Saison with really low fg

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fatmoose

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So I recently brewed my first partial mash recipe doing a saison. I kept it pretty basic, just 3# wheat LME, 5# pilsner malt and an ounce of bitter orange peel. I missed my starting gravity by a fair margin and ended up with only 1.032, a real shocker for a first time masher I know. I had seen recommendations to include a pound of sugar to dry it out good. This past Sunday it had been fermenting for a week and was at 1.006, I added a pound of corn sugar boiled in a quart of water and cooled. Today I checked the final gravity and it was all the way down to .996! I know you want a saison to finish low but is this good or in any way desirable? The sample I tried out was extremely dry but definitely had some of flavors I got when I drank the Farmgirl Saison that inspired this idea. I'm thinking I'll include some specialty grains next time to try and increase my starting gravity and add a bit more body to the finished product.
 
That sounds like you are talking grain pilsner malt in which case you would not yield that high of a gravity from 5# of just that and LME. Especially if they were not properly milled or you just had bad efficiency. Give us your recipe, mashing temps and length and maybe we can be of more help.
 
Is it good? Is it desirable?

I'd have to drink it to answer these questions.

1.004 isn't uncommon for a normal gravity saison and you made a pretty low gravity saison so I would say, not out of the ordinary.
 
That sounds like you are talking grain pilsner malt in which case you would not yield that high of a gravity from 5# of just that and LME. Especially if they were not properly milled or you just had bad efficiency. Give us your recipe, mashing temps and length and maybe we can be of more help.

I was less worried about my efficiency (which I do think was quite poor), I think I've got a couple areas identified where my efficiency can be improved. I did a method based on DeathBrewers stovetop partial mash and I think I didn't have a long enough sparge time. Based on another thread that was in here I figure that the crush on my grain was not particularly good. Those two things combined I think should go a good distance towards improving my efficiency.

I was just more surprised at the FG reading below 1.000, I didn't think a beer could or should do that.
 
Are you sure your hydrometer is accurate? Try taking a reading in 60 degree water. It should be 1.000.
 
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