----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Piatz" <piatz(a)cray.com> Subject: Re: [SPHBC] saison 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.

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: