Saison Coffee Saison

[eulipion2]

Recipe Type

All Grain

Yeast

Wyeast 3711

Yeast Starter

no

Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter

no

Batch Size (Gallons)

6

Original Gravity

1.050

Final Gravity

1.002

Boiling Time (Minutes)

90

IBU

27

Color

5.4

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

21 days @ 70F

Tasting Notes

Crisp, clean saison balanced by coffee

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

BIAB/No-Chill, 71% eff
(hop conversions given)

8.4 lb Weyermann Pilsner malt
3.0 lb Weyerman Dark Wheat malt
3 oz Acid malt (for pH)

1.25 oz Styrian Golding (3.8% AA) - FWH (calculated as 30 min)
1.75 oz Styrian Golding - Cube hop (calculated as 20 min)

Wyeast 3711 French Saison

1 oz Black Hand Brazilian coffee, coarsely ground - 1 day before bottling

Mash: 148 for 60 min
Mash-out: 170 for 15 min
Boil: 90 min

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

After having tons of coffee porters and stouts, I decided to go with something lighter in color, mainly because I can't leave well enough alone. My favorite canvas for experimenting is the saison.

I needed a coffee that would go well with the spicy character of 3711, so I was initially looking for a lighter roast. Unfortunately none of the lighter roasts I tried seemed to fit the profile I was aiming for. Next I tried a local roaster's Brazilian coffee, a medium/medium-light roast. They say about this roast:

Soft & nutty, with notes of bittersweet chocolate. These single-origin, Brazilian beans are laid out to sun-dry with the cherry on. This imparts a rich, dry, fruit flavor and adds body to the cup.

Obviously, unless you live in the Richmond area you won't be able to get this particular roast. To start, find a light/medium roast coffee you enjoy, and imagine it in a saison. Experiment a little. Buy good quality, fresh coffee.

The coffee blends beautifully with the yeast flavors, and gives a bit of mouthfeel. Unfortunately I believe it also killed my head retention.

This is a beautiful beer, but it's not for everyone. Some people said to cut back on the coffee, some said add more. While I wish it had the big fluffy head associated with saisons, I will definitely be brewing this again!

Things I would do differently next time:
1.) My efficiency was a little low due to the quality of the pilsner malt (I usually get about 75%). It was free, so I can't complain, but I'll use fresher malt.

2.) I won't crush the beans. Coffee grounds ended up getting into the bottling bucket, and thus into the bottles. May need to increase the coffee due to lower surface area.

3.) Lighter roasts don't express as much oil as darker roasts, but they do have some. I might age my beans in a paper bag for a few days to wick away oils.

 

[dunnright00]

This looks awesome! I'm compiling a collection of Saison recipes and this just made the list.

For the coffee, you just poured the grounds into the fermenter? What about cold brewing it?

 

[eulipion2]

I decided to add the grounds straight to the fermenter a day before bottling. Easier to measure than cold-brewing, and lots of coffee flavor. I would say, just to avoid getting grounds in your bottling bucket to use whole coffee beans. You could cold-brew the coffee, but it'd give a different flavor, though probably better head retention. The way I did it though, it turned out beautiful!

And I just gotta say thank you for commenting. I was worried that everybody out there in HBT land thought this idea was disgusting and didn't want to comment!

EDIT: Just to clarify, maybe not easier, per se, but based on other people's results, I found better estimates based around beans than cold-brewed. Whenever I asked about cold-brew I got a wide range of volumes from an ounce to a cup or more, whereas with beans the measurements were fairly consistent from thread to thread.

 

[shadows69]

Why not grind the coffee beans and put them in a hop bag? Looks like you have a good brew going.

 

[eulipion2]

I dunno, I just assumed the hop bag wouldn't keep the grounds contained, and I didn't have one around anyway because I rarely use them. Something else to try with a future batch.

This beer has now been in the bottle about 4 weeks, and keeps getting better!

 

[mb82]

How about a small BIAB bag? My dry hopping bag is made from some leftover Voile material. BTW the recipe sounds interesting.

 

[eulipion2]

mb82, another good option. If you come to the next JRHB meeting, or the anniversary party, I'll probably have some there.

 

[mb82]

mb82, another good option. If you come to the next JRHB meeting, or the anniversary party, I'll probably have some there.

When is it? I might be able to come on by.

 

[eulipion2]

Next meeting is June 12 at Mekong. Anniversary party is tomorrow evening at Legend. It started out as being for dues-paying members, but I'm not sure if that's still true.

 

[sweetcell]

use whole coffee beans.

i'm wondering how efficient the use of whole beans is. the outside of a bean is pretty hard, kilned and dried; so low permeability. one of the reasons you grind coffee beans is to expose the porous, softer insides.

great thing about cold-steeping (cold-brewing) is that you can control the flavor. put some in the bottling bucket, mix very gently, taste a sample, add more if desired. obviously you need to be very sanitary about the whole process.

 

[eulipion2]

i'm wondering how efficient the use of whole beans is. the outside of a bean is pretty hard, kilned and dried; so low permeability. one of the reasons you grind coffee beans is to expose the porous, softer insides.

A couple other brewers I know who used the whole bean approach swear by it. They make great beer, so I'll take their word for it.

great thing about cold-steeping (cold-brewing) is that you can control the flavor. put some in the bottling bucket, mix very gently, taste a sample, add more if desired. obviously you need to be very sanitary about the whole process.

When bottling I don't like fussing with anything other than the bottling. I'm a stickler for sanitation, but the longer I take, and the more I sample the beer, the more the more paranoid about contamination and oxidation I become. If I were kegging I wouldn't worry as much, but I'm not quite set up for that yet.

 

[bolus14]

I'm looking to make this soon, possibly in a month or two, might be a couple others a head of it. So far it doesn't look like any changes to the original recipe except to use whole beans instead of grinding, is that the case?

The only change I think I'll make is to use WLP566, I have yet to use 3711, and want to, but so far I've been very happy with what 566 does in Saisons and I have some washed and ready. Good mouthfeel, somewhat dry but no overly, good amount of esters and spice as well as "belgian funk."

 

[TheCanisDirus]

I'm looking to make this soon, possibly in a month or two, might be a couple others a head of it. So far it doesn't look like any changes to the original recipe except to use whole beans instead of grinding, is that the case?

The only change I think I'll make is to use WLP566, I have yet to use 3711, and want to, but so far I've been very happy with what 566 does in Saisons and I have some washed and ready. Good mouthfeel, somewhat dry but no overly, good amount of esters and spice as well as "belgian funk."

I do all my black Saisons (save for one) with 3711. It really works well with a lot of roasty grain. 3711 with chocolate malt and roasted barley and very course grind coffee dry hop... mmm mmmmm.

 

[eulipion2]

I'm looking to make this soon, possibly in a month or two, might be a couple others a head of it. So far it doesn't look like any changes to the original recipe except to use whole beans instead of grinding, is that the case?

The only change I think I'll make is to use WLP566, I have yet to use 3711, and want to, but so far I've been very happy with what 566 does in Saisons and I have some washed and ready. Good mouthfeel, somewhat dry but no overly, good amount of esters and spice as well as "belgian funk."

I say buy a mesh hop bag and coarsely crush the beans. I still haven't gotten around to trying the whole bean technique, but since I last brewed this I've purchased a nylon hop bag that would probably hold everything just fine.

3711 is great because it's perfectly happy fermenting at room-ish temperatures. It's not as fruity as other strains. The most important part is to find a coffee that will play well with the beer. I knew what 3711 (and the grains, and the hops) brought to the table and chose my coffee based on how I thought it would interact.

 

[bolus14]

Just wondering, have either of you used 566? It doesn't seem very commonly used and is a seasonal strain as I understand it so it may be more difficult to find. It seems to have a lot of the qualities of 3711, I've never ad it stall at 65-72ish temps, not very fruity and not overly spicy, has always finished within a week for me.

I have no problems getting and using 3711, hopefully I can get luck and my LHBS will have it in stock, their Wyeast stock varies so I never know what they'll have. If I have to I'll order online. But, I'm really curious to hear some comparisons from those who have used 3711 and 566 to see what differences they feel there is.

 

[eulipion2]

Sorry, never used 566. Give it a go and let us know how it tastes!