Candi sugar in a Saison?

I'm about to try my hand at a saison using the following recipe. I'm wondering if the pound of candi sugar is too much—I don't want a syruppy, overly sweet beer—is the function of the sugar simply to give the yeast something to ferment? Some recipes I've seen omit the sugar—can I go without?

My recipe:

0.75 lbs Vienna or Belgian Biscuit (steeped)
0.25 lbs (malted) Rye (steeped)
6 lbs Light LME or Pilsner LME
1 lbs Light DME
1 lbs clear candi rock sugar?
1 oz Northern Brewer (bittering, 60 min)
1 oz Saaz (aroma, 15–0 min)
WLP 565 or 566

I'd definitely like to use the 565 as I'm hoping for a spicier brew, but it seems like a difficult strain to work with. I don't really have any temperature controls—just a dark closet. Any tips would be great, as I'm pretty new to the game. Thanks!

You definitely do not need sugar in a saison. If you are going to use sugar, you should just use table or corn sugar. No special flavor in the clear rocks.

Is there a reason so many (saison) recipes call for candi sugar?

Sugar does not create sweet beer,but just the opposite.Sugarferments out completely and dries out the brew.

Don't waste your money on the rocks and just use plain table sugar.Since you are doing an extract batch, you should use the sugar to help dry it out.

565 will require temp control to get it to finish. If you only have a close to ferment in think about using 3711. That yeast is a set it and forget it yeast that willl always finish low.

dpaulbarrett said:

Is there a reason so many (saison) recipes call for candi sugar?

Click to expand...

Because people think if it's a Belgian beer it needs that candi sugar crap. Clear candi sugar = regular ass rock candy = boiled and cooled table sugar.

Saisons often have some kind of sugar to help dry them out but many of the most popular saisons out there contain zero sugar and are properly dried out by way of fermentation, grain bill and mash.

I did a saison this summer and added 1# of sugar dissolved in water. I added my sugar about 3 days into fermentation. My beer turned out great. I used the Wyeast 3724. Needs high temps to finish, I am in Texas so it was not problem, but it took a while.

Well what the heck, I had just a pound of very dark leftover inverted sugar and added it to my saison. With 17 pounds of grains it surley didn't need it, kinda takes away the meaning of most saisons. Its been fermenting from 68 now to 83 degrees with trappist w3787 yeast. Will see if the sugar has made any diffrence in about 3 months.

Add w yeast 3711, step back and keep the kids away from it. It will do the rest....