Session Saison

I love saisons, but the 5-7% ABV that a typical saison has is not very quaffable during the hot summer months. Here's a more sessionable version that has all the saison characteristics with lower alcohol.

Brew-In-A-Bag/No-Chill

Reverse osmosis water
1.5 tsp Calcium Chloride

5 lb Belgian Pale Malt
1 lb Weyermann Light Munich Malt
2 oz Acid Malt

.5 oz Styrian Golding (3.8%, pellet) First Wort Hop
.5 oz Styrian Golding (3.8%, pellet) 30 min (50 minute addition with chilling method)
2 oz Strisselspalt (2.0%, pellet) Cube hop (20 minute addition with chilling method)

Wyeast 3711 French Saison

Mash: 152 F for 60 min
Mash-out: 170 F for 15 min
Boil: 60 min

Target stats are listed above, calculated for 75% efficiency. Here's what I got on brew day:
Efficiency: 86%
OG: 1.032
FG: 1.002
ABV: 4.0%
IBU: 18.1

It's still a session beer, very drinkable, and only 4% abv. It exhibits all the characteristics of a saison, fruity and spicy, though the head doesn't last quite as long as more traditional examples. It was a hit at my homebrew club's summer party, so I'm not complaining :rockin:

I added the Munich to help with the color and give it a little more body and malt flavor. The acid malt is there strictly for pH adjustment. The low-AA hops provided the right amount of balance and the flavors were spot-on.

My efficiency always seems to increase when I use a smaller grain bill with Brew-In-A-Bag, and I forgot to calculate for that, plus the yeast attenuated more than expected, taking this from a 2.9% quaffer to a 4% "monster" brew

Next time I will take the enhanced efficiency into consideration, but I consider this recipe a tried-and-true success!

a nice sessionable saison is perfect. I love me some saisons but at 7-8% can't drink as much as I'd like. any way to convert this into a extract brew???

wormraper said:

a nice sessionable saison is perfect. I love me some saisons but at 7-8% can't drink as much as I'd like. any way to convert this into a extract brew???

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you can use 3 lbs light dme instead of the pale malt, but you'll still need to mash the specialty grain

lumpher said:

you can use 3 lbs light dme instead of the pale malt, but you'll still need to mash the specialty grain

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mash the specialty grain or just steep them??

depends on how sour you want it. a little sour, steep. a lot sour, mash

lumpher said:

depends on how sour you want it. a little sour, steep. a lot sour, mash

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ok, call me stupid since I have only steeped, but how would I go about mashing the munich and acid malt????

lumpher said:

depends on how sour you want it. a little sour, steep. a lot sour, mash

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The acid malt is strictly for pH adjustment, and doesn't add any noticeable sourness. If you're not using Reverse Osmosis water, just change the acid malt to pale malt.

wormraper said:

ok, call me stupid since I have only steeped, but how would I go about mashing the munich and acid malt????

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Basically, if you steep the Munich and acid malts at say around 150 for 30-60 min., that's mashing. Basically keep doing what you've been doing, just pay closer attention to the temperature.

Honestly, find the freshest, most fermentable light extract you can find, maybe a little Munich extract if you can find it, and skip the acid malt altogether and it would still get you pretty close.

eulipion2 said:

The acid malt is strictly for pH adjustment, and doesn't add any noticeable sourness. If you're not using Reverse Osmosis water, just change the acid malt to pale malt.


Basically, if you steep the Munich and acid malts at say around 150 for 30-60 min., that's mashing. Basically keep doing what you've been doing, just pay closer attention to the temperature.

Honestly, find the freshest, most fermentable light extract you can find, maybe a little Munich extract if you can find it, and skip the acid malt altogether and it would still get you pretty close.

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ok, that makes sesnse. thanks for the info on mashing the specialty grains

ok, can't get munich in Tucson but I can get briess or muntons extra light extract so I'll try that

I brewed this in January as my very first AG brew. I subbed 2-row for the Belgian Pils and Vienna for the Munich because my LHBS was disorganized and I couldn't find the right malts. (I now have 55 lb of Durst pils and know the unlabeled bin is Munich.) I also had to sub Mt Hood for the Strisselspalt. Used WLP565, no starter, in 2.5 gallon batch.

Even with my utter AG noob-ness and recipe chaos, this came out fantastic. Great fluffy head, nice pale orange color, good bitterness, nice funky aroma. I had never drunk a saison before, but this weekend I tried a Saison DuPont, and I actually think I like this better! (SD is a little too bitter for my palate, when it ferments so dry.)

This recipe I think would do nicely with a small amount of dry hopping. Maybe .5 oz for 5 gallons. It's really good. I'm probably going to do a black version of this, with some cardamom, this weekend.

Overall a fantastic recipe. I can't recommend this enough.

Oh, a few more notes. I left out the acid malt and water additions and used tap water. Also, my wife and her friend kept complaining about the smell of the DuPont. She doesn't complain about this one. I may need to ferment hotter to get to that level of funkiness - I fermented mostly at 68 ambient, them dropped to 57, whereas next time I'll start at 68 then move to 72 after a day or two.

Awesome! Glad it came out well. I'm working on a second version of this to try and get rid of some of my Belma. This recipe has more traditional ingredients, the new one shouldn't be too far off from that, but I'm hoping the Belma will give it a bit more fruity character.

As for the "funk," 3711 ferments well at low temps, and I've read that it produces a lot of phenols if you go too high. I think 75 was the max recommended temp.

I used WLP565 since I can't get Wyeast. I think it behaves a little differently, although I'm not 100% sure about that.

Yeah, 565 usually requires a ramp-up in temperature. I've heard as high as 90, but low 80's seem to be the norm.

eulipion2 said:

Awesome! Glad it came out well. I'm working on a second version of this to try and get rid of some of my Belma. This recipe has more traditional ingredients, the new one shouldn't be too far off from that, but I'm hoping the Belma will give it a bit more fruity character.

As for the "funk," 3711 ferments well at low temps, and I've read that it produces a lot of phenols if you go too high. I think 75 was the max recommended temp.

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I'm intrested how this came out as I have a pound of Belma and was thinking of trying this recipe using some Belma

nghtmre4u said:

I'm intrested how this came out as I have a pound of Belma and was thinking of trying this recipe using some Belma

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I'll hopefully be brewing it in the next week or two.

Well I'm gonna brew it on Saturday using the belle saison yeast with Belma hops. I have never tried a saison and I am very excited about this brew. I will post when it is done guess I'm gonna have to go find a saison so I have something to compare it to

Just started this brew can't wait will keep it updated thanks again for the recipe.

Don't mention it. Let us know how it turns out.

Og came in at 1.033 used belles saison dry yeast
Pitched at 65 wort temp sitting in 71 degree room and I'm just gonna let it free rise till its done

.25 Belma fwh
.25 Belma 45 min
.25 Belma 30 min
.25 Belma 15 min

This has definitely a fruity peppery funk going on here. still needs a little more carbonation but its tasty and different must find something to compare it to. Thanks again for the recipe this will be brewed again. And the beer is clearer but the condensation on the glass masks it.

Awesome, glad it turned out well! I love this beer.

Rebrewing this right now. I was mowing the lawn this afternoon and drinking one of these, and it was pretty much the perfect thing. And then I remembered I only have 2 more of them left! That clearly cannot do, as I'm heading into the heart of the lawnmowing season here in Ohio.

First time around I used Vienna instead of Munich, and Belgian Pale malt instead of Pilsner. This time I'm using German Pils and Dark Munich.

First time I think I misunderstood the hop schedule, and put in the 30 minute addition at 60 minutes, and had to sub Mt Hood for Strisselspalt. This time I'm using (for a half batch):

.22oz Styrian Goldings (3.8%) First Wort Hop
.33oz US Goldings (4.4%) 30 minutes
1.25oz Mt Hood (6.1%) 0 minutes

Nice! Let us know how it turns out.

Just bottled my second attempt at a session saison: Maris Otter (for backbone), Belma for bittering, Belma & Strisselspalt for flavor/aroma, Wyeast 3711. OG 1.030, FG 1.006, 3.15% ABV. Sample tasted great!

I know it's not the same recipe I posted originally, but saison is like a blank canvas you can experiment with. If this one turns out well I'll probably post it as another session saison in the recipe section.

Just brewed this up yesterday. I played around with the hop schedule.
7.6 IBU Hallertauer at 60 min
5.9 IBU Hallertauer at 30 min
4.6 IBU Cascade at 10 min

I also used Bell Saison. Listening to the airlock hiss and bubble right now. I am looking forward to getting to taste this one since the hygrometer sample for OG tasted great.

Looks good. I'm moving to a new town where the closest homebrew shop is 45 min or so away. I've been thinking a lot about trying out the Belle Saison so I don't have to either transport or ship liquid yeast. Let me know how it turns out.

Spicy and peppery that is what the hygrometer sample tasted like this morning when I bottled. I can't wait to get this beer carbed and cooled to see how it tastes. It was great then. I planned on bottling 2 weeks ago but life got in the way and today was the first chance I have had.

eulipion2 said:

.5 oz Styrian Golding (3.8%, pellet) 30 min (50 minute addition with chilling method)
2 oz Strisselspalt (2.0%, pellet) Cube hop (20 minute addition with chilling method)

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I'm a little confused on these hops, what does "30 min (50 minute addition with chilling method) mean"
Same for the strisselspalt.

Thanks

I originally brewed this as a no-chill beer, which is to say, at flame-out you transfer your boiling-hot wort into a heat-proof vessel, seal it up, and allow to cool to pitching temp, usually overnight. So for no-chill, because they're going to be hot longer, brewers typically offset hop additions by 20 min. So, as noted above, a traditional 50 minute addition would be a 30 minute addition for a no-chiller. If you chill your wort via more traditional methods, the hop schedule will look like this:

.5 oz Styrian Golding (3.8%, pellet) First Wort Hop (added to kettle before run-off from mash and allowed to steep)
.5 oz Styrian Golding (3.8%, pellet) 50 minutes
2 oz Strisselspalt (2.0%, pellet) 20 minute

Okay, that makes sense! thank you!