a Brett slant, is in the journey.

Decision

Isolated: Burning Sky Saison Provision - Brett. The lacto and the Saccharomyces were not kept.