Okay gents, have at it.... https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/543869/session-saison What I'm looking for is a light bodied, moderate alcohol, spicy Saison, very dry, something I can drink pints of and not wonder how I'm going to get past the "fermentation character." As I mentioned in another thread, I'm looking for a sessionable Saison du Pont. Your feedback is appreciated....
Mod 1 already made: Replaced the wheat malt with spelt malt, added an ounce of Carafa for colour and a touch of nuttiness, upped bitterness to 27 IBU.
Pilsner as a base malt is a very good idea. You say " spicy and dry ", I automatically think of Rye. So get 10% Rye in the mix or maybe a bit more, depending on how you " like " the Rye character. Rye blends well with the esters and phenols from a Saision yeast. Keep the flaked wheat, but drop the sugar and the Vienna malt. They are not needed. I would drop those. I am not familiar with the yeast you have chosen, but as any other Saison yeasts, I think it will be wonderful. I just love Saisons!!! Mash low - 149F/65C - for 60-90 minutes, keep the grainbill clean and ferment HOT! It will turn out awesome. PS: If you wish to add a new/different dimension to your Saison, I would think about dry hopping. I know, it may seem totally unneccessary, but I have done it. Just use something like Citra, Mosaic, El Dorado, Denali, Eureka, Ella, etc.
It seems you wrote at the same time I replied. This was my latest Saison: 4000 gr Pilsner 500 gr Rye 500 gr Spelt 100 gr Chocolate Spelt 200 gr Oat Hulls OG: 1.060 FG: 1.007 It was supposed to be a 5% Saison, but had crazy eff. with my Grainfather and a new grain crush. 7% of goodness. I dry hopped it with Rakau and Falconer's Flight 7C'S. I like the Spelt addition. Maybe Carafa would be a bit too much/astringent... I used Chocolate Spelt and although it gave a beautiful amber colour, it is definitely better in darker beers.
Saaz and Styrian combination of hops will give you the ideal spicy and balanced hop profile for a saison, (my opinion). I just brewed a saison, I didn't particularly like it only because I thought it was perfectly balanced and didn't have anything special to it. Recipe was 70% Belgian Pale, 20% White Wheat, and 10% Vienna. Even amounts of Styrian and saaz equalling 30 IBUs 50% Styrian @ 60 50% Saaz @ 20 50% Styrian @ 5 50% Saaz @ flameout my water was Ca:75, Cl: 75, SO4: 75 AND, the kicker here if you're trying to make a session beer. USE LESS GRAINS, I promise. Saison yeasts love to eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat. THe last two saisons I had planned were supposed to be 8% and 6% and they ended up being 10.5% and 7.75%...
Thanks for all the advice! I've set the custom attenuation at 80% to compensate for the aggressive yeast. I think I'll go with my mod, maybe rethink the color malt and let you know how it comes out.
UH uh I'd go 90% attenuation as an average from my experience I got 90% + attenuation from my two Saisons I've brewed.
80% gives me a margin of error. I want to keep the ABV under 5.5%. Just bounced the recipe off the LHBS staff and they concur: brew as modified.
I'm drinking a 5.7% Saison at the brewery attached to the LHBS. I want mine drier. But this is quite good.
I've got a malt bill all weighed out for a Saison to be brewed tomorrow. I had intended a different recipe, but mistakenly grabbed my bin of white wheat malt for a recipe that definitely didn't need that. And I had to sub some specialty malts because I was out of one of the ingredients. I re-did the original recipe but saved this one and I think it'll make a quite nice saison: https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/529816/fortuitous-french-saison
