Thoughts on Saison Recipe?

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DanZarrella

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4 gallon batch.

50% 5 lbs Belgian Pils
33% 3lbs 4oz Wheat Malt Extract Syrup
10% 1lbs Candi Sugar, Clear
5% 8oz Acidulated Malt
3% 4oz Vienna Malt

@ 60 mins 2oz Saaz leaf
@ 30 mins 1oz Hallertau pellet
@ 15 mins 1 tsp Irish moss
@ 15 mins .5 oz bitter orange peel
@ 5 mins .5oz Styrian Goldings pellet
@ 2 mins .5oz Styrian Goldings pellet

White Labs Belgian Saison I (WLP565) & Wyeast Belgian Ale (1214) together in 500ml Starter
 
If you're going by style, this looks a bit light in color. Most saisons are a light orange or light copper, and 4oz vienna is really on the low end. To correct, you could up the vienna a bit. Hops are higher than I liked in my saison, but that's definitely a personal preference. Otherwise, looks good.
 
My concern is that my use of extract to date has resulted in far too much color, so I guess I over corrected here, I'll experiment with the vienna.
 
That's a lot of acid malt. Not sure what you are trying to do with it. It is definitely enough to provide a distinct lactic flavor, maybe enough to make the beer a little sour and probably more than you need for mash pH adjustment (depending on your water of course but I would question the wisdom of making saison with extremely alkaline water).

ETA: just noticed this is a partial mash, that amount of sour malt may pull your mash pH into the very very low 5s if not high 4s. That isn't necessarily horrible since people seem to make good berliner weiss with a ton of acid malt but be sure to check for conversion as that will not be optimal for enzymatic activity.
 
I changed up my recipe after feedback and more research:

5lbs Belgian Pils
1lbs Wheat Malt Extract Syrup
1lbs Candi Sugar, Clear
8oz Corn Sugar
8oz Vienna Malt
5oz Acidulated Malt

@ 60 mins .75oz Styrian Goldings pellet
@ 5 mins .5oz Hallertau pellet
@ 0 mins .5oz Hallertau pellet

@ 5 mins 3.5 grams (1/8 oz) crushed white pepper
@ 5 mins 3.5 grams (1/8 oz) bitter orange peel

I thought about munich vs vienna and I think i want to avoid the mailtier munich in favor of a drier saison.
I'll also be mashing pretty low and possibly with the addition of some extra enzymes (including amylase and galactosidase)
 
8 oz of Vienna should be great. The style guidelines say it should be orange in color, but Saison Dupont, which is probably the benchmark of the style and the source of the Saison yeast strain, is made from 100% pilsener malt and is golden in color, so there is wiggle room as far as color goes.
Love the idea of white pepper. I bet this will be one tasty beer!
 
After ~10 days in bottles (kinda early I know)
I opened one of these, and it tastes pretty good, carbonation isn't totally there yet (I know, it's not long enough in the bottle for proper carb).
FG got nice and low, 1.008, and the color is great between SRM 9-13, like a cloudy burnt sunset yellow/gold/light-orange ish color.

I do get an interesting smell though, at first I thought it was like sulfur or hotdogs, but I've also noticed it in some other commercial saisons, maybe my nose isn't trained well enough to recognize what the scent is? The SWMBO called it "grassy" and/or "fruity" a few weeks ago when it was in secondary. Could be peppery or clovelike?
 
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