Trying to hit the mark with a Saison

I am really new to the brewing scene but according to my wife, I have gone a little crazy. After I successfully brewed my first batch of delicious American Wheat I immediately started a cream ale extract. That is going in the bottles in 3 days. Meanwhile, I tried a beer called Hennepin Saison by Ommegang and decided I would try to make a farm house style ale that was similar. This is the first time I have tried to concoct my own recipe and after a little research I came up with the following extract recipe:

6.6 pounds of Pilsen Light
1.3 oz Styrian Celeia (4.3 alpha) - 60 mins
1 oz Czech Saaz (4.2 beta)- last 15 mins
1 oz coriander - last 15 mins
Danstar Belle Saison yeast

I rehydrated the yeast before pitching, its the first time I tried to do it and it seems like it worked great. The brew is vigorously fermenting as I type this. As a matter of fact, it is bubbling a lot more forcefully than either of the other two I have brewed. I wonder if rehydrating the yeast has something to do with that? I am going to update this post with the progress as it unfolds.

OG 1.048
it is sitting right at 70 degrees but should further cool to about 65 in the next few days. Any comments on other Saison Farmhouse type recipes would be much appreciated!

Get it hotter man. Don’t let cool it for about 5 days. Then let it cool off naturally for another couple weeks. Then bottle age the bottles at 70deg for two weeks. Then you can start sampling. Make sure to save some to age a bit.

Warm it up into the low 70s. Keep it there for a month. It takes a very long time for the Belle Saison yeast to finish working. Be patient with it. Eventually it should take the final gravity all the way down to around 1.002 plus or minus a couple points. Be very patient with it and your patience will be well rewarded.

Cheers to you and welcome to the hobby!! Looks like you are off to a wonderful start. Good recipe.

Ok, keep it in the low 70’s and patience…thanks for the great advice! I am even more excited about this brew now.

I have been keeping my active fermenters in the basement closet or walk in shower of the basement bathroom. Ambient temp of the closet is about 62-65 degrees and the shower is a little warmer at 65-68 degrees.

To bring the temp up, I wrapped my fermenter in a blanket and placed in the shower. I also closed the bathroom door. The bathroom has a vent all to itself and it is a small space so I thought the above steps may help raise the temp of the brew. This morning when I went into the bathroom the first thing I noticed was that it was much warmer in there as opposed to the living area of the basement. I checked the fermometer and the recorded temp had risen from 70 to 71. It looks like I have arrested the falling temp which, from prior experience, would have continued to fall to about 62 degrees. I will monitor this to ensure it stays below 74 degrees.

At this point I plan on leaving in the primary for 3 weeks, checking the gravity at 2 weeks then again at three weeks. after three weeks If it is not near the target of 1.002, I will leave it one more week before bottling.

Should I worry about secondary fermenting?? I could care less about the clarity of the beer but will this help any other aspect of the brew? Thanks for all the great support!

There is no advantage to racking to a secondary vessel. In fact it’s much better if you just leave it alone in the primary for the full fermentation.

Cheers!

[quote=“dmtaylo2”]There is no advantage to racking to a secondary vessel. In fact it’s much better if you just leave it alone in the primary for the full fermentation.

Cheers![/quote]

dmtaylo2,

Is that your final opinion or are there instances when secondary may be desired or necessary?

If you’re going to leave the yeast cake in the fermenter for longer than about 10 weeks, then racking to secondary is a good idea. Otherwise it’s safe to skip it. In other words, it’s safe to skip it.

:lol: thanks.

Brewed one of the extract Saison kits from NB this past spring, forget which one, think Petite. Sat in primary for 6 weeks in my house, 72 degrees the whole time, and let sit in bottles for a month at the same temp. Turned out dry, semi funky, and keeps getting better almost 9 months later. OG came out at 1.001. Set it and forget about it. Time makes this one better.

Will be brewing a Saison again for this summer.

I made the Petite one as well except I added extra malt to make it not so petite. Turned out absolutely fantastic and won awards. I never knew I loved saison until I tasted that beer. Much better than Dupont IMO.

Thanks for the idea for the next project. Just curious @ dmtaylo2, dies the “dm” stand for dungeon master?

One more, my airlock had stopped bubbling(or at least slowed way down) on the saison. Temp is at 71 degrees. Just leave it sit right?? I thought that it might have kept bubbling for a while more. What do you think?

If patience is not your strength, try WY3711. I have recently made 2 batches with this strain. It’ll attenuate quickly down to 1.004 with no heating. I pitched cold, 64F or lower, let it free rise. It reached 72F then the temp dropped. I had never used this strain before and was amazed at the attenuation.

I’ll be making batch 3 with this strain over the weekend.

Thanks bwmac, I will try that strain.

[quote=“rut6er”]Thanks for the idea for the next project. Just curious @ dmtaylo2, dies the “dm” stand for dungeon master?

One more, my airlock had stopped bubbling(or at least slowed way down) on the saison. Temp is at 71 degrees. Just leave it sit right?? I thought that it might have kept bubbling for a while more. What do you think?[/quote]

The dm stands for David Michael, although it might as well stand for Dungeon Master as I was a DM for about 15 years. And now I haven’t played at all for about 13 more years, but it just so happens that my brothers are coming over to my place in a couple of weeks to play for the first time in ages, I am in the process of converting all our old 9th level dudes from 2nd Edition to 3.5, and now my little brother is going to be DM which will be a different thing for me.

Getting back to the real stuff… yes, keep your saison sitting there in the 70s for a while. Take a gravity reading now if you like. Then wait a week, then take another reading if you like. If the readings don’t change, you can bottle. If they do change, then wait a few more days, and repeat until it’s steady.

Thanks for the further advice Dave. Yeah, same for me on the D&D time player and still sir in for a session every once ina while.

Day 6. Checked gravity as there had been absolutely no activity in the airlock for 2 day. The Krausen had fallen into the brew but it reached extremely high in the fermenter. OG was 1048, I measured 1010. If my math is right that gives it an ABV of 5%. It had a light yellow hue and had an unmistakable aroma. I lack the descriptors but it reminds me of several saisons I have sampled. The taste was really nice. Subtle citrus, almost a creamy taste, and a nice hoppiness. At this point I will let it sit one more week and test again, if there is no change in gravity I will bottle. If this one is going to get better over time, it’s going to be one awesome beer!

I forgot to mention this option in my previous reply. You could throw in some WY1056 to finish this up. I did that on a saison made with the Dupont strain, it worked well. I read somewhere that a west coast brewery, Pizza Port I believe, does this with one of their saisons.

I’m also a newbie home brewer. I just bottled the NB Slobber Ale and would like to try a Saison as my next one. 2 questions - does this recipe need adjusting based on having the 1 gallon fermenter? And how does one take a gravity reading? Did I say newbie? yeah.

It can sit in the carboy for much longer, but you will need to re-yeast at bottling time. And really let it sit in the bottles for several weeks before drinking. Or at least drinking a majority of it. ti will change week from week. With this one, the more age it gets on it the more complex it will get. Always interesting taking notes on it each time to see what other noses and flavors you get from it.