Saison aging question

So I've got this Saison fermenting away in primary since last night, and I'm using the recipe for the Ginger Saison from Extreme Brewing by Sam Calagione (DFH dude) with a few hop differences (i went with what i had available).. here's the recipe (my version)

preboil:
1 lb Cara-Munich
2 tsp Gypsum

boil:
6.6 lbs light LME
1.0 lb light DME
1.0 oz Stryian Golding (60 min)
0.5 oz Cascade (60 min)
1 lb light Belgian candi sugar (15 min)
1.0 oz Argentinian Cascade (10 min)
0.5 oz Cascade (5 min)
2 oz crystallized ginger (flameout)

yeast: Wyeast 3724 Saison

OG: 1.035

probably went a bit crazy with the hops, and i did styrian golding and arg. cascade out of order, doh!

my question is, in the recipe, calagione says that fermentation should be done in 10 days, and after 10 days in the bottle it should be ready to drink. i know fermentation times can be highly variable, but is 10 days sufficient time for this saison to sit in bottles? and w/o secondary?

i have noticed through a bit of reading that people are tending to rack to secondary and leaving for several weeks.. so i guess i'm just wondering whether if not doing a secondary would be detrimental to the quality of this beer? i know aging can only improve a beer (to an extent), but is this just a quickly maturing recipe or something?

also, the target SG in the book is 1.072, and i obviously hit a lot lower at 1.035... is this a concern? in the recipe and throughout the book, calagione never mentions straining as he pours the wort into the fermenter (i do), would that affect the SG? I also noticed on my first batch that I was a bit lower than the target SG, is that just bad technique on my part?

sorry for the loads of questions, but any insight would be greatly appreciated

I'm curious too. I just brewed up a saison. Primary was about 4 days (Wyeast 3711 is a freakin' animal) and took it down to 1.004. Threw it into secondary and dry hopped for 1.5 weeks at cooler temp. It's definitely cleared, so I'm tempted to bottle already this weekend.

My recent experience with Belgian brews (a pale, strong ale, and wit) is that the flavors off of the yeast can be a little bit volatile, and those are the flavors that make a Belgian. Where I used to look at a 1.087 OG Belgian strong ale and say, "wow, let this age for a while"; I'm starting to think they are best a little bit earlier. My Belgian strong ale peaked at around 3 months, but was excellent after only 7 weeks. The aroma and flavor started to get bland after that.

So my new mentality on Belgian beers is to age them until clear then bottle. We'll see how it goes.

What size was your boil? It you do partial boils then top off with fresh water you might nat have had good mixing and got a dilute sample. There is no way you could have an acutal OG that low with all that extract and sugar.

You could get another fermenter and use it as a secondary. You could let a go another week or two in the primary then bottle for a few weeks and it will be fine. Ten days in the fermenter and ten days in the bottle is not long enough, in my opinion. Another week in the fermenter gives yeast more time to metabolize all the by products of the adaptive phase.

Also, saisons should be dry. Giveit time to bottom out.

Proofman said:

What size was your boil? It you do partial boils then top off with fresh water you might nat have had good mixing and got a dilute sample. There is no way you could have an acutal OG that low with all that extract and sugar.

You could get another fermenter and use it as a secondary. You could let a go another week or two in the primary then bottle for a few weeks and it will be fine. Ten days in the fermenter and ten days in the bottle is not long enough, in my opinion. Another week in the fermenter gives yeast more time to metabolize all the by products of the adaptive phase.

Also, saisons should be dry. Giveit time to bottom out.

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my boil was 2.5 gals and the only time i added additional water was to the fermenter before i added the cooled wort. and yes, the more i thought about this, the more i think i just got a dilute SG sample. i remember just having topped off the carboy w/ water, then pouring some out to take a gravity reading.. i dont think i mixed/shook up the carboy before taking the SG reading.. oh well, at least i did it AFTER the reading to aerate, and signs of fermentation occurred after only 5 or 6 hours.. not worried about the OG.

thanks for confirming my suspicion on aging.. i thought about it some more and perhaps in the book he is claiming this beer only needs 20 days before its DRINKABLE, not before its at its peak quality. i looked back and i think in EVERY recipe in the book he only talks of 14-21 days before enjoying your beer (after pitching yeast), which seems pretty short to me. i have secondary and will mos def be throwing this batch in there for a while.

Sixbillionethans said:

Threw it into secondary and dry hopped for 1.5 weeks at cooler temp. It's definitely cleared, so I'm tempted to bottle already this weekend.

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hey what kind of hops did you dry hop with? was wanting to do this to mine.. maybe argentinian cascade? styrian golding? hallertauer?

can anybody suggest a good dry hop for this recipe.. i'm thinking styrian golding or arg. cascade.. although i'm not sure how good either hop would be for dry hopping

I made this recipe, with a few changes due to hop shortage, last week. Used 6 lbs LME and 1 lb DME, 1 lb Belgian Candi Sugar, and 4oz of Caramunich. I thought a pound of Caramunich in a Saison is way too much....will give it too much of a caramel taste, so I lowered it. My OG was 1.057 and after 5 days I'm at 1.011. Used Wyeast 3726 Farmhouse with 2L starter. Used 1oz of Mt Hood @ 60mins and 1oz Styrian Goldings @ 15mins. Used the 2oz of crystallized ginger also and can really taste it from the hydrometer tasting. After 2 days @ 68, started pushing the temp up to about 80 now. Will let it sit in primary for another week and then bottle. A saison doesn't need to be put in a secondary IMO. Will let it bottle condition for a month to let those flavors meld together.

i dont care much about clarity myself for this saison.. w/ the crystallized ginger in there i'm sure it will be a bit cloudy, which isn't an issue for me. i'm probably just gonna bottle condition for a month as you are shertz. we'll have to compare results!