Saison recipe and Q

After finally feeling like I'm settled in my new apartment enough to really move past extract/steeped grain brewing and on to some partial mash brewing. I'm gonna follow DeathBrewer's stovetop partial mash method as it seems like a great way to make the jump.

Having never made a saison but being really into them right now and with the summer coming up I love the style for the warm months.

This is the recipe I came up with. I pulled elements from a couple recipes here as well as the french saison recipe from the Mad Fermentationist's blog.

Her she is in all it's glory:
5 gallons
90 minute boil

5# - Belgian Pilsen Malt
1.5# - German Munich Malt
1.0# - German Wheat Malt
4.5# - Light LME

2.5oz - Saaz @ 60 minutes
1.5oz - Saaz @ 10 minutes
1.5oz - Saaz @ flameout

Wyeast 3711 - French Saison

So, now that she is out there, what should I change? Shooting for 5.5-6% abv with a bit of a bite to it. I don't really want to add any spices, though as I want to get a grasp on what the ingredients taste like by themselves. So, if that means the bite is gonna be real light then I'm fine with it.

Thanks for anything you can offer up!

I personally think it looks solid. My only thought is that you could use a higher AA hop at 60 minutes and save yourself some money (you can even use an american bittering hop and move it to 90min just to make sure all flavor is boiled off). maybe switch a little LME or malt for some simple sugars. The simple sugar will help you finish dry. I saw you don't have a mash temp for your malts, I would suggest low, like 145ish, and mash for 60-90min.

Otherwise, I think you have a very standard saison recipe on your hands. Don't worry, 3711 will put enough saison bite in there for ya

Nice job.

yeh looks good...though I'm not a saaz fan...

it should turn out well...I haven't ever used 3711 ....but haven't heard anything bad.

brewed my saison yesterday...its looking good!

Just called around to a couple LHBS in the Philly burbs' looking for 3711 myself. It seems to be back-ordered. As Kyle said, I would sub in corn sugar for some of the LME. Will also save you some $$. Probably target about 5-10 % of the grist as corn sugar. . . or turbinado (raw cane sugar). This should help dry it out.

Kylewolf:

I've never added sugar to my HB before so this will be another fun first on this brew. How does 3# LME and 1# corn sugar sound? I would like a dry finish on this beer so if the sugar is gonna help I'm all for it.

As for a substitution for the first addition of Saaz, how about 2oz of Cascade sound?

Hadabar: What yeast did you use for your saison?

BrewNow: Figures, the yeast I want is out. I'm heading to Keystone this weekend (picking up my rhizomes!) so I'll see if they'll order it for me.

Thanks everyone for the input!

try brewmaster's warehouse for 3711. The only reason I said something about the hops is to save you a few bucks, but saaz and cascade can be fairly similar so don't worry about it.

I would say use table sugar over corn sugar but that is my personal preference. Just take 1lb of it, dissolve in 1cup of water and a little lemon juice. bring to a boil for 5-8min. cool. add to primary around day 3 or 4 of fermentation.

Or, just dump the sugar into the boil around the 15min mark.

Capa said:

Kylewolf:

I've never added sugar to my HB before so this will be another fun first on this brew. How does 3# LME and 1# corn sugar sound? I would like a dry finish on this beer so if the sugar is gonna help I'm all for it.

As for a substitution for the first addition of Saaz, how about 2oz of Cascade sound?

Hadabar: What yeast did you use for your saison?

BrewNow: Figures, the yeast I want is out. I'm heading to Keystone this weekend (picking up my rhizomes!) so I'll see if they'll order it for me.

Thanks everyone for the input!

Click to expand...

I use wlp 565...its got a bad wrap...but it just take patients....3 months and you have a great saison...I agree, use sugar to dry out.

I should mention I make my saison in the og's of .047 - .054. I try to keep them pretty low in abv. the yeast won't go to the lengths 3711 will....let me know how it goes.

oh btw....I strongly urge that you use noble hops. it really makes a difference.

I'm partial to Spalt, my LHBS actually had strisselspalt...so I used that for flame out...

for a saison, simpler is better... I know the need for making something your own...just remember to keep it simple is my best advice...

Picked everything up (minus the yeast, ugh) today and hope to brew in the next day or two. Changed the hops to 1 oz pearl at 60 and kept the rest of the saaz the same. Thanks again for the help!

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

With this recipe you can just add the sugar at flame out or last 10 min in the boil. It's not a high gravity wort that that you need to incrementally feed sugar to like with wlp099.