Can't wait! Extract Saison!

So I brew with a buddy, 10 gallon electric all-grain batches. We don't get together often enough, and I have my own brews that I like, so I still do some extract brewing... I've had a French Saison (3711) yeast in my fridge since March, and finally got around to using it this week. The starter (2L) was very strong.

My recipe was pretty simple:

6lb Pilsen DME (3lb initially, 3lb at t-15min)
1 lb corn sugar
0.07 lb Munich
0.07 lb Biscuit
0.7 lb Wheat
2 oz Hallertau (60 min)
1 oz Saaz (30 min)
1 oz Saaz (15 min)
1 oz coriander (10 min)
1 oz bitter orange peel (10 min)
1/2 oz camomile flower (10 min)

Wyeast 3711 (French Saison)

It's only been in the fermenter for a few days so far, but I have high hopes!

Mike

I love hoppy saisons! Looks like a solid recipe.

Living in FL Wyeast bails me out during the summer with the Belgium yeast strains. I just did a batch using their Canadian/Belgium strain and just bottled it last night and boy was it nice and spicy. Going to make a starter using Ardennes tonight and can't wait to see the results. Long live belgium strains in the summer heat.

i live in fl as well, and was looking to do a extract saison soon due to the tremendous heat. but i was planning on using wyeast belgian saison. let us know how the recipe turns out!

Biscuit really wants a mash. If you were in the 150-160 range with the munich in your steep, you probably converted at least a good chunk of it.

The big problem with extract Saisons is getting them to finish dry enough; did you consider adding some sugar to the grain bill? If fermentation's still active, that remains a possibility.

SumnerH said:

The big problem with extract Saisons is getting them to finish dry enough; did you consider adding some sugar to the grain bill? If fermentation's still active, that remains a possibility.

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+1, get some sugar in there ASAP.

Oh yeah, I did add 1lb of corn sugar to the boil! Forgot about that in the OP.

Amity said:

Oh yeah, I did add 1lb of corn sugar to the boil! Forgot about that in the OP.

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Dextrose is agood start, but sucrose will ferment out completely and dry it out more. I just used 1 lbs sucrose in a batch I am enjoying right now and next time I'll probably use 2 lbs. Even at 1.006, there's a little too much malt sweetness in it for me.

Took a gravity reading today and it is definitely below 1.008, probably closer to 1.006. I ended dumping another 3/4 lb of sucrose in at peak fermentation. It tasted a bit hot in the sample, but a month on the yeast will do wonders. So far, so good!

How did this turn out?

It was great. The yeast fermented it to 8% ABV, so it took a while to mellow out. It had a great belgian spicy taste. I'd do it again!