davekippen
Well-Known Member
This may be the best response I've seen from a brewmaster - George at Water Street Brewery in Milwaukee Wisconsin. I have been looking for a peppery, spicy Saison, and I found one while here on a work trip. I emailed the brewmaster to see if he would give me any clues as to the recipe. I was blow away by his answer:
Number one before any grain or hops is correct yeast. Many Belgian beers rely on the esters and nuances that correct yeast strains produce, especially at correct fermentation temperatures.
One of the classic Saison flavors is pepper and the use of a correct saison strain will(should) produce some pepper spiciness.
We used White Labs 568 Belgian Saison blend, actually a blend of one of thier Saison strains and one of their Belgian Ale strains. We also let the fermetnation go, rocketting up to 80 degrees to get as much craziness as we could out of it
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp568.html
My second recomendation would be a spice addition. I am a huge fan of spices in Saison, mostly to accent yeast ester production, but sometimes to make sure there are correct flavors there. Since a sasion is a beer for field workers, with many recipes, I feel no boundries to producing it. I feel it is important to use as many different ingridients as you like with some sort of harvest/filed worker spirit in your mindset
My spice blend was white pepper, lemongrass, dutch blue poppy seed, corriander and lemon peel. All freshly cracked from a local spice supplier and added 10 to 15 minutes before end of boil to try and preserve some of thier aromas. At the very least, all my saisons would have pepper in them, I prefer the mellower flavor of white pepper
http://www.thespicehouse.com/
Third would be grain, keep it light but use lots! We used a base of Pilsner with malted wheat torrified wheat, unmalted wheat, oats and flaked corn, all thinking about a field worker beer made from "whatever is in the barn" as my recipe will change every year. We started with a higher gravity 1.065 to make sure there was a sweet malt character under the spices.....
http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/
Finally I would not worry about hops in MY saison, doesn't mean you shouldn't in yours. I kept my hopping to an absolute minimum, bittering with a minimal amount of German Magnum and a mid addition of Czech Saaz. I would be interested in a Saison with a higher hopping rate from someone else, but mine I profess to have as little hop character as possible. I want just enough bitterness to dry and balance the higher malt load.
This guy kicls a**.
:
Look below for my attempt as this recipe, please comment.
Number one before any grain or hops is correct yeast. Many Belgian beers rely on the esters and nuances that correct yeast strains produce, especially at correct fermentation temperatures.
One of the classic Saison flavors is pepper and the use of a correct saison strain will(should) produce some pepper spiciness.
We used White Labs 568 Belgian Saison blend, actually a blend of one of thier Saison strains and one of their Belgian Ale strains. We also let the fermetnation go, rocketting up to 80 degrees to get as much craziness as we could out of it
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp568.html
My second recomendation would be a spice addition. I am a huge fan of spices in Saison, mostly to accent yeast ester production, but sometimes to make sure there are correct flavors there. Since a sasion is a beer for field workers, with many recipes, I feel no boundries to producing it. I feel it is important to use as many different ingridients as you like with some sort of harvest/filed worker spirit in your mindset
My spice blend was white pepper, lemongrass, dutch blue poppy seed, corriander and lemon peel. All freshly cracked from a local spice supplier and added 10 to 15 minutes before end of boil to try and preserve some of thier aromas. At the very least, all my saisons would have pepper in them, I prefer the mellower flavor of white pepper
http://www.thespicehouse.com/
Third would be grain, keep it light but use lots! We used a base of Pilsner with malted wheat torrified wheat, unmalted wheat, oats and flaked corn, all thinking about a field worker beer made from "whatever is in the barn" as my recipe will change every year. We started with a higher gravity 1.065 to make sure there was a sweet malt character under the spices.....
http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/
Finally I would not worry about hops in MY saison, doesn't mean you shouldn't in yours. I kept my hopping to an absolute minimum, bittering with a minimal amount of German Magnum and a mid addition of Czech Saaz. I would be interested in a Saison with a higher hopping rate from someone else, but mine I profess to have as little hop character as possible. I want just enough bitterness to dry and balance the higher malt load.
This guy kicls a**.
:Look below for my attempt as this recipe, please comment.
