Saison recipe

[erockomania]

HI all, I'm going to brew a 10 gallon, all grain batch of Saison this weekend. I want to make a fairly simple recipe and would like your thoughts on this...

BHE: assuming 70% for OG of 1.055
15 lb - Pilsner malt
5 lb - Munich
1 lb - Carapils
8oz - Corn Sugar

90 min boil:
3 oz Saaz at FWH
2 oz Cascade at 20
1 oz Saaz at 5 min

1600ml starter of WL Saison II Yeast - ferment at 75ish (room temp at my house)

Thoughts?

 

[lowtones84]

Looks good to me! Probably don't need the carapils but shouldn't be too much in a 10 gallon batch I wouldn't think. Could up the sugar a bit if you wanted to.

Using that yeast though, I would see if you can bump it up to 80+ (mine got around 90 for a bit...) somehow for a few days after the first day or two. I've made two batches with that yeast and I'm not sure if that's the only factor, there are a lot more of those tasty saison esters and phenolics in the batch where I got the temp up there more.. I'm sure you'll make good beer without driving it that high, but it really shines when fermented 80+ I think.

 

[biestie]

Looks good to me. I might consider dialing back the carapils and dialing up the sugar slightly. My saisons usually finish a point or two higher than beersmith says it should so that's how I compensate, especially if you don't have the capability to ramp up the temp. Saison yeasts are a little picky. Saison II isn't quite so much.

 

[erockomania]

Ok thanks guys. Maybe I'll drop the carapils and add more sugar.

 

[barleyhole]

I usually use 16 oz of Belgian amber candi syrup though it may help up the color which some Saison snobs frown upon. I have also used the Saison II yeast with good results. First day fermented at 66 F then I put it in my furnace room and it fermented for 2 weeks at 79 F. Took some time to mellow out, but oh my.

I always add a few oz of wheat (at least) to help head retention, and you could add 1/2 of orange peel and coriander near flame out (very optional).

 

[erockomania]

I added the carapils for head retention.

 

[WhenInMinnesota]

+1 for getting the fermentation temps into the 80s if possible. Saison yeasts do great work at 80+. There's a small brewery in SW Minnesota that pitches the yeast for their saison in the 90s just to get it started.

 

[brewvac]

I just started drinking my homebrewed saison that had 1lb of candy suger in a 5 gallon batch and I'm already planning on adding more sugar to the next batch.

Your recipe looks good. Good Luck!

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Instead of carapils you could add wheat. It will help get that haze saisons usually have as well as give you head retention.

 

[lowtones84]

Instead of carapils you could add wheat. It will help get that haze saisons usually have as well as give you head retention.

Yeah, or rye, or flaked barley...but I don't think there's anything wrong with carapils. Hey, it's saison and it's your recipe. You can always give it another shot!

 

[Brew-boy]

I would up the sugar and get do away with the cascade hops.

 

[erockomania]

ok, so I brewed this over the weekend and ended up with ridiculous efficiency (96%?!) which leaves me with really high abv. At first I thought my refractometer was screwy and then I checked it with distilled water. Perfect.

Check out my planner/calc and let me know if something looks off! I withdrew the 8oz of Corn Sugar I was planning on adding because that would have put this thing WAY too high.

 

[erockomania]

On a side note, I used another wort chiller as a pre-chiller in some ice along with the jamil recirc/whirlpool arm and a pump... 20-25 mins from 190deg to 75deg. Awesome. This thing has been fermenting at above 80deg for the last two days

Also, in order to make this a beer the ladies can still drink, I filled one carboy with a little more and one with a little less, then diluted it with 2 quarts of water to bring the OG to 1.059. I used the WLP Saison Blend yeast for this batch because of it's lower attenuation. I used the Saison II for the 1.068 batch. Both had 1600ml starters.

Could my new mill (gapped at .32) really increase my efficiency THAT much? Up until the last few batches (all increased eff, but not this much) I went with the HBS crush. My eff was always in the low 70s. In case you are wondering, I double batch sparge.

 

[erockomania]

Any thoughts? Is 96% possible?

 

[Jamming]

Made a Belgian saison a month or so ago and also had a very surprising efficiency, mabe due to the candy sugar I added in the boil. Just remember saison is a slow attenuation beer, took 16 days for mine to finish at 82f, just don't rush it or you will end up with apple juice tasting beer, like my first saison.

 

[planetscott]

The home brew club I am in does a Saison for a group brew every summer. It's a very simple recipe. We only use Belgian pilsner malt. No wheat, no crystal, or any other malts. Since we started utilizing this simple recipe, the beer has won over a dozen awards. We all follow the same steps of fermenting in a very warm location and adding corn sugar 3 days in to fermentation. We have used both WL 566 and Wyeast 3724. Both have won awards. For mine, I use Sorachi Ace hops late in the boil. It gives it that slight tartness that is specified in the style guidelines.

A lot of recipes i see add too much crystal when you don't need to add any. If you look at the benchmark example, you will see hpw light in color it is......They don't use any other malts, just pilsner.

 

[tgmartin000]

Any thoughts? Is 96% possible?

Yep. And if you wanna speed the process, you can switch to a single batch sparge. I didn't notice any loss in efficiency.

 

[erockomania]

I just do the double because I only have a 10 gallon mash tun and need further runnings to get my preboil volume