Conditioning a Saison: Questions.

[jekeane]

I brewed a Sweet Potato Saison 2.5 weeks ago for my first home brew club competition that is in August. What I am wondering is what is the best way to go about conditioning the beer until then. I can do any of the following: Bottle, Keg, Leave it in primary, Secondary. I have 2.5 months till this beer needs to be ready what would you do to get the best product?

My OG was 1.070 and my sample today was 1.011 coming in at a 7.75% ABV which was about .5% higher than what the recipe expected.

Here is the recipe for reference:
Partial Mash:
o 10 pounds of sweet potatoes, roasted and peeled
o 1 pound Vienna Malt
o 1/2 pound Crystal Malt
o 1/2 pound Wheat Malt
For the Boil:
o 3.5 Pounds Light Liquid Malt Extract (LME)
o 3.5 Pounds Amber Liquid Malt Extract (LME)
o 3/4 lb Brown Sugar
o 1/2 lb Molasses
Hops
o 1 oz. Mount Hood (7.5% AA) – 60 minutes
o 1/2 oz. Hallertauer (3.3% AA) – 15 minutes
Yeast
o Belgian Saison I (WLP565) (1.6L starter)
Spices
o 2 tsp ground cinnamon
o 1/2 tsp allspice
o 1/2 tsp ground cloves
o 1 tsp ground ginger
o 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Extras
Yeast nutrient
Wirfloc

 

[lowtones84]

With that long to condition, I would bottle, but only when it's ready. I'm a firm believer in bottle conditioning saisons (and lots of Belgian styles), and you've got more than enough time. But I've never brewed with sweet potatoes either, so I'm not sure what aspects that brings.

 

[daksin]

I like some yeast in my saison, so I'd bottle condition it if you have the time. Plus, you can use a titch more priming sugar than normal and get it a little fizzy for extra character and better head retention!

Also, wow that's a lot of sweet potatoes and not a lot of grain. Next time, you may want to do this as an all grain because you're going to need a ton of malt to have the diastatic power to get to work on the starch in the potatoes. How does it taste? There's sugar in the yams, but definitely starch also so you could be pretty hazy.

 

[jekeane]

Tastes good. it is a little hot at the moment. The original instruction just steeped the grains in a bag and potatoes loosely then used a colander to get them out. I went ahead and put them in a mash tun @ 152 and sparged @ 170. I came away with a 1.025 preboil (pre LME gravity)