Plain-Jane Saison

07 September 2018

Who doesn’t want a hydrometer reading of less that 1?!

Kitchen Brewing
Kitchen Brewing

Recipe

Amount Ingredients Type
2.5 lbs Pilsner malt Base Grain
2 lbs Vienna malt Base Grain
0.5 lbs Wheat Specialty Grain
25 g Goldings Hops 60 minute hops
10 g Goldings Hops 5 minute hops
  French Saison Yeast (Wyeast 3711)  

Instructions

  1. Bring 1.5 gallons of water to 160
  2. Add grains and stir well, let sit for 90 minutes
  3. Sparge with 1.5 gallons of water heated to 170
  4. Bring to boil and add 60 minute hops
  5. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops 5 minutes before end of boil
  6. Cool and add yeast.
  7. Ferment 2-3 weeks.
  8. Siphon beer into bottling bucket/keg.
  9. Bottle/keg.
  10. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes:

  • After touring Admiral Malting I was very excited to use their craft malt in this brew. Plus side of small batches- the extra cost of supporting a local business is easy to manage. Nothing like fresh ingredients!
  • Because I was working with Pilsner Malt, I did a 90 minute boil. Pilsner has higher amount of DMS precursors (DMS can create off flavours in the finished beer), so a longer boil is recommended so those can boil out of the wort
  • Very excited to have a final gravity of less than 1! Saison yeast is a monster that digests all the sugar it can, creating alcohol. This process (and lack of residual sugars) makes the final liquid less dense that water!
  • When you make a saison, you have lots of yeast choices. I went with the Wyeast 3711 French Saison. I had heard other yeasts can be finicky and stall out part way through. Given that I lack temperature control, Wyeast 3711 seemed a safer bet. I had almost no krausen form during fermentation, that was a first for me….
Clear and clean saison
Clear and clean saison

Tasting Notes

  • The nice fresh malt made for a flavourful but still clean and dry beer.
  • I wanted to avoid too much clove taste, so that the pepper notes from the yeast shone through. I avoided too much clove, but also didn’t get much pepper, so mixed results.

  • Calculated IBU was 28, which seems about right. I don’t love very hobby beers, and this is a very dry. In the future I might do a more ‘fun’ hop at flameout/ dry hopping to add extra flavors and aroma.

  • I’m looking to experiment with saisons as a style. Such a nice dry beer makes adding flavours a breeze, I’m looking forward to experimenting. Email or join the twitter conversation- tell me your favourite saison additions to help inspire my next brew!