First off is like to thank you guys for help I. Working out extract efficiency issues on my previous brews, I’ve been double crushing my grain and it’s really helped my efficiency!!
Secondly, I have two packs of the private collection wyeast farmhouse blend, wanted to do a saison this next month.
Was thinking of doing mostly Pilsner malt, some Vienna, caravienne and Carmel malt for color and body. I have to winces of galaxy and was thinking of doing a single hop. Not to dominate the character given I want character of hop to complement the tartness and peppery finish of the blend.
Thoughts?
Should I do pilsner or 2 row, I’ve used both but will there be noticeable differences in malt character given hops and yeast?
I’d be cautious with caramel malt in a farmhouse beer. I like them dry. don’t worry too much about the color or use some very dark candy syrup maybe. Yes on the rye. don’t think it matter much on the 2-row v pils although pils does lend a sweet grape/wine note to my pallet. on the hops, if you have osmething neutral for your bittering addition I’d go late (5 and 0, maybe even dry) with the galaxy. it’s a nice hop and should go well with the yeast character.
Yes to rye, but I tend to do at least 20% of the grist as rye, otherwise I have to strain to find its affect on the grist. I would leave out the caramel malt, and just use pils.
I’d also ditch the crystal malts. All pilsner base, 5-10% munich or vienna, 5-10% wheat or rye. Mash low for fermentabilty. You want saisons to be dry and quaffable. The yeast and the carbonation will take care of the body (as well the rye or wheat).
Funkwerks saison is a single hop beer, opal. It is a frequent medal winner at GABF. I just brewed the clone recipe from Denny’s new book.
To me, pils malt is an important part of the character I’m looking for in a saison. Rye makes a good addition, as does Munich, Vienna, Aromatic, etc. And Galaxy should be pretty nice as a late hop in a saison.
There you go ! I used Saaz and other noble, and Sorachi Ace (very lemon/citrus) to name a few in saison with good results, but my favorite is Nelson for saison. That grape/white wine thing is great with the tart Saison yeast character.
Gray I’ll stick to pils, rye and Vienna was planning on mashing low 148-49, gonna use a bit of galaxy to get the opus and then about 1,5 oz for last 15 minutes. My hope is I get enough flavor/aroma that will blend well with the yeast and not dominate. Might add a a bit of honey or sugar 3-4 days in
Smack that caramel malt out of your hand. It doesn’t belong.
Saisons can be made with either base malt but I prefer pils. Two row won’t give you the dry, grainy character you normally find in saison. I’d mash crazy low to try to dry it out and definitely avoid anything that will add back the appearance of sweetness. No crystal malts and no munich or vienna. I would think about adding some table sugar to the boil to further dry it out.
Don’t be afraid to use enough hops to let them show through as a major player in the beer. Saisons can hold up to quite a bit of hop aroma and flavor.
I’ll tripple that. a little munich will not make a sweet beer. it will add some malt complexity to support the yeast flavors and allow a higher hopping level without losing balance.
I’ve done really well in competition with Great Western NW Pale ale malt as a Saison basemalt. Maybe not as traditional as a Pilsner malt, but I prefer it.
I’ll stick to a bill of pils, rye, Munich and Vienna. Do you feel that dry hopping with galaxy would be. Fine shile preserving yeast character since it really only plays role in aroma?