Saison recipes that shove the yeast flavors into the back seat?

[Bosh]

I've fallen in love with the Danstar Belle Saison yeast (my Vienna/Bravo SMaSH saison is fermenting away beautifully) and having a yeast that works fine in very hot weather is a godsend for summer brewing. I'm planning on using this yeast over and over and over again until the weather cools down.

So I've been looking through saison recipes and the bulk of them showcase the specifically saison yeast flavors by keeping the hops and malt mild or by adding spices and other adjuncts.

However, if I brew with this same yeast again and again and again I'm probably going to get pretty damn sick of saison spiciness and would like to get some flavor from other sources to balance it out or simply overpower it. Belle Saison ferments a bit cleaner than some other saison yeasts so that's a plus. Some ideas:
-Malty sweetness: Belle Saison is a beast and eats through a lot of sugars other yeast strains don't touch and gets things crazy dry. Will try putting in a bunch of Munich malt, but am a bit nervous about loading in lots of crystal.
-Hops, MOAR hops: thinking of doing some hopbursting to get a lot of flavor without overwhelming a beer as dry as this strain tends to get things. Got bravo, millenium, summit and columbus on hand and they all pack a nice big punch.
-Roasted malts: not sure how much to put in, would like some roasty flavor but again with a yeast strain that's so attenuative I'm a bit leery about putting in a lot without making in acrid.

Any good ideas? Just want a saison that isn't a total phenol/ester bomb if at all possible.

 

[tagz]

I would try an all Munich base. Also, Nelson hops will cover up just about anything!

 

[m00ps]

I'd try the roasted malts route. I recently finished up a black saison with Sorachi Ace hops using WY3711. This was my 2nd brew of it though. First one was Belle Saison. Both turned out great and only have a hint of yeast spice. Nice lemon herbal character from the Sorachis. The high attenuation is what sets it apart as a "black" saison. I used midnight wheat to get the color with the least amount of roast. Just be sure to do a mashout to get the last bit of color extracted from the grains

8lb pilsner
1lb midnight wheat
1lb flaked corn
2lb torrified wheat
1lb cane sugar

@60: 1 oz sorachi ace
@10: 1 oz sorachi ace / 1 oz lemon drop
@0: 1 oz sorachi ace / 1 oz lemon drop
@dry: 1 oz sorachi ace

personally i doubt I could ever get tired of the saison yeast flavors. That's the reason I fell in love with the style in the first place.

 

[Bosh]

My first saison uses Vienna base so stepping it up to Munich could be good.

Will do a black saison one of these days. Had a 7.5% ABV brewpub black saison that was to die for: full body, plenty malty, just enough hops to balance it and just subtle bits of roastiness and yeast esters. SWMBO loved it and usually the only dark beer she`ll drink is Kozel Dark...

 

[brewbeerry]

Belle Saison yeast is pretty much like a wheat yeast, I didn't get much out of it fermenting around 75-80.

 

[Bosh]

Belle Saison yeast is pretty much like a wheat yeast, I didn't get much out of it fermenting around 75-80.

That`s good to hear. Don`t taste much yeast flavors from the hydrometer sample but as more and more hop flavor goes out the airlock I`m sure I`ll taste more later.

But the thing is I`ll be fermenting through a Korean summer without even a swamp cooler (have to keep the fermenter in a locked closet or my younger son will dump it over when I`m not looking and no space for a swamp cooler in there) and I`m sure the fermerter will get into the 90`s and give me some serious yeast flavor.

Also seems like this strain ferments out drier than I prefer so want to look into putting in some sugars it won`t eat without getting it syrupy. Will try Munich to start then maybe melanoidin for a "these Belgians are crazy!" nut brown ale.

Hmmmm will also have to do a heavily wheat one for SWMBO. Maybe 25% pale, 25% munch, 50% wheat with a light hand on the hops...

Just brain storming at this point. Just don`t like beers that are utterly dominated by any one flavor whether they`re light estery hefes or dry IPAs or very roasty stouts. Like stuff like Arrogant Bastard where there`s plenty of stuff going on.