Can I Still Call This a Saison?

HBTers,

I recently brewed a beer using the following...

8 lbs. Vienna Malt
3 lbs. Rye Malt
8 oz. Special B
12 oz. Light Brown Sugga

2 oz. Styring Golding 60 min

Wyeast 3711

OG=1.061
FG=1.003

My question is can I call this a saison beer even though I didn't use any pilsner malt? Saison's seem to have a few definitions, so I'm wanting clarification on whether or not excluding pilsner from the grain bill would render this beer something other than a saison. Thanks for the answers.

Are you entering it into a competition?

Magic 8 Ball says ... call it whatever you want

I would call it a saison.

tmendick said:

Are you entering it into a competition?

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Maybe. There's a couple of comp's in the near future and I wouldn't mind getting some feedback on the brew. This is my 5th all grain batch, so the more suggestions/comments the better for me.

If it tastes like a saison call it a saison, if not pick nearest the style and claim that's what you were aiming for all along.

Saisons were a farmhouse beer after all - they'd have been brewed with whatever the local malt so sticking to one particular type isn't necessarily out of style.

All that Sugga may have too much funk for white farmhands' style like saison. :rockin:

I'm no certified judge, but does it taste saison like? I'd be very surprised if someone could take a sip and be sure there was no pilsner malt included in the grainbill.

Edit: Bah. Ninjaed by everyone else.

I dont see a problem calling it a saison, even in a comp. Just make sure to ferment warmish.
I think the biggest complaint would be color...big deal right...

That is awesome

The sample I tasted for the gravity reading had all the notes of a saison. Could taste the pepper and had slight citrus notes. I'm confident that it could pass as a saison, but wanted to be sure before I called it one. Sometimes the labeling of a beer style can be a little confusing.

You used 3711... it's a Saison and sounds damn tasty too. I like that grain bill. I may steal that recipe.

bmoritzasu said:

Sometimes the labeling of a beer style can be a little confusing.

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Mostly because styles and beers change over time, names change or do not, and breweries tend to play fast and loose with style names anyway. The thing to remember is that style descriptions are descriptive, not normative. There is some "playing along" that must happen, but you can call your beer anything you want.

The only real concern, as noted, is getting dinged in a competition due to some judge's poor reading comprehension, or insistence that every detail of a beer must fall at the center of the style guideline ranges.

Dobe12,

I think it's a winner in my book. Please do a brew and let me know if you agree!

Thanks for the response and help. From what I've gathered in the seven months I've been brewing is exactly what you've mentioned. There's a lot of interpretation of styles and tastes. I'm just happy I can drink it and have a smile afterwards knowing that I made that. It's a great reward.