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Help with saison recipe

Tobylew24

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Hi yall new poster here...
So here's the situation:  my wife keeps begging to brew a saison,I've got an all grain single infusion mash setup that I can do 5 gal batches with...I won't go into specifics on how it happened, but when getting my grain bill I ended up with the following:

5 lbs of bonlander Munich
3 lbs ger pils
4 lbs caramel wheat

I've got some bitter orange peel, corriander, and Belgian saison yeast

I know with the amount of Munich it's gonna be VERY malt forward so I was wondering without adjusting the grain bill (it's already milled and ready)  what can I do to balance this out?  Specifically looking for hop addition and mash temp advice (I've got citra, simcoe, crystal, and cascade whole cone on hand and need to use them before they go bad)

Any advice would be awesome this is my 3rd all-grain brew and the first time I've done this style beer.  Thanks :)

 
I brew a lot of Saisons.  Being malty isn't an issue.  Actually, if you can get it malty, despite a finishing gravity below 1.010, you've achieved something special.

Some of the things that I've learned is to mash low and long. I mash at 147F for 90 minutes.  This keeps the sugars as simple as possible, so the yeast can eat through the majority of them.

I don't know which Belgian yeast you have, but try to ferment at the top of the temperature range for that strain.  This is one of the rare occasions where going into the mid to high 70F range is typical.  With some strains, you can even ferment into the 80F range.  Many saison strains are sluggish fermenters and others eat right through the sugars.  Don't be afraid to give the yeast help and ferment warm.  Saison yeast is not your typical ale yeast.

The hops you have are not typical Saison hops.  That's not to say that you can't use them, but most of the saisons that I make, I use noble hops.  I've used the citrusy American style hops though, when I want to make a grapefruity, hoppy saison version, so any of those hops would work.  My suggestion is to hop to the upper portion of the range for a saison, or even slightly higher than the style if you want to bring out the grapefruit flavors even more.  If you use one of the hops that you have on hand, aim towards 35 IBU's.  Your Original Gravity can be anywhere from 1.048 to 1.065.

 
Thanks for the reply!  I'm using while labs Belgian saison II yeast...so a lower temp longer mash...makes sense.  I'll see what i can do on the hops...I have access to magnum which I've done a weizenbock with before so I may try those instead.  Thanks for the help :)
 
If you want it to be a little more to authentic for hops in the Saison style, you would use something like Hallertau or Saaz.  Maybe EKG or Fuggles too.  Basically, noble types of European hops are a little more traditional.
 
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