saison recipe help?

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Billybrewer09

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I'm brewing a saison tomorrow and I'm still not sure which recipe I want to use. Here are my choices. Any and all feed back is greatly appreciated.
1st recipe
5# pilsner
2# wheat malt
2#flaked corn
.5# Munich malt
.5# carapils
.25 magnum(60)
.50 simcoe (20)
.50 Amarillo (15)
1oz Amarillo (DH)

2nd recipe...
7# pale ale malt
2# flaked corn
1# wheat malt
Same hop schedule as above.
wyeast 3711

If you were brewing which would you choose or make changes to.
 
Out of the two I'd go for the second, but personally I'd use Pilsner instead of Pale ale malt. I like the simple grain bill and let the yeast shine. 3711 is a great yeast too. What temp are you going to mash at?
 
I use pale for my base, including saisons. Turns out quite tasty, but I like either bitter or sweet orange peel in my saisaons. 3711 is an excellent choice.
 
I agree with using pilsner for a saison, as well as putting some orange peel in. im also thinking about trying some rosehips in my next saison to see what happens with that.
 
Can you explain why you included flaked corn? I've not used it, but I thought it was to lighten up the body of a beer, but you also include wheat or carapils which adds body. Not criticizing; just curious how you thought through the recipes.
 
Also, you might want to think about mashing a little lower (like maybe 148 or 149) but be sure to mash for 90 minutes to get full conversion. These beers are supposed to finish very dry.
 
I have to agree on the orange peel suggested above. I also agree on using pilsner instead of pale. A big thing to keep in mind beyond this grain bill is your fermentation temps. 3711 likes a pretty hot fermentation and in my experience will stall at some point after the first 4-6 days, but if you let it hang out will pick back up and finish out.

Anyway, I think the second recipe looks delicious, and I also agree about the lower mash temp, dry this thing out.

Let us know how it turns out!
 
One reason why there's Pilsner on the first recipe and Pale on the second is possibly the SRM. I believe Pilsner is lighter therefore the munich darkened it up.
 
I like the simple recipe and would also use Pilsner and not pale malt. As an example here is my recipe:

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
9 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 69.2 %
3 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 2 23.1 %
1 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 3 7.7 %
1.75 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 23.6 IBUs
2.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 8 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] - Boil 20.0 mi Hop 5 9.8 IBUs
1.10 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 6 -
1.0 pkg French Saison (Wyeast Labs #3711) [50.00 Yeast 7 -
 
One other thought. The 3711 yeast is a beast. My OG was close to 1.070 and took my FG all the way down to 1.001 I also fermented hot 75*+.
 
I brewed this Sunday using the pale malt recipe and I added a half pound of honey malt.
I did not come up with either one of these recipes. They were taken out of the recipe data base on here.
I did mash this at 154 for the simple reason as I knew the corn would lighten the body up and the yeast would possibly dry it out so I wanted to balance the body with a higher mash temp.
I started fermentation at 68° and am slowly raising it over the next few days. So I guess I will see how it turns out in a month or so.
 
I brewed this Sunday using the pale malt recipe and I added a half pound of honey malt.
I did not come up with either one of these recipes. They were taken out of the recipe data base on here.
I did mash this at 154 for the simple reason as I knew the corn would lighten the body up and the yeast would possibly dry it out so I wanted to balance the body with a higher mash temp.
I started fermentation at 68° and am slowly raising it over the next few days. So I guess I will see how it turns out in a month or so.

It will be good.
 
I'm not really sure. I think mine was finished fermenting in a week or less. I let it sit in primary for a full week and then dry hopped for one week. Bottled and let condition for two weeks and it was ready. I have been reading about sasions and long age periods. So my next two will be aged for several months.
 
Thanks JLW. I will let it set in primary for a couple weeks and dry hop. Also thanks for the link. I will check it out
 
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