Saison Table Sugar ??

Im still very new to brewing and even newer to all grain and Im brewing a Saison soon and I keep seeing forums and recipes that say add table sugar to dry it out. Now when it comes the amount that should be added to a 5 gallon batch i see alot of 15% and 10% what is the % in reference to so i can measure it out.

Thanks ahead of time

They are measuring their sugar as a percentage of the total fermentable ingredients. So if you have 8lbs of malt and 2bls of sugar, that'd be 20% sugar.

Answer = weight.

If you use Wyeast 3711 French Saison, don't add any sugar. It will dry out. Do a search on that strain, on this forum.

I really wish someone told me that. I just brewed a saison with .5lb of sugar and French Saison. My final gravity was 1.000

I'm literally drinking the sample that I just transfered to the keg thinking: damn this beer is gunna be dry

Still smells great

Luckily that's a style that can afford to be nice and dry. At least you didn't use 2 lbs!

I added candied ginger to mine... great idea from DFH Sam Calagione

I have the wyeast 3724 belgian saison will it be ok to add it to that?

deadguyry said:

I have the wyeast 3724 belgian saison will it be ok to add it to that?

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You should use sugar with that strain. It's notorious for stalling out and then picking back up with warmer temps and time. I'm using the same next weekend but also pitching Brett.

What does pitching brett do?

deadguyry said:

What does pitching brett do?

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Search "brett." You're opening pandora's box.

deadguyry said:

What does pitching brett do?

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Ah, what does Brett do? Well, to keep it simple...it will make you the best damned beer you ever had!

deadguyry said:

...what is the % in reference to so i can measure it out.

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I would say it loosely refers to weight. Anytime I factor in an adjunct that is not affected by efficiency I calculate how much it represents as a percentage of fermentables.

If you figure it by weight for an all grain batch, 10% sugar is actually going to be 14-17% of your fermentables. For an extract batch your talking 10-13%. All grain varies based on mash efficiency, extract on if it's DME and/or LME.

PT Ray said:

I would say it loosely refers to weight. Anytime I factor in an adjunct that is not affected by efficiency I calculate how much it represents as a percentage of fermentables.

If you figure it by weight for an all grain batch, 10% sugar is actually going to be 14-17% of your fermentables. For an extract batch your talking 10-13%. All grain varies based on mash efficiency, extract on if it's DME and/or LME.

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Now that I think about it, that's the way I do it too, but you explained it a lot better than I did.