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dcp27- agreed the whole cake would be way too much. I haven't washed before but still scooping out some into a starter has been very reliable for me.

Make sure the gravity has stopped dropping before you bottle. Bottle when it's finished. 16 days should be good, but I'd check the gravity before pulling the trigger. for a Belgian a lot of it's unique character comes from yeast and spices. I'd start out with a basic wheat or pale ale recipe...

There's a bunch of discussion on here about this and a process called yeast washing. I'm told you should go from light to dark but I've had luck both ways. I usually make a starter and scoop out a few tablespoons either the day before I brew or at mash in. close up the growler containing the...

It looks to me like your recipe is pretty straightforward as it is. I personally wouldn't consider a change in mash temp by a few degrees, or the addition of small amounts of flaked oats/wheat a big departure from any recipe, but that's just opinion. I'd keep the spices limited then if you're...

Personally I'm a big fan of S04 and Danstar's Munich. Just about every WYeast strain I've used has been a hit. I'd advocate scrapping the fermenter, or culturing from a bottle (recently did it with BBC's Steel Rail Pale Ale). Again, I think it all depends on the beer your brewing.

I too could be mistaken but I thought of saison as farmhouse ale, a "homebrew" of sorts that varies widely. I digress, couldn't you alter the mash temp to improve mouthfeel, or perhaps adding/increasing flaked oats or wheat in the recipe? As far as spices go I'm told corriander and orange zest...

WYeasy and White Labs seem to have more specific strains of yeast, and the slam pack with the nutrient inside are pretty good. Honestly, I have made good beer with both dry and liquid yeast I have made good beer making a starter and just sprinkling the dry yeast on the wort and I have made good...

I have to ask if the last recipe is the original, where'd the last pound of MO go? maybe that is the source of discrepancy with preboil water volumes. When I BIAB I'm usually brewing partial mash I know theres a good thread on here about the specifics of it. And I've never tried spliting that...

I don't see why it wouldn't work. I don't think you'll miss anything in body that you couldn't make up elsewhere, considering you're mashing pretty high at 158 (I'd try 154 or so). You might try a parti-gyle mash procedure. Where you have a base mash and then once you've run off (or collected)...

I am interested to know why Quaker says no sugar needed? All of my Belgians have come out fine with a little added to move the s.g. up a point or two.

Willamette and Northdown is my personal choice for something like this. I found Sterling plays well with others too.

1.047 seems a little low for a saison SG, but I'm brewing my first tonight so I could be wrong. I know most Belgians use some sugar to lighten the body a little-I personally prefer orange blossom honey for that purpose.

I could be wrong, but high temperatures may extract unwanted husky or tannin-esque flavors that you may not want

If I add honey to a batch I add it at 30 minutes or less, any more and it's just more fermentables with no aroma. I've heard of guys adding it to the secondary as well. On the other hand adding grains late in a mash is capping if I'm not mistaken, and that may help if done right.

If you move into extract plus steeped grains recipes you can boil your wort in a 20 QT stock pot on the stove. I'd look at any ale recipe that calls for approximations of the following 6 LBS liquid malt extract (or better yet 5LBS dry) 1/2 LB Caramel Malt 40L 1/2 LB carapils Malt 4 OZ Flaked...

patience is important, I wouldn't let is sit around too long. Ales like this are pretty good pretty young.

with an og of 1.038 I'd leave it there for a week and bottle (or keg) it. should be drinkable and carbed up 2 weeks after that, maybe 1 week if you can't wait ;)

There's a brewery on the east coast smoking 2-row over hickory and pork belly. I hear they make a beer that intentionally tastes like bacon-and they say it's damn good too.

I just stopped tipping the glass, I cut the shuck and jive and just pour the beer. The ultimate solution is just to drink it straight from the bottle, no worries about foam that way.

My LHBS stocks Dried Banana Powder. They say it's for wine, has anybody used it in beer?