Help With A Saison

Plan to do a 5-gallon batch of Saison this weekend and do not know what to do with the specialty grain. I will be using one of two recipes that have the same malt bill but different hops schedules. Neither states what to do with the Vienna malt.

5.75 lb extra light DME
1 lb wheat DME
.5 lb Vienna malt
1 lb Belgian light candy sugar
A combo of Styrian & East Kent Goldings
.5 oz bitter orange peel (may use fresh orange zest instead)
Wyeast 3724 pitched mid 80's & try to hold between 85 - 90 F.

So do I steep or mash the Vienna malt?
Thanks!

I would assume you should stick it in a grain bag and steep it at around 155f for 20 minutes to a half hour

yes, definitely steep it for 30 min at 160f

Vienna malt is supposed to be mashed. If you are going to do a mini-mash, I would sub some pale malt, preferably belgian, for a bit of the light DME and mash pretty low so that you will get the attenuation that you want in a saison. All that DME may leave you with a higher than desirable FG for a Saison.

If those are your only available ingredients though, definately still go for it. It will still make a good beer, just a little sweeter and not as dry as you would expect a saison to be.

Used DME on my Saison and still got it down to 1.008 which is about what I expected. As long as you give the yeast what they want, in this case a little heat, they will produce.

Update. The brew day, 08/23, went very well. Ended up with a little less than 5 gallons and topped off to 5 gallons. The OG was 1.071 when adjusted for temp. Hit it about 70 seconds of O2 and pitched an 18 oz starter of Wyeast 3724 into 89F wort. Held the temp at 88F – 89F. Its been 6 days with no activity in the airlock for a couple of day. Checked the gravity today and it at 1.038 – 1.039. The kraeusen has dropped and it appears to be idle but it can’t be finished. Stirred it up in hope that it will become active and finish.

So, any ideas of why it appears to have stopped and how to get it to finish? Should I leave the temp high or drop it and wait weeks for it to finish?

It smells good.

Bottled yesterday, 10/11/08, after in secondary for 2 weeks. The FG was 1.011 (adjusted for temp). As for smell and taste, the smell is great and the taste is good. I believe the taste will improve with time. I need a little help with final wort volume but that will be another post.