Favorite Saison Recipe?

10# american 2 row
2 # red wheat
2 # flaked oats

2 oz Tett 60 min
2 oz saaz 10 min

liquid (3724) 565
bottle conditined after
2.5-3 weeks primary (glass)
1 week secondary (glass)

brewed this 4 times each time very enjoyable

cheers

 

90% pils,
10% rye malt,
20 IBU Calypso for 60 minutes,
1oz Calypso per 5 gallons at flameout,
yeast cultured from Blaugies dregs,
soft water adjusted to ~ 50ppm Ca and 120ppm SO4 with gypsum.
Mashed at 146F for 75 minutes, 90min boil, OG ~ 1.050, FG ~ 1.007.

The rye gives it an interesting edge and goes well with the dry finish. I've done the same recipe with wheat and oats in the past and rye is definitely best. The most recent version did well in 2 competitions and got a 41 from a grand master judge. Your 3724 will give essentially the same flavor profile, it might just be a little more finicky about finishing the fermentation.

 

I really like wlp670 (yeah, I know, shut up about it already) american farmhouse blend. I used a 50/50 wheat pils base with some carared, like 4oz I think, and it came out great.

 

Well, I've only ever used 3711 yeast, but it works like a champ, even at 64F constant fermentation temperature. The beer was a very simple:

• 12 lbs pilsner malt*
• 1 oz fuggles at 60
• 1 oz fuggles at 15
• 1 oz fuggles at 5
• 1 oz fuggles at 0

Targets:

• OG 1.062
• IBU 27.8
• SRM 2.7
• ABV 6.9

Came out great, probably the 2nd best smash I've made yet. Note 64F constant fermentation temperature didn't neutralize the saison-y flavors from 3711, nor did it in any way slow that yeast down. It was about six points below my usual finishing gravity (finished at about 1.005, I'm usually about 1.010-1.011 for most of my beers in that ABV range).


This won't really help you decide what to do with this recipe and your 3724, of course, I'm mostly including it because of the discussion of yeast, and for future reference to anyone who can make use of it.


FWIW, I may brew this one again, nearly exactly the same, except I think I'm out of fuggles, so I'll use a different hop. Fuggles isn't real strong, so this recipe did not come out very hoppy, despite the hop schedule. Actually I've found that willamette, fuggles, serebrianka et al type of hops can all be used in around this quantity without turning your beer into a "hoppy" <whatever>. That's not to say you'll fall within "traditional" for any given recipe, but only to say that you're not going to turn a saison into an IPA using these hops unless you use a shovel when you're adding them to the boil.


*I believe this calls for a 90 minute boil. Anyone care to recite the reason why so I don't have to google it? Actually I think I forgot about this "rule" and only did a 60 minute boil. If there were any ill-effects from this, neither me nor anyone else noticed. Remember tho, if n=1, S=0, so don't do a 60 minute boil and say "al told me to do it that way." .




Dangit, what's up with the formatting? This happens to me every now and then, and I'm not sure why. I am FOR using paragraphs, I swear!

EDIT2: now it's gone into overkill mode on the spacing after the attempt at editing. Who knows.

 

1. I adjusted only my mash water. I did add a small dose of phosphoric acid to the sparge water to make sure the runoff pH didn't get too high - this is more art than science and depends on your brewing water and recipe. I do think it's good to keep the runoff below 5.9 or so. My well water is about 20ppm Ca and very low alkalinity, so it's basically a blank slate. YMMV.
2. I'm gonna guess that a mixture of Palisade and Magnum would be closest to Calypso, but not that close. Calypso is a bit unique. I did just rebrew this recipe with all Belma last weekend; haven't tasted it yet but based on my Belma IPA, I expect it to be nice.

 

My saison recipe is probably the closest thing I have to a house beer. I use 3711 though, so I don't know how useful it will be in this particular instance.

85% Pils
15% Wheat Malt

.25oz Citra FWH
.75oz Citra @ 15 minutes
1oz Citra @ flameout

Wyeast 3711

OG: 1.050

 

I'm very interested to hear your results on the Belma IPA (and the saison too). I was one of the first to post tasting notes on belma, and I made an IPA. Those initial comments are posted here.

I am wondering how belma and citra would go together. The fruitiness components might enhance each other (if you're looking for fruity flavors).

OP: personally, given your list of hops, I'd be tempted to use belma, tettnanger, or saaz for a saison, with a decent late addition*. But I haven't tried calypso, so I can't say on that.

*I'm not known for following style guidelines, and rarely brew anything that doesn't have a decent late addition, lol

 

Pils malt is highest in S-methymethionine, the precursor to DMS. A long, rolling boil (plus a quick chill) drives this off and helps prevent cooked corn/vegetal flavor/aroma in the finished beer.

 

Just brewed my first saison and I am very happy with the results. It is similar to axeman9182's. Except I used some dextrose, the OG was 1.060, and I used a bit of magnum at 60 min and galaxy and amarillo near the end of the boil. Ibu's were around 35. The galaxy and amarillo late additions pair really well with 3711.

 

My 1st Belma IPA turned out pretty good; it had a big flameout addition that came through as an orange juice flavor, with a little dankness in the background. I agree that the dry hop aroma is weak but I got a fair amount of flavor that I liked from the late addition. It's not really complex enough to be on its own in an IPA. I have a Cascade + Belma IPA on now that is much better.

I'm going to rack the saison today but I expect my hydrometer sample will mostly taste of yeast.

 

LOL, I was thinking "could use some cascade" too when I tasted my belma IPA. I got more dankness with the belma IPA than I think is optimal for an IPA (I don't mind "dank" as a hops flavor descriptor tho). For dry hopping, even my two ounces of belma didn't leave enough aroma, so I think it's probably not as suited to dry hopping as to flavor or bittering. I bought three pounds of belma when it was $5 a pound, so I still have plenty of them left.

My cascade/vienna smash would have been better with some belma (in hindsight). I am thinking the vienna malt would be complimented by about 50% of the cascade being replaced by belma. Vienna malt made for a pretty good base malt by itself tho, just not as good (IMO) as munich (I like the rich flavor and red color of munich).

Actually... inspiration! Double-SMaSH! 50/50 munich/vienna, and 50/50 belma/cascade! I'm going to try it! What's the worst that can happen, I'll have made beer?

 

Just racked the saison, and it had the expected orange flavor, with a rough edge. There are tropical fruit notes too but I think that's from the yeast. Little to no aroma, or it's buried by yeast aromas.