Saison Dupont

This has probably been discussed before but from I've read Saison Dupont is 100% Dingeman Belgian Pilsen. So I harvested me some Dupont 10 days ago and now am planning on trying to replicate the wonderful brew by using the 100% of the same malt. What do folks think about this? I know that Saison's are simple. Dupont is supposedly ramped up in temperature starting at about 110 degrees, but my equipment is limited so my approach is a single infusion mash at 148 degrees for 90 minutes followed by the typical sparge at 168 degrees. I'm shooting for an OG of around 1.055 with a FG of 1.005 and am planning on a grain bill of about 11 lbs for a 5 gal batch. Comments?

Edit: I'll also plan on a 90 minute boil.

I've made a few Saison Dupont's over the years and have used a mash temp a bit higher than what you are going to do yours at - say about 150 or so, but I like a little maltier of a brew.

I've also heard that about the malt too, but haven't made mine that way yet.

avidhomebrewer said:

I've made a few Saison Dupont's over the years and have used a mash temp a bit higher than what you are going to do yours at - say about 150 or so, but I like a little maltier of a brew.

I've also heard that about the malt too, but haven't made mine that way yet.

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Thanks for the post, what other grains or adjuncts do you normally use for your Dupont clones?

I just checked my Clone Brews book for the Saison Dupont recipe and the author recommends:

10.66 lbs Belg. Pils.
8 oz. Cara-Vienne
2 oz. Cara-Munich
1 lb. Clear Belgian Candi sugar

Cheers!!!

Rugrad02 said:

I just checked my Clone Brews book for the Saison Dupont recipe and the author recommends:

10.66 lbs Belg. Pils.
8 oz. Cara-Vienne
2 oz. Cara-Munich
1 lb. Clear Belgian Candi sugar

Cheers!!!

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Hmm I have the candi sugar but not the caramunich and caravienne. Thanks for the post!

Use regular table sugar with your recipe so it will dry out more.

The Belgian Cara-Vienne and Cara-Munich malts are probably not used by Dupont. My guess is that the author suggests them because for us homebrewers, using these caramel malts are a quick way to add color. I'm curious to know how long Dupont boils their Saison wort, as the longer boil would produce a darker brew. If you opt to use the Pilsner malt only, you may want to try a longer boil to darken the beer. Just remember to adjust your sparge volume for boil off.

Rugrad02 said:

The Belgian Cara-Vienne and Cara-Munich malts are probably not used by Dupont. My guess is that the author suggests them because for us homebrewers, using these caramel malts are a quick way to add color. I'm curious to know how long Dupont boils their Saison wort, as the longer boil would produce a darker brew. If you opt to use the Pilsner malt only, you may want to try a longer boil to darken the beer. Just remember to adjust your sparge volume for boil off.

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This is what I was thinking, about doing a longer boil to get that awesome color. Maybe I'll try a full 2-hr, that'll burn a lot of as though!

I'm not sure if it will give the proper flavors, but you could just boil down a portion of your first runnings. Take one gallon of your first runnings from your mash and boil that down to a quart or so. This will darken the wort as well as give some caramel flavors. I've used this technique on a Scotch Ale and it came out great.

I brewed this last night, ended up doing the 90 min mash at 148 (it dropped to 146 at the end) and then a 2-hr boil. The color looks pretty good although it's always tough to tell at this point. Whether or not I get the golden Dupont remains to be seen. My OG was closer to 1.060 than 1.055 but that's ok. The additional sparge water gave me an efficiency closer to 80% than my usual 70-75%.

Piched my Dupont yeast at midnight, at 75 degrees. Fermentation took off in a hurry, already had a thick layer of krausen at 7 o'clock this morning. It's fermenting above 78 degrees right now since that's as high as my strip goes, I'm guessing the low 80's! I'm going to try and get this baby up to 88!

periwinkle1239 said:

I brewed this last night, ended up doing the 90 min mash at 148 (it dropped to 146 at the end) and then a 2-hr boil. The color looks pretty good although it's always tough to tell at this point. Whether or not I get the golden Dupont remains to be seen. My OG was closer to 1.060 than 1.055 but that's ok. The additional sparge water gave me an efficiency closer to 80% than my usual 70-75%.

Piched my Dupont yeast at midnight, at 75 degrees. Fermentation took off in a hurry, already had a thick layer of krausen at 7 o'clock this morning. It's fermenting above 78 degrees right now since that's as high as my strip goes, I'm guessing the low 80's! I'm going to try and get this baby up to 88!

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Your low mash temp and the extended 90 minute mash probably had more to do with your higher efficiency. I tend to get the same result. Congrats. It sounds like you are had some great results. I would love to see how the longer boil time effected the color and flavor. Keep us posted.

Rugrad02 said:

I just checked my Clone Brews book for the Saison Dupont recipe and the author recommends:

10.66 lbs Belg. Pils.
8 oz. Cara-Vienne
2 oz. Cara-Munich
1 lb. Clear Belgian Candi sugar

Cheers!!!

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That is how I've made mine over the years. The only thing that I'll modify is the yeast. Wyeast has the Saison Dupont available as a seasonal offering, so I'll substitute that when it is available.

Dok said:

Your low mash temp and the extended 90 minute mash probably had more to do with your higher efficiency. I tend to get the same result. Congrats. It sounds like you are had some great results. I would love to see how the longer boil time effected the color and flavor. Keep us posted.

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Oh I thought it was due to the fact that I sparged with 1 more gal than usual which gave me a few more gravity points that I wouldn't normally get. My final volume was the same as it always is since I boiled that additional gal off during the prolonged 2 hour boil.

But I see your point as well.

periwinkle1239 said:

Oh I thought it was due to the fact that I sparged with 1 more gal than usual which gave me a few more gravity points that I wouldn't normally get. My final volume was the same as it always is since I boiled that additional gal off during the prolonged 2 hour boil.

But I see your point as well.

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Wait a minute, we are in the same town.

Thought I would update this. After 6 weeks in the primary and then 2 weeks in the keg it is finally ready! My version of the Saison Dupont is delicious, it's lacking the extreme head you get with the real thing but I can definitely pick out the spicy Dupont character which I would attribute to the yeast. I'm quite pleased with the results, the color turned out great using nothing but the dingemann's pilsen malt. I will definitely make this again next year for the summer and do it the same way (buy a 4-pack of Dupont and harvest their yeast). (I should've washed it!)

Anyways here's a photo:

You better be sure Saison doesn't bottle condition the beers with another culture...I would just use the White Labs stuff. It works great. For better head retention use a generous amount of noble hops...I mean lots.

They don't, its the same strain.

Yup without a doubt this is the same yeast as the true Dupont. It's character is powerful.

And on that note, after about a month in the keg this Saison got better and better. So last weekend I used my beergun to bottle the rest of it because I wanted space for the next batch that's ready - ended up with 25 bottles that I'll get to savor as summer is winding down...

OldWorld said:

You better be sure Saison doesn't bottle condition the beers with another culture...I would just use the White Labs stuff. It works great. For better head retention use a generous amount of noble hops...I mean lots.

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Yeah, it's definitely the same stuff. I've had great luck culturing out of Dupont bottles. The cultured yeast doesn't tend to stick at 1.020 either (the Wyeast/White Labs cultures tend to).

For head retention I usually throw 0.5lb flaked barley into my saisons. Works like a charm.

Hey. I was wondering if you remember the hop schedule for this brew?

periwinkle1239 said:

Thought I would update this. After 6 weeks in the primary and then 2 weeks in the keg it is finally ready! My version of the Saison Dupont is delicious, it's lacking the extreme head you get with the real thing but I can definitely pick out the spicy Dupont character which I would attribute to the yeast. I'm quite pleased with the results, the color turned out great using nothing but the dingemann's pilsen malt. I will definitely make this again next year for the summer and do it the same way (buy a 4-pack of Dupont and harvest their yeast). (I should've washed it!)

Anyways here's a photo:

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Sorry to necro this post, but did yours have that lemony note that dupont has?


Thanks!

hopsandhops said:

Sorry to necro this post, but did yours have that lemony note that dupont has?


Thanks!

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IME, both the Dupont dregs and the white labs / wyeast equivalents all have that lemon pepper thing going on. The dregs themselves have a bix more complexity because it is more than a single strain though

Thanks m00ps! I'll get to work culturing up some bottle dregs