I first heard about this style on Basic Brewing Radio, and read about it in depth on Hors Categorie Brewery. Originally brewed for the miners in Belgium, it could be called Saison’s Urban Cousin. Light, refreshing, and well, Belgian. Here’s my bastardized version that came out pretty good, although simple.
Batch size: 5 gal
OG: 1.041
FG: 1.006
ABV: 5%
Fermentables:
4.5lb Vienna
1lb Wheat malt
8 oz Flaked Wheat
Hops:
0.8oz Santiam; 60 min; 18.7 IBU
1oz Santiam; 15 min; 11.6 IBU
1oz Santiam; Flameout
Yeast:
WLP565 Belgian Saison I, no airlock, just foil during primary fermentation
Single infusion mash @ 152 for 60 min.
Fermented at 72F.
Tasting Notes: Mild noble-ish hop aroma, balanced bitterness. Thin body (need to work on this) but a relatively crisp mouthfeel. Belgian-y yeast goodness, but not over the top. Kind of like a session saison, but 5%. Still a bit young in the keg, a bit (okay, a lot) cloudy right now.
I don’t think thin body is wrong for this style but like any really dry style you want to avoid that thin but kinda flabby, watery body. You should have enough protein from the wheat and tannins from the hops not to have a problem with the recipe. You might try turning up the carbonation to help with a crisper body. Most beers this dry are carbonated at 3+ volumes.
Yeah, you’re probably right. I’m not in a rush to drink this one, so as of this picture it’s not fully carbed, so maybe the extra carbonation will help out.
Heh, yeah. I happened to have a bunch of Vienna, and I liked it as the base malt in a saison I did. So I threw it in there to help give it a bit of malt character. I’ve got some things to work on with it though, I’m excited to keep it going this summer.
