Saison Recipe Review (Extract)

Hey guys,

I'm working on a recipe for a Saison, and this is what I've come up with:

Type: Extract
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 3.67 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Volume 3.38 gal

Ingredients

1 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain
4 lbs Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract
3 lbs 4.8 oz Pale Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min](8.0 SRM) Extract
1 lbs Honey (1.0 SRM)

1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 21.4 IBUs
1.00 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [4.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 6 2.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 7 1.4 IBUs

2.00 g Seeds of Paradise (Boil 5.0 mins)

1.0 pkg French Saison (Wyeast Labs #3711) [50.28 ml] Yeast


Be as critical as you want. This is really my first attempt at creating a recipe, so I'm open to any and all help. Thanks!

I think it would be a fine beer, but it might stray a bit from what would be considered a conventional saison.

If I were going to change one thing about your recipe, it would be the cascade hops. I made a saison with casacade before, and I think the grapefruity character of cascade really clashes with the belgian yeast. If I were doing it, id probably go with all hallertau for your hops, or at least something more spicy or neutral for your bittering charge.

As far as malt goes, saisons love pilsner. So assuming you don't already have these things on hand, I'd just change all your extract to pilsner - and maybe a lb of wheat extract for character.

Honey is fine. Belgians love sugar in their beers, and honey will bring some nice aromatics. Add it at the end of the boil so all the aroma doesn't get boiled off. Or if you're feeling cheap, just use a lb of table sugar.

Seeds of paradise are a nice touch, and the yeast is perfect.

So that's my $.02 - The great thing is, you can do whatever you want. Try it both ways and see which one you like better.

Cheers.

Cool, thanks for the suggestions! You hit exactly upon the things I wanted to know. I'll make some adjustments and post the recipe I end up using.

Glad I could help. FWIW, saison is one of my favorite styles of beer...

Okay, what about this:

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5.00 gal Distilled Water Water 1 -
1 lbs Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 2 10.0 %
1 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 10.0 %
1 lbs Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 4 10.0 %
1.50 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [4.00 %] - Boil Hop 5 16.7 IBUs
6 lbs Pilsner Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min] Extract 6 60.0 %
0.75 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [4.00 %] - Boil Hop 7 4.2 IBUs
0.75 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [4.00 %] - Boil Hop 8 1.7 IBUs
2.00 g Seeds of Paradise (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 9 -
1.0 pkg French Saison (Wyeast Labs #3711) [50.28 Yeast 10 -
1 lbs Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 11 10.0 %

Looks good to me. I guess you're steeping the 1# of pilsner malt with the caramunich? Personally I'd skip the extra pain in the butt of steeping if you can find a munich extract. Caramunich is a different animal than munich tho.

I haven't plugged your recipe into beersmith, but I'm guess it will be fairly high ABV. Do you have a target OG?

I really love Styrian Golding and Saaz in my Belgian brews. I like the addition of the wheat and I think a good honey added at flame out will add some character. I personally do not use any spices in my Belgians as the yeast produce plenty of spiciness and flavors on their own. Brew it up and let us know how it turns out!
Oh, and pitch low, let it free rise, but don't let it get crazy out of control hot. Saison strains will still produce harsh fusels and off flavors. The Dupont strain likes it hot but that strain should be fine pitching at 64 and maxing out in the mid to upper 70s.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I could probably skip the steeping process, but it gives me time to organize my thoughts and get ready for the rest of the process. Estimated OG is 1.061, which is high but not outside the range (although I'm definitely pushing the limit, there).

I'll be brewing this weekend, and I'm really excited about how it could potentially turn out. Thanks for the heads up about fermentation temps. That is very helpful. I'll let you know how it tastes!

I'd say toss in some wheat or rye for a little zing, really adds a nice facet. Only other thing I can think of is it says you're using distilled water? might want to get ahold of some brewing salts or something, distilled water might make it taste kinda flat.

RachmaelBenApplebaum said:

I'd say toss in some wheat or rye for a little zing, really adds a nice facet. Only other thing I can think of is it says you're using distilled water? might want to get ahold of some brewing salts or something, distilled water might make it taste kinda flat.

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According to John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff in Brewing Classic Styles, "Extract-based beers (all styles) can be brewed with confidence using distilled, deionized (reverse osmosis), or low alkilinity bottled water." The extract has plenty of nutrients in it and messing with water chemistry usually comes with advanced brewing techniques or from necessity because you have crap water. It just isn't necessary at this stage and may do more harm than good. The beer will not taste flat if you skip adding brewing salts in. Not saying beer can't benefit from water chemistry adjustments, just no need to create problems that aren't there. Cheers!

Update:

I finally brewed this recipe, yesterday morning, and it's chugging away now. My OG was 1.061 (target 1.062), so I'm happy about that. I've got it in a chest freezer (with temp control) and plan to increase temp by 2 degrees every day until I get to 74 ambient (probably 77-ish fermentation temp). Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll let you know how it turns out!