The temps in my apartment are getting higher these days so it just might be a perfect time to go for it. I also have a bunch of Strisselspalt hops in the freezer.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t necessarily want high temps for a saison…at least at first.
I’m brewing mine on Sat. I like to pitch mine in the 63-65 range. I have a cool corner with ceramic tile. It keeps it pretty cool. I like to leave it cool for a couple days and pull it to the heat vent and cover that with a big box. It will run up to the low to mid 70’s. It usually takes it 7-10 days to hit the last few points, 565 ya know. Saison is one of my favorite style no doubt.
Well the only control that I have over temperature is the fact that the apartment is cooler in the morning and then it warms up during the day. So there is that. I might just try one anyways. I will be brewing with my regular yeast on Monday because there is a cold front moving through for a few days…
Whatever your “regular yeast” is, it’s kind of hard to make a proper Saison without a Saison or other expressive Belgian yeast strain. DuPont lets their fermentation temp rise naturally into the 80’s. My practice is to pitch at 70, let it start for a few days, and ramp it up a couple degrees a day into the mid-80’s. I started making Saisons with the DuPont strain, but it’s a little finicky, and really needs higher temps to finish out. Lately my go-to Saison yeast is Belle Saison. It’s a kick-ass yeast, drop-dead reliable, and ramping the temps up to 80 or higher gives me similar results as the DuPont strain. The easiest device for heating a stand-alone carboy or bucket is the brewbelt. It’ll get your fermenter to about 10º higher than ambient temp.