Saison How Rye I Am (Rye Saison) - 2011 - 1st Place Best of Show - HBT Comp

Got to taste this batch today and it's awesome. It's just shy of 6 wks from brew day (force carbed). Ours went from 1.057 to 1.001 for about 7.2% ABV. I think the 71* ferment temp is perfect. This might be a rare entry into our permanent rotation!

what would the op say about this recipe:

5 gallon extract
6 pounds dme
2 or 3 pounds rye malt
.3 pounds rice hulls
all this at 154 for 30/45 mins

1.33 oz styrian goldings @ 60 min
(maybe some centennials for flavor?)

fermented with bell's yeast harvested from oberon bottles, a starter of the same size (4000ml).

does it sound like this would come out to anything similar to this recipe? i dont want an exact copy, instead i want something a little bit my own (hence the bell's yeast and centennials, i cant stop drinking two hearted). if this would be a disaster, feel free to let me know. this is only the second time ive tried to tweak a recipe.

the candi sugar, dark, is it equivalent to d-90? or are you using rock? I can only find clear and amber at Brewmasters Warehouse.

Got my ingredients today to make a 10 gallon batch this Saturday, only difference was last time LHBS only had german pilsner and german rye, this time it will have belgian pilsner and german rye. Got the yeast starter about to be started. Can't wait.

Barry

I brewed my 5 gallon batch last night, OG was 1.062, and I pitched in a yeast starter made from the yeast cake of a previouse beer made using wl001 euro ale yeast. Intead of candi syrup or sugar, I made my own syrup by boiling white sugar and water until it turned a brown color. I filled the carboy to the top nearly and when I came back the next afternoon, i found that I had sprayed rye beer goo all over the trash bag I had put over the top of it

I'm sorry to be rude but that beer you just made will be nothing at all like the recipe posted here. This beer really is all about the French saison yeast strain. There is no way wlp001 will ferment out to 1.004 and all the while produce the esters this beer needs. Not saying the beer won't taste good but man you really should have used the 3711!

I probably should have, but were is the fun in life without a bit of experimentation. I do have a wine yeast picked out that is engineered to unstick fermentation if I don't get all the way down to my target gravity.

The problem is, I accidentally ordered a Belgian sassion yeast by Wyeast that requires very high temps in the 90+ range and months of time to get the beer down to it's target gravity, and I don't have a means of temperature control and I have outdone my beer budget for a bit, so I had to hold off on a setup to keep the beer that warm until I can do it naturally as the temperatures increase this spring/summer.

I did mash low at around 145 for 90 minutes, so hopefully, it should work out.

I brewed this about 8 weeks ago. Turned out amazing. My FG was 1.000. Did anyone else hit this low?

bluehenbrew said:

I brewed this about 8 weeks ago. Turned out amazing. My FG was 1.000. Did anyone else hit this low?

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Yes, I also hit 1.000 on my first batch, new batch is down to 1.010. Don't know if it will go lower, may pitch another pkg of yeast and see what happens. First batch was incredible, my best beer yet.

Barry

Saison is one of those beers I haven't been able to perfect. Seems like I need to try this one, and soon!

We used rock...think we got it from William's Brewing.

Beernewb said:

the candi sugar, dark, is it equivalent to d-90? or are you using rock? I can only find clear and amber at Brewmasters Warehouse.

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Sorry for late reply...

I can't speak to the extract conversion...but Oberon is a pale wheat ale (I think, only have had it when traveling). The recipe revolves around the WY3711, so I would not expect it to be very similar at all with the Oberon yeast (not a Saison strain).

Although if you go this route, I'd love to know how it turns out!

wdchandlersmith said:

what would the op say about this recipe:

5 gallon extract
6 pounds dme
2 or 3 pounds rye malt
.3 pounds rice hulls
all this at 154 for 30/45 mins

1.33 oz styrian goldings @ 60 min
(maybe some centennials for flavor?)

fermented with bell's yeast harvested from oberon bottles, a starter of the same size (4000ml).

does it sound like this would come out to anything similar to this recipe? i dont want an exact copy, instead i want something a little bit my own (hence the bell's yeast and centennials, i cant stop drinking two hearted). if this would be a disaster, feel free to let me know. this is only the second time ive tried to tweak a recipe.

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Has been 2 weeks since making my second batch of this recipe. I posted awhile back that it had gotten down to 1.010. I checked it last night and it has gotten down to 1.000. Starting gravity was at 1.076, this will make this one at 10.1% alcohol. It tastes awesome.

Barry

Anybody tried this with sorachi ace?

Im also leaning towards the light candi sugar. Is there any difference in the taste?

I did this with some sorachi as fwh. It's amazingly good.

I kegged this maybe 2 weeks ago and there are a lot of floaties in the glass. It tastes amazing by the way. Anyone else have a lot of chunks in their beer?

eviljay said:

I did this with some sorachi as fwh. It's amazingly good.

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Awesome, thanks. I'm also considering harvesting some yeast from great divide's Collette, which is excellent, but people really seem to like the 3711.

I'm drinking one right now. Just use the French Saison yeast. You won't be disappointed.

Fritobandito said:

I kegged this maybe 2 weeks ago and there are a lot of floaties in the glass. It tastes amazing by the way. Anyone else have a lot of chunks in their beer?

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Nope...methinks there might be some yeasties that got transferred into your keg

Did you do a protein rest in the mash? Did you cold crash it before you racked to the keg? If you have small orange-brown chunks that look a bit like nerd candies I believe that those are proteins that coagulated when you dropped the temp. I think you can get this from some rye malts if neather you nor the maltster get enough protein conversion. Guess it could have happened before and then were racked over too. Cold crash in the carboy and see if you can avoid/prevent racking them over to the keg, or tkae a look at youy protein rest.

It tastes fine and I think it will settle out. Guess I will just have to chew my way through the last bit of each pint!

Fritobandito said:

It tastes fine and I think it will settle out. Guess I will just have to chew my way through the last bit of each pint!

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If it's just yeast residue, then it should stop after a while, depending on how much got transferred into your keg.

If you don't have time to cold-crash, an easy workaround I've done is transfer from the carboy into my bottling bucket, then transfer from there into the keg. Once you get to the bottom, you can swirl any yeast that got transferred into the bucket to one side.

But that, of course, assumes that you've given the yeast enough in the fermentation stage to drop out of suspension.

It's pouring clear now. I had it in primary for 5 weeks and it finished at 1.002. It was the first keg I have had any sediment past the first cloudy pint. It was also my first time using rye, so I wasn't sure if they were linked somehow.

I'm making this again, we destroyed the first batch, everyone loved it.

I bottled this tonight, i got lot of spice (expected with rye), but also lots of clove...god i hate belgian yeast for that exact reason. I hope it dissapates, i just did a saison with 3522 and it came out awesome....everyone goes crazy over 3711 and i attenuated down to 1.002, but i despise clove. i took a sample two days ago while crash cooling and didn;t detect it, so hopefully it's just the yeast i roused up during bottling.

I had tons of clove when bottling. It went away within 2 weeks. Good luck

Mashing this right now and realized my hops are only 3% so going to only have around 20 IBUs instead of 24, but think it should still be good.

JeepDiver said:

Mashing this right now and realized my hops are only 3% so going to only have around 20 IBUs instead of 24, but think it should still be good.

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You should be totally fine. The yeast and the rye make this beer great

Amen

So from a relative beginner who only makes IPAs APAs and hoppy wheats, so only one hop addition and no dry hopping? Stillwater Cellar Door is currently my favorite commercial beer, and I've had a lot of Saisons here lately so I'm excited for it, I guess I just didn't realize how different the ingredient bill would look. ~~~science!~~~

Yeah, Saisons are not high in IBUs whatsoever. Having said that, there is no reason you couldnt go crazy and dry-hop; it's just that the focus is usually on the yeast character.

Look at Brooklyn's Sorachi Ace as (to me) a prime example of a "crazy" saison. That beer is very "hoppy" for a saison and I thoroughly enjoy it.

natewv said:

So from a relative beginner who only makes IPAs APAs and hoppy wheats, so only one hop addition and no dry hopping? Stillwater Cellar Door is currently my favorite commercial beer, and I've had a lot of Saisons here lately so I'm excited for it, I guess I just didn't realize how different the ingredient bill would look. ~~~science!~~~

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Mine came in at 1.076 and attenuated to 1.003. It's 3 weeks in bottles and tastes great, but HOT.

That should settle down though. Anyone else overshoot the OG?

JimTheHick said:

Mine came in at 1.076 and attenuated to 1.003. It's 3 weeks in bottles and tastes great, but HOT.

That should settle down though. Anyone else overshoot the OG?

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I did, but not nearly by that much. I had a little "hot", it faded away over the next month.

eviljay said:

I did, but not nearly by that much. I had a little "hot", it faded away over the next month.

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Cool. This thing is a beast.

I'm thinking of splitting a batch, I have some 3711 on hand, and also some 3725 biere de garde. Any thoughts on how the OP grain bill works with that yeast?

i love this yeast. i did mine this year with just pils and and about 20 % rye with a bunch of saaz and added 5% honey at flameout. knocked the abv down to about 5.8. i believe my OG was was 1047 down to 1003, fermented 70-75. spicy, citrusy, yummy.

i think i'm going to use this yeast slurry for a partigyle golden strong and a table beer, and finish half the table beer with some brett. can't wait to play around with that one.

defenestrate said:

i love this yeast. i did mine this year with just pils and and about 20 % rye with a bunch of saaz and added 5% honey at flameout. knocked the abv down to about 5.8. i believe my OG was was 1047 down to 1003, fermented 70-75. spicy, citrusy, yummy.

i think i'm going to use this yeast slurry for a partigyle golden strong and a table beer, and finish half the table beer with some brett. can't wait to play around with that one.

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I dig the idea of using a spicy/floral hop for this like Saaz. I washed a TON of 3711 over the course of two separate batches, so I'm down to experiment here & there.

Grasslands said:

I dig the idea of using a spicy/floral hop for this like Saaz. I washed a TON of 3711 over the course of two separate batches, so I'm down to experiment here & there.

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i'm noticing a lot of citrus-pear this time around too... so i think for either the golden strong or table beer i'm going to hop it strongly with calypso- i've got some in the freezer that i never used and i think it might be a good combo.

Oops I put 2lbs of sugar in my 6gallon batch how will the added sugar affect flavor?

just wanted to say thanks for the recipe! i jumped on the band wagon and brewed a 3.5 gallon batch of this today, BIAB method. i thought this would be a perfect beer for the warmer temps in my basement and this serious heat outside! (104 out right now, but started brewing at 7:30am to beat the heat).. plus i've been on a BIG rye beer kick lately, so perfect! the samples tasted great, can't wait for the finished product. i hit 1.059, finished with 3.7 gallons, and pitched the 3711 at 72*... we'll see how it goes. when moving to a secondary, i think i'm going to split it, and put 1 gallon on oak cubes, and the other 2.5 gallons straight up. interested how the oak works with this! i'll report back, but thanks again for a great recipe, so far