Saison recipe critique

Great question. Probably should have thought of this, as that really changes the analysis of the recipe. The answers could be drastically different if it's Saison Dupont versus something crazy like a brewery like Tired Hands does. I really gave a broad spectrum answer on general saison philosophy, but that ranges from brewing things along the lines of Saison Dupont to others where it's loads of Americans hops plus Brett in primary, where the biggest function of the saison yeast is giving a very dry, crisp mouthfeel, and the associated fermentation aromas and flavors are lost.

 

You just described the best Saison I have every drunk . . . pretty easy to clone and enjoy.

 

If you want something more classic, then I would agree to drop the American hops, and instead use a Noble hop or an American hop derivative at the end of the boil, keeping it to 0.5-1.0 ounces in the last 10 minutes. Saison Dupont doesn't use wheat, but I love wheat in saisons, so I wouldn't hesitate to use your originally-proposed wheat percentage.

Pitching at 70 and allowing to ramp up sounds like a good plan.

 

Honestly, there is no need to go above 75 with this yeast. The whole 75-90* for Saisons came from the fact that the Dupont can work at those temps w/o making it a hot mess, and too many brewers are freaking impatient and go off on forums about how that strain sucks since it takes 4 weeks for the beer to finish instead of 4 days. None of the Saison strains need to be used in those temp, not even Dupont as @Homebrew42 proved on the old forum. I have gone from grain to glass in 2 weeks flat with the 3726 you are using. Fermented it at 74*F for 1 week, bottled, then another week at 74*F. I wouldn't recommend it, but I did it, FG was 1.008. Taking any of these strains that high won't make fusels like most Sacc strains, but it will throw a lot of phenols.

 

Those hops would be perfect, though aren't necessarily the only options.

 

Those hops would work fine, but they are technically not noble hops. True noble hops are Hallertauer Mittelfruh, Saaz, Spalt(er), and Tettnang(er).

 

That's my fault. I wasn't really clear on that. Need to stop myself from using "Noble" when I really mean "Traditional European" or something like that.

 

Wow, a lot of saison hipsters in this thread! I see nothing wrong with the concept of the OP's original recipe except maybe the gravities and the candi sugar. I recently had Apricot Au Poivre from Nebraska Brewing Company and it was very enjoyable.

 

The OP asked for feedback, and we gave it. How does this make anyone "hipsters"? None of us said it was impossible to pull off a complicated, over-the-top recipe, only that it was probably best to master the basics and keep things simple on the first try. You disagree with this?

 

I don't know when I said people weren't being helpful or that simple recipes are bad. I've gotten tons of help reading these forums. To me the original recipe isn't really that over the top and as I pointed out pretty much the same concept has already successfully been done before. I agree it's best to master the basics but one of my favorite aspects of homebrewing is that is there are no rules (well maybe some).

Also it's funny how sensitive people are to the word hipster - I'm just goofing around. A few saison hipsters showed up in the "strangest thing you've put in a saison" thread. One might say, "I was into saisons before they added cardamom and avocados."