Help me refine my belgian rye saison recipe

It would of course depend on the exact Pilsner malt, but IIRC I've seen Belgian Pilsner malt with a diastatic power (DP) of over 100 degrees lintner. If so, at 45% of the grain bill, that (100+ DP) should be plenty, averaging to more than 45 DP.

 

Assuming he buys a variety with sufficient DP and the actual grain in that lot really has enough. A little variance and he's got problems. Judging by his posts it sounds like he is new to brewing and isn't familiar with these issues. I think he's better off giving himself some cushion.

 

Maybe. FWIW, I've done mashes with Maris Otter malt and enough specialty grains to take the avg computed DP to about 25, and got full conversion.

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with that advice, for newbies.

 

Adding sugar later in the fermentation is fairly common with Big beers. The idea is that it helps prevent the fermentation from getting too hot too early, and so that the yeast don't preferentially go after the simple sugars and potentially under-attenuate the more complex sugars.

I'm not sure I'd bother doing it that way, for a half pound of Turbinado in a mid-gravity wort. In fact I know I wouldn't, because I have used that much in some Belgians before and just added it to the boil.

Edit: It was piloncillo, not turbinado. Same idea though.

 

Just wanted to say... I have used a lot of rye malt in a lot of batches, up to 40% of the total grist, and I find it NOT to be dry and spicy as most people seem to claim. Similar to the flavor difference between barley malt and wheat malt, rye malt gives a third kind of different bready malt flavor. The other thing rye does is to add body and mouthfeel, and the thickest creamiest head you have ever seen in your life, even more than wheat. So if you want to use wheat to enhance the head or creaminess, consider the fact that with a pound or two of rye in there, you really won't need any wheat for that purpose. And all this information really goes for rye malt or flakes, either one is very similar in character.

Don't expect rye to make your beer dry and spicy. In a saison, you might end up dry and spicy anyway. But it won't be from the rye.

I recognize that no one might agree with me. But I've used a lot of rye and this is my experience.

 

I agree with you.

I don't use rye anymore. Not a bad ingredient, but it doesn't do much for me.

 

Sometimes I like to get good head.

I don't use rye quite so much anymore either. Although chocolate rye is pretty interesting stuff, in a porter or brown ale or whatever. It's more earthy than standard chocolate malt from barley. Like dirt. But in a good way.

 

I agree with this. Also, stuck sparges like a MFer make it a pain in the ass.