Brown Saison for Fall

[51mmz0rz]

My goal is to make a pretty dry, easy drinking Belgian ale for fall. I'm thinking 70-75% Saison, 25-30% Dubbel at a high level. I'm most interested in feedback on the amounts of special B, Caramunich, and Aromatic in this recipe (and maybe simplifying the grain bill):

8 lbs Belgian Pale
8 oz Wheat Malt
6 oz Special B
4 oz Aromatic
4 oz Caramunich
1 lb D-180 Candi Sugar
4 oz Sucrose

Hallertauer 2 oz @60 min
Hallertauer 0.5 oz @0 min

Wyeast 3726 (PC) Saison yeast

OG: 1.044
Est ABV: 5.2%
31 IBU
20.4 SRM

Any feedback appreciated.

-Brian

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

More of a winter than a fall sort of recipe but it's fine. I probably wouldn't use the D-180 and sucrose. It might thin out the beer too much. I'd leave out the special b unless you really want a raisin flavor. You'll get those stone fruit and rum flavors from D-180. If you wanted more dark fruit but not necessarily raisin you could use crystal 120 or 150 instead.

 

[51mmz0rz]

Thanks for the feedback, I think I do want a bit a special-b flavor, but now I think I'll reduce the amount. Also good idea on the sucrose, probably not needed.

 

[GuitarGumption]

I'm interested in making a similar beer. Looking forward to hearing how it turns out.

 

[berebrando]

I made a similar beer in late July. It turned out pretty good:

1.066
10 gallon
13.7 srm (but it looks darker than that)

24# 2-row
1.5# munich
1.5# special b
2 oz chocolate

that's where our recipes depart... I wanted a dark, strong and american-hopped beer. (I love the combination of saison yeast and fruity american hops.)

65 ibu
super galena to 25 ibu @ 90 minutes
2oz columbus/1oz cascade @15 minutes
3oz chinook/2oz columbus @ 5 minutes

I mashed at 150 and it dried out to 1.006, calculated to be 8% abv.

I like the slight coffee taste from the addition of chocolate, however, after the first sip you can't taste the malt character any more. I think it's dominated by the bitterness a little too much. I would probably dial back the hop bitterness in the next go-around.

 

[smokinghole]

I also vote leaving out the Special B. I leave it out of all my dark belgians and instead use only D180/D90 syrups and they turn out great with out that weird raisin flavor that I'm not a fan of from Special b.