Saison Recipe

I'm also looking to brew a saison soon, do you know what yeast strain to use to get that slight tartness on the finish like in HF/Fantome/Crooked Stave saisons?

 

I'd say you could get some tartness from adding a bit a acid malt above the taste threshold to the grist, or some lactic acid to it.

Even a partial sour mash.. but I think most of it is yeast driven. I too like a little tartness in my saisons.

I've got a saison milled up to do maybe next weekend when I get some fermentor space cleared up. I've got about 8 things in various stages of fermenting to aging that aren't packaged.

I've got some ECY14 to use, that says it can be taken to 82*.

5# 2 Row
6# Pils
2# Flaked corn
.75# White Wheat
4oz GNO

Have no idea what I'll use to hop it. Probably Amarillo.

 

You hold your whole mash, or a portion of it, warm/hot for a day or so, until you start getting the natural lacto in the grain to start to sour the mash. You run it off, boil, and proceed as normal making your beer.

Most people will pull a portion of the mash, sour it alone, and blend back into the base to get the desired level of sour.

I've never done a partial sour mash for anything, but do a sour wort berliner, which turns out great everytime.

 

A bit of brettanonyces will give you some tartness.

 

Def need Brett, maybe some Lacto too, all the breweries you listed do mixed fermentations on their Saisons, especially Fantome.

 

Except at Fantome, it is unintentional.

 

Just cracked a bottle of dryhopped saison last night, fan freakin'tastic. I split the batch with a wit, but it reads like this in the end...
47.5% white wheat malt
47.5% Belgian pils malt
5% german sauer malt
1.0oz saaz @ 60
1.0oz saaz @ 30
1.0oz halertauer @ 30
1.0oz saaz @ 5
1.5lb halved and juiced clementines @ flameout
1.0oz fresh ground coriander @ flameout (why yes the other half was a witbier)
10 gallon batch. hit 1.060 og and a calculated 25 ibus
fermented out with 1 vial of saison DuPont and 1 vial of brett brux trois
fermented in primary for 2 months, dryhopped with nelson for 5 days before bottling.
This brew has some nice pepper flavors, a tart bite, tons of citrus from the brett and clementines, and a juicy punch from the nelson hops. I REALLY enjoy this beer, hands dfown my best saison so far. Next time no coriander, and way more nelson for the dryhop, maybe 3 oz, but it's a killer brew.

 

5% german sauer malt will add tartness, brett brux trois adds some too, but I think that a partial sour mash will bring that tartness you are really looking for. There is a tthread about berlinners in this forum that can really answer your questions about sour mashing.

 

what was your fermentation temp? what did it finish at?

 

I pitched at 70, held there for 4 days and ramped up to 80 in daily increments of 2 degrees F. Held there for a week and took it off heat to condition at room temp. It finished out at 1.003. Had another one last night, it reminds me of biting into a kumquat. Its bitter yet tart, lots of juicy citrrus flavors.