Here's a link to my recipe:
http://burp.org/burpnews/pdf/
200103.pdf , its on page 11. I've posted it to the MHBA list before,
but that's ancient history. It's done very well in competition and
still the base recipe I brew today. As for yeast: WLP 550 (Gulden
Drak), 565 (Dupont), and 570 (La Chouffe) all make excellent
Saisons. It's best to brew within the temp ranges as indicated by
White Labs.
Brettanomyces? Not if you wish to brew to style.
Sugar? Commercial Saison as available in the Twin Cities tends to the
sweet side, so putting up those young bottles for a year or more
helps the character of the beer quite a bit. I, like Piatz, prefer
drier, but the style has a fair amount of noticeable sweetness. For
brewing, quality of sugar is more important than quantity, so use the
best white Belgian candi sugar you can find. When using sugars as an
adjunct, after fermentation, what is left in the beer are impurities
and complex sugars that the yeast can't readily metabolize. Lesser
quality sugar has more impurities, more residual sweetness. That
said, the cheap stuff (try your local Oriental super market, it's
usually less than $1/lb) can be used to good effect, if you don't
over do it (< 5% of total fermentables).
Spices? Coriander, orange peel, and black pepper all can be great
additions, but again don't over do it. Too little is better than too
much. (Scott Matura, can I get a witness!?)
-----------------------------------------------------
Michael Valentiner, Minneapolis, MN
On Feb 27, 2006, at 10:07 AM, Steve Piatz wrote:
On Mon, Feb 27, 2006 at 10:01:29AM -0600, Steve Fletty
wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Piatz" <piatz(a)cray.com>
Subject: Re: [SPHBC] saison
The White Labs Saison strains is great and you
can ferment it pretty warm 80-85 F didn't cause any problems,
having a
temperature controlled fermenting box does come in handy for this
strain
since it is rarely that warm in the house
Does the WLP 565 (Saison Dupont) need a warm ferment to yield the
spicey
saison character?
I'm assuming an ambient basement temp of 64 right now would give
me a high
FG and less character....?
Thanks all for the info.
I think you need to be warmer than 64 to get the saison yeasts to
finish
fermenting. The character is pretty lame when fermented cool.
Saison yeasts are known to be pretty tempermental. I've heard some
of the
commercial folks whine about getting the yeast to always work the
same. The commercial folks have the advantage that they have big
fermenters and the heat of fermentation is noticable (and helpful with
this strain).
--
Steve Piatz piatz(a)cray.com
Cray Inc. 651-605-9049
1340 Mendota Heights Road cell: 651-428-1417
Mendota Heights, MN 55120