well, I feel like I can finally give a little back fir once. I would look at a gallon recipe for a similar brew, say the petite saison and craft a recipe based on those proportions. As for the gravity reading, I use a triple scale hydrometer and a thief. Take a sample with the thief and drop the hydrometer in and take the reading. Hope this helps.
try the recipe linked to this post. Also, this post is great for making good saisons. once you get a good malt base, it’s all about the yeast. You can only do so much with the few commercial strains (yeast/whitelabs). try culturing some from your favorite bottle. it may sound complicated but i did it with very little experience and there’s not a whole lot to lose. check out the links on this page and let me know what you think. the recipe will be posted on brew day (next monday). if you leave me a comment on the blog to remind me i’ll hit you up with the recipe tonight.
http://brewingoutofbounds.blogspot.com/ ... cells.htmlDay 9. Took another gravity reading. OG 1048, today 1009 which is down from 1010 3 days ago. Tasted the sample and had and very prevalent creamy pinappley and banana(maybe a little apple) taste that was delicious. The hoppy flavor is very subtle now and the aroma is tropical fruit for sure, my wife literally said it smelled like fruit as she walked into the kitchen. I will Likley bottle this Saturday which will make 2 weeks in the primary but there had been no overt indication of fermenting since day three; however, I did get another point in gravity overt the last 3 days so I’m interested to see what it is on Saturday. If I get another point or two. I might leave it sit for a few more days. .
I’m going to brew this on Monday (though just 1 gallon). Any tips about keeping the temp at 70+? My house is usually 68-70 during the day in winter. I also saw a comment about adding extra malt. What did you use? I tend to like maltier flavors.
I’ve been using an electric blanket I got from wal mart. It works like a charm at low settings. You can try steeping some grains like belgian biscuit or belgian sb.
Bottled last night. FG was 1009 so just over 5% abv. This will be a very delicious brew. I will report back with the taste test. Probably can’t wait for more than 5 day to ty it.
Tried the brew today. It couldn’t be better. Very pleased with the results. Creamy, fruity, banana, funky, with subtle hop flavor. Has a great aroma that is spicy and unmistakable belgian saison style.
Glad to hear. the longer they sit in bottles the better they get as well. Have a 6-er left from that batch going on 10 months. Trying not to chug them all at once. Want to hit that year mark on them then enjoy.
what yeast did you use? You shouldn’t be getting an banana in a saison.
Danstsr Belle Saison
I have read reviews on several saisons that I have tried where I thought I detected a banana component and every one of them had this in the flavor profile. See the flavor profile on BYO for Saison Dupont, my fav.
https://byo.com/grains/item/1343-saison-style-profileAlso, because of the high temp during fermentation ester compounds are produced which, from all I have read, can produce banana tones. The Danstsr Belle Saison profile specifically mentions the production of esters.
The beer smith style guide doesn’t mention banana tones but every style guide or description speaks of “wide varieties of flavors and spices”
http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/10/08/sa ... e-recipes/Based on my research and my own experience, banana tones in saisons aren’t all that uncommon.
I’m going off of BJCP and BA guidelines which do not mention banana in a saison. Pepper, citrus, spicy/floral/grassy hops, maybe some low barnyard, sure. But a 10-year old BYO article when there was essentially one example of the style out there and it was pretty novel and unfamiliar to American beer writers is not a good place to get a style guideline. Though I will give you that its a hugely wide style with a lot of variance. I just don’t think that variance should include banana or bubblegum like the weizens.
I’m also going off my own taste preferences. Like you, I think Dupont is the gold standard for this style. But unlike you I get zero banana in that beer. Pepper, citrus, all subtle, and bone dry. That is what I love about the style. Banana is specifically what I don’t like about hefes, so I would probably spit out (or at least be annoyed) at a saison that truly has it.
Yes, belle saison (and all saison yeasts, and all beer yeast) produces esters and phenols, but it should not be producing the banana phenol (the specific name is escaping me).
I didn’t mean to create a whole debate here, but as an avid fan of saison, I feel the need to differentiate it from the weizen category, of which I am far from an avid fan (except weizenbock). In any event, it sounds like you brewed a beer that you love, which is what its all about, so enjoy and cheers!
I didn’t mean to sound jerky… i was just suprised because Saisons are my fav and i often detect banana, maybe my tongue is retarded…anyways, one thing we agree on is that Dupont is awesome :cheers:
Don’t take offense that’s Pietro , he’s alright, he’s the resident style guru. 
Don’t take offense that’s Pietro , he’s alright, he’s the resident style guru. [/quote]
Man, ‘guru’ is a nice way of putting it, thanks Cat!
I probably would have gone with ‘geek’, ‘pedant’, or likely just ‘insufferable little twerp’. :cheers:
Rut6er you a member of any clubs in Baltimore? I was a member of CSI and Baltibrew when I lived there (just moved not quite 2 years ago). Great groups of brewers (and people!).
Pietro,
No, really just got into it at the beginning of the year so I have really not had the chance to get involved. I am open to it though. I will look those clubs up. Thanks for the heads up.
I probably would have gone with ‘geek’, ‘pedant’, or likely just ‘insufferable little twerp’. :cheers: [/quote]
Oh yea, that to 
After much delay I brewed this recipe today. I’m not sure whether I will hope for a banana taste. Seems controversial. This is only my second time brewing and the first without a brew kit plus rehydrating yeast. Anyway, folks here have been super helpful and I have two more questions.
Initial gravity reading is 1.030. Bad? Will this impact the time in the fermenter jug?
Also, I totally forgot to filter the wort through a sieve and it’s quite cloudy. Can I just filter at the bottle stage or am I in for some off flavors?
I guess that’s technically 3 questions.
[quote=“JuanitaLou”]After much delay I brewed this recipe today. I’m not sure whether I will hope for a banana taste. Seems controversial. This is only my second time brewing and the first without a brew kit plus rehydrating yeast. Anyway, folks here have been super helpful and I have two more questions.
Initial gravity reading is 1.030. Bad? Will this impact the time in the fermenter jug?
Also, I totally forgot to filter the wort through a sieve and it’s quite cloudy. Can I just filter at the bottle stage or am I in for some off flavors?
I guess that’s technically 3 questions.[/quote]
Hi Juanita, can you walk us through your process? According to Brewer’s Friend you will get about 2.75 ABV when starting with a 1030 OG and a 1010 FG. Maybe Brewcat can come in on this. Also, I never filter and have had good results (maybe thats why I got banana flavors lol) http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/
