mY first saison, critique!

[ldtagtrip]

hi there,
I wanna brew my first saison and i want some advice from you guys, i know that most of people have brewed saisons before.
i find my malt bill to busy for a simple saison!
no idea for yeast yet, french saison or belgiun saison?
noble hops or citrusy?

7 lbs belgian pilsner
1.5 lbs white wheat malt
0.5 lbs flaked oats
8 oz caramunich
some kind of sugar for dryness
viena malt???
some kind of orange flavour.
thank you very much, any kind of information is helpfull.

 

[beergolf]

Looks pretty good. If it was me I would drop the Caramunich. I do not think Cara/ Crystal malts belong in a Saison.

You can use just plain table sugar About .5-1 lb is plenty. I sometimes use Turbinado. It adds a slight flavor difference and slightly darkens the beer.

For your first Saison I would keep it simple to get an idea of what the yeast flavor is like, so I would not use any orange. But that being said sometimes a little orange peel in a Saison can be pretty tastey.

As far as hops go. It can be pretty open. I really like Strisselspalt in my saisons, but any of the noble hops also work well. That is the more traditional route.For a more new world type some of the citrusy hops can also make a nice saison. Even something like Nelson Sauvin can make a very nice saison. Depends what you are looking for. Shoot for a BU:GU ratio of about .487.

For yeast there are several choices. Belle Saison and 3711 are super easy to use and always finish nice and low, but still give the brew some. mouthfeel. I like the flavor of 3724 better, but it does require some better temperature control. That yeast works well with pitching in the mid to upper 60's and then once fermentation starts ramp the temp up. You can take it all the way to 90 and it will give you great saison.

I love Saisons and heve brewed about 50 of them. The beauty of them is it is a pretty loose style. As long as it finishes low and dry you are good. Adjuncts like wheat, oats, rye and even spelt are all good options for changing it up. Later if you like the style even adding brett to the brew makes a great saison.

Good luck.

 

[ldtagtrip]

Thank you very much, that was very instructional and complete, i really like some guidance when brewing a new style.

 

[azscoob]

My saison recipe has caramunich in it because I needed to use it up, it turned out really nice, give your recipe a go and see how it turns out, maybe brew a batch with bitter orange peel, then go for coriander next attempt, then change up the recipe grainbill and toss in grains of paradise... Have fun with it!

 

[rappell]

I would recommend the book Farmhouse Ales by Phil Markowski. Great read and lots of info on both Saisons and Biere de Garde.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937381845/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20