Tripel Saison

So I wanted to brew higher graity saison, Jamil Z mentioned that the BJCP may be changing the saison category into "regular" and "special" saisons - with the 'special' being higher gravity.
Then I saw Brewtopia's Tripel w/Chard and thought that it sounded awesome.
So why not combine them by using a tripel grain bill with a saison yeast(initial). Denny Conn's Westmalle clone is only Pils and Cane Sugar - but I wanted a bit more maltiness. I'm going to try Wyeast's VSS 3711 - French Saison.

Batch Size (Gal): 5
Anticipated OG: 1.095
Anticipated IBU: 32.3
Wort Boil Time: 70 Minutes

14.00 lbs. Pilsener Belgium
0.25 Munich Malt
0.25 Aromatic Malt
3.00 lbs. Cane Sugar <- (Denny claims this is how Westmalle does it) @60min

Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Czech Saaz Pellet 3.80 3.6 First WH
2.00 oz. Hallertauer Whole 4.80 23.1 60 min.
0.50 oz. Tettnanger Tettnang Pellet 4.00 4.1 30 min.
1.00 oz. Czech Saaz Pellet 2.80 1.5 5 min.

Extra
1.00-1.50 oz French Oak Cubes soaked in Chardonnay

Yeast
Wyeast's VSS 3711 - French Saison
Wyeast 3787 - added two days after 3711

Mash @ 149F

What do you think?
The 2 yeasts will hopefully give characteristics of both a saison and tripel. The saison yeast/flavor is more of a subtle one which is why I'm thinking of adding it first, do you think the yeast 'schedule' should be different? Wait 3 days, or more, or less?

don't these types ferment out for a month or so, then you repitch and age the heck out of it?

looks like fun though, and the patience required pays off big time!

One of the things I did that I failed to mention in the recipe was to pre heat a second pot on the stove until very hot, remove a portion of the boiling wort and add it to the extremely hot pan to carmelize. I then added this back to the brewpot. Total amount removed was about 4 cups. This gave the beer the toffee taste and aroma that I associate with Westmalle.

Brewtopia said:

One of the things I did that I failed to mention in the recipe was to pre heat a second pot on the stove until very hot, remove a portion of the boiling wort and add it to the extremely hot pan to carmelize. I then added this back to the brewpot. Total amount removed was about 4 cups. This gave the beer the toffee taste and aroma that I associate with Westmalle.

Click to expand...

Awesome tip Brewtopia! I've tried that with darker beers, but never thought to do it with a 'lighter' beer.
What do you think of the yeast pitching schedule? Seem like a good way to get the characteriistics of both yeast?

Looks good to me. I'm very interested in learning how this comes out.

I've also done the carmelizing bit. My method is a bit different, though. I would heat no more than 2 cups up stirring constantly to boil it down to a relatively thick wort (boil at least 50% off). The beer that was for was Gulden Draak and it turned out excellent. For the yeast, I would probably let the Saison strain go a bit longer before adding 3787, maybe up to a week. I brewed a Saison with that strain and it turned out great-excellent flavor, good malty character.