My first basic Saison style ale recipe

[Verett]

Since I live in Texas where it's pretty warm I thought I would attempt my first Saison style. I like the idea of being able to ferment at room temp and not having to use water baths/ice/fans to keep my brew within normal ale fermentation temps. I came up with a very basic recipe and really want to just see what kinds of flavors I get out of the BE134 yeast I will be using. Also this is for a 4 gallon batch BTW since I keg in a 3 gallon keg.

What do you think?

Grain Bill:

Rahr 2-row Pale malt	8 lbs
German Vienna malt	1 lbs

Mashed at 150F for 80min with 4 gallons of bottled spring water. Batch sparged with 2 gallons of bottled spring water at 170F for 10min.
Target pre-boil volume: 5 gallons.

Hop schedule:
Estimated IBU 40-43

.3 oz of New Zealand Green Bullet (18.8% AA)	55 min
.25 oz of New Zealand Green Bullet (18.8% AA)	15 min
.3 oz of New Zealand Green Bullet (18.8% AA)	5 at flame out/whirlpool

Target post-boil volume: 4 gallons of wort
Refractometer readings:

First runnings	20 Brix (1.083 SG)
Pre-boil	11 Brix (1.044 SG)
Post-boil	15.2 Brix (1.062 SG)

Pitched with Fermentis BE134 (Belgian Saison-style ale yeast) at 75 degrees F
Target fermentation temperature 75 degrees F

 

[jrgtr42]

I'm looking to do something very similar soon (look for my thread, Simple Saison a bit down in this sub-forum.)
I'm looking for a way lower SG, about 1.055, so I have a similar grain bill, plus a pound of sugar to dry things out, for a 5.5 gallon batch.
I'm going to add in some rye malt too, and use Saaz hops for the traditional effect.
Yours does look pretty good, as well.

 

[monkeymath]

I don't see anything that could be "wrong" about a simple recipe such as this. You haven't told us what you envision your beer to be, except a "Saison style ale", so it's hard to make any suggestions. I think it's wise to start out simple and then try and adjust after.

I've never used "Green Bullet" and I also don't know BE134 (but I've heard good things).

Some people, including me, like to throw in some unmalted grains in hopes of reducing the malt sweetness and improving head retention. But note that Saison Dupont is 100% barely malt. 15 Plato without any sugar is probably going to leave quite a bit of residual sweetness.

Your mash duration is quite long, I'm not too sold on the idea that much happens beyond the 60 minute mark, but it certainly won't hurt.
You could incorporate a ferulic acid rest to promote phenolic flavours, but this depends kn your taste and the yeast strain, both of which I do not know.

To sum it up: brew it, tell us what it tastes like and how you want to change it, then maybe we can give you more adequate feedback.
Saisons rock, you'll have a nice beer.

 

[Verett]

UPDATE: It fermented out to 1.005 within 3 days (that's puts it about 7.5% ABV) which was exactly what what Brewers Friend said it should hit when I entered my recipe. This is a picture of a sample I took out after 5 days. It's hazy, but I don't mind that too much. Taste (even though it's still pretty young) has a nice clean, crisp, peppery hop that its not super forward. I do pick up a good amount of belgian yeast flavor profile of floral and clove notes. It taste pretty dry and body is thin. But that's what I was going for since I want this to be a very easy drinking refreshing summer beer. Instead of waiting and letting it sit in the primary another week I transferred it to a keg after 5 days in primary to carb it (normally I let my beers go 2-3 weeks in primary, but I am a little impatient on this one so I just went for it and did a quick and dirty route). Overall I like it so far, which it really all that matters I guess. I'll update once it's fully carbonated.

 

[Verett]

Update: So after letting this one sit and mellow out in a keg and slowly carbing it looks like this. Nice golden color, decent head, not too thin of a body, fantastic Belgian yeast aroma, hop profile is clean and simple, but maybe just a tad bit too high on the IBU's for this style so would probably adjust that if I repeat this one. I may also consider adding a little wheat next time to add even a little more complexity to it. It may not be a perfect example of a Saison, but if it the style is supposed to be an everyday commoners type beer than I'd say it's not too shabby. Overall, I wanted to know what this yeast strain was capable of and I liked the results a lot and will definitely be using it more often than others like US-05.

 

[Twinkeelfool]

Looks great !