Next brew: Saison?

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I'm deciding what my next brew should be, and I've been impressed by the number of times I've heard people enthuse about Saison.
Having read a bit about the style I'm quite interested in having a go... is any kind soul able to share their recipe and/or water profile recommendations?

I can do step mash no problem, and I'd be looking to do a 23 litre batch more or less to go in a Corny :-)

Thanks in advance for any recommendations and process advice athumb..
TETB
 
Here's one I posted a little while ago:
This is my house saison recipe, it scored 44 in a BJCP competition a couple of years ago. Even though it's 25% rye malt, the rye flavour is fairly subtle but blends beautifully with the yeast flavours:

Rye Saison

Recipe Specs

----------------
Batch Size (L): 20
Original Gravity (OG): 1.056
Final Gravity (FG): 1.003
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 6.9 %
Colour (SRM): 4
Bitterness (IBU): 23

Grain Bill
----------------
3.500 kg Pilsner (70%)
1.000 kg Rye Malt (20%)
0.250 kg Granulated Sugar (5%)
0.250 kg Rye Malt, Dark (5%)

Hop Bill
----------------
20 g East Kent Golding @ 90 Mins
20 g East Kent Golding @ 15 Mins
20 g East Kent Golding @ Flame out

Notes
----------------
Mash schedule:
55c for 15 mins
63c for 45 mins
70c for 15 mins
77c for 10 mins

Ferment at 23°C with Wyeast 3711 - French Saison (M29 would be a fine dry sub)
If dark rye malt isn't available just sub in some more light rye malt

Water profile:
Calcium 90
Sulphate 95
Chloride 85
Bicarb 20
 
Last edited:
I love a good saison, I am currently fermenting one at the moment!

My tips

Mash for fermentability. As you can do a step mash, spend a decent time in beta range and also a short time at about 73c for good foam stability

Good yeast. I've used belle saison and MJ dried ones and they are fine. But the wet yeasts you can get really are a step above imo. However, you need to pitch a decent amount and use oxygen to aerate. They are quite slow compared to british ale yeasts. My current saison was only 1.041 and is still going after almost a week. At 30c.

Which leads me on to temperature, I pitch about 18c but always ramp it up throughout fermentation, up to 30c. Don't be scared of warmth.

For grainbill, keep it simple. It's all about the yeast.
 
Have you tried the style before? You should be able to find commercial examples easily enough.

Anyway, made it once and kept it very simple. 5kg pale malt, 50g of challenger for bittering and the twist of 50g of elderflowers at flameout. Fermented with cml saison.
The spicy flavours of the yeast balance nicely with the elderflower, works really well.
 
Cool!
Interesting recipe... did you use the hop bittering extract?
Yes, I was ordering from malt miller and added it, not tried the beer without it so can't really comment on how good it is. Im impressed with how much flavour I got from such a small grain bill so wondr if the hop extract has anything to do with it.
 
Saison's a good choice, I've done two so far, both good. Already planning the next one. First used 3711 French Saison yeast, second Belle Saison. Marginal preference for the former. It's a great one for summer brewing, the yeast is happy at higher temperatures. Start at 20ish and ramp up to 24C or higher.
 

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