Saisons and sugar

I think you're overthinking the ABV aspect. Some of the world's top Saisons are high ABV (Fantome, Tank 7, The Bruery) and DuPont has a seasonal 10.5%'er they can't keep on the shelves. My experience of adding sugar has been 10% or less and it is largely indistinguishable . . . more alcohol is produced but nothing adverse. I believe Monks approach the 20% level for their Quads. I say just do it.

Looking on CandiSyrup's website, the ingredients of all their sugars is beet sugar and water. Chemically this is the same as corn or cane sugar. I'll get arguments on this point, but some one posted a true A B C D test with a bunch of different sugars and the difference was minuscule and that was drinking them side by side.

I'm not a fan of adding a lot of extras (Munich, Rye), but this is definitely an averagely way of doing it. Creating a dark Saison is a gimmic, nothing wrong with the approach but you'll have to 'splain to everyone before serving. DuPont dregs and sour dregs have worked well for me, you might consider splitting the batches between multiple sours and checking what works best. Just remember to boil in a kettle that is twice as wide as it is tall . . .

 

7.5% ABV is not out of line for commercial saisons and I don't think you will end up with a beer that is too thin by using the sugar but I would use rye, oats or wheat to help improve body if that is a concern. I tend to use rye or wheat in most of my saisons.

 

Tank 7 was the first that came to mind since I just had one, I would also use a decent amount of wheat or rye for body, I prefer wheat, but either should work. Maybe even add some oats for mouthfeel with such a dry beer.

 

I suggest you try this comparison with a Dubbel, not a Saison. The descriptions they provide for d90 and d180 are accurate. Using one pack per batch is enough to get some subtle flavor. It takes two packs per 5.5 gallons to get a flavor comparable to a real Belgian Dubbel.

Since you probably don't want to buy two more packs of syrup, you could add d90 and d180 to one fermenter and no syrup to the other. Ferment both with the same yeast. Both will make a good beer. Then you can easily taste the difference the syrup makes.

 

With 20% of the fermentables being flaked rye, I don't think you'll have a problem with too thin of a body. I seem to recall reading that D90 and D180 won't ferment out 100%, as well, but I may be misremembering that.

 

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/03/pale-belgian-sugar-experiment-tasting.html

 

The saison will likely finish with a very low gravity. Not a problem if you like dry beers. The saison yeast may be better at fermenting the complex sugars in the syrup than a Trappist yeast which would mean a less noticeable flavor from the syrup.

Having some residual sugar in the beer would enhance the flavor of the syrup, for example a beer that finishes at 1.012. Since your saison will be dry, the syrup may be less flavorful than a Dubbel made with the same amount of syrup. I have never used dark candi syrup in a saison, so this is just speculation.

 

The other thing you can do with the d90 and d180 is use them in a big American stout. One pack is enough. Secret weapon ingredient for the style, so don't tell anyone.