French Quarter Saison (extract recipe)

Going to brew a saison for the first time this week and figured I would share the recipe I came up with after doing some research. any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy.

5 gallons
7lbs Pilsner DME
3lbs Golden Light DME
1lb Carapils
1lb Pilsen Malt
1/2 lb Caramunich
1/2 lb Caravienne
4oz Saaz Hops total @60, 50, 15, 10, 5, 0.
3711 French Saison yeast
Dark Beat Syrup added to primary before pitching the yeast.
1/4 Blood Orange zest @ 5

I'm basically trying to create an amber colored, bittersweet saison that sorta mimics a Belgian Strong Ale in abv and ester but is slightly lighter and smoother mouthfeel.

Boy, that sounds delicious! I don't have any recommendations except for the fact that it looks like it will work. Do you think you need to double pitch the yeast?

Are you doing a partial mash? The Pilsner malt needs to be mashed.

I was thinking about pitching another vial of saison yeast (WLP 568) after transferring into the secondary fermentor. I put a lot of fermentable sugar in there and I can only keep my primary at about 66F, so another vial couldn't hurt it.

I did not mash the pilsner malt. I was only using it for the color and flavor, not for fermentable sugar. I've never used pilsner malt (NW pilsner) before, and wasn't aware of any mashing needed for such effects.

Moved thread to Recipe forum. Recipe Database is reserved for tried and true recipes.

-Homer

cluckk said:

Are you doing a partial mash? The Pilsner malt needs to be mashed.

Click to expand...

Good info. I didn't know that at all.

Base malts need to be mashed or will just add starch and haze to the beer.
That's going to finish fairly sweet, even with 3711, since you have a 2# of crystal malt in addition to the low fermentability of the DME. Could turn out very well, though, if you are going for more of a Belgian strong ale that is less attenuated.