First Saison, first liquid yeast, whole lotta firsts...

[David R]

So with summer around the corner and a desire to have a crack at something a little different to the US-style pale/amber ales I've brewed too many of in the past year, I'm thinking about brewing my first Saison. It's not a style of beer I have consumed a lot of, but the ones I have tried I've really enjoyed, especially the more moden hoppy types (8wired Saison Sauvin, Nøgne Ø India Saison). I've got a bag of Citra hops sitting in the freezer begging to be used, and after a little googling it seems like a 'Citra Saison' could be a worth-while endeavour. I've been using a bastardised BIAB method to brew ~12L all-grain batches (partly restricted by the size of my pot, partly by my desire to experiment without having to drink 20L of beer for each experiment), and would like to continue to do so as the results have generally been far better than anything I brewed with extract.

The first "first" I've stumbled onto for this beer is the yeast. In the past I've stuck with US05 and SO4 for simplicity's sake, but this time it looks like have to splash out on a liquid like Wyeast Belgian or French Saison. I've been reading up on their website and it ssays their packs are good for 19L of wort up to 1.060 OG. I was going to keep this one under 7% ABV but it seems like with a single pack in 12L I'll be over-pitching, or if I split a pack between two batches I'll likely be under-pitching. $20 of yeast for 12L of beer is starting to make it a bit pricey, which isn't too big a concern but if I can get better bang-for-buck then that would be good. Could I get away with splitting the pack between 24L of wort ~1.060, or should I try make a starter (another first) and increase the cell count?

The other "first" is the recipe itself. I fell like I'm starting to get a bit of an idea of what I'm looking at with a recipe for an IPA, but when it comes to Saison I'm a bit lost. I quite like the look of this recipe, probably more for the colour than anything, but I'm wondering if it could do with dry hopping too?
http://microbebrewer.blogspot.co.nz/2013/07/citra-saison.html
I'm thinking it would be best to keep the malt bill fairly simple and let the yeast/hops do the talking? And French or Belgian yeast? Any suggestions/guidance/help would be greatly appreciated!

*edit* also found this recipe that I quite like the look of, perhaps without the 'extra bits'; http://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/citra-saison-5gal

[David R]

I'm off to Wellington over xmas so will make it my mission to try it! I thought the sample I took to get the FG tasted pretty good, wife isn't convinced though. I think it will need a while in the bottle before drinking though. If that FG reading is correct then it's going to be about 8.8%!

[Peter Smith]

Have you sneaked a bottle of saison yet?  I have my 3711 wyeast saison and its been sitting at 26C for 3 weeks,  about to bottle half and keg the other half.   I grew a 3L Dupont saison starter from bottle dregs over the break and from reading farmhouse ales will do a 100% Gladfields pilsner version this week.   Planning to start this ferment about 25 and ramp up to 30 over about 5 days.   If it doesn't drop as far as I hope it will get racked onto the 3711 cake.

[David R]

Not yet, trying to be patient and leave it for a bit longer! I might put one of the smaller ones in the fridge as I'm pretty curious...

[David R]

Tastes ....  interesting.

Not bad though! I think it needs more time to develop/mellow, certainly tastes dry, maybe the hop flavour is a bit strong but I think it it will be ok given time. I think I also need to drink more saison to get a taste for the style. I think I'd keep it uder 7% ABV if I brewed it again, I'd like try make a more traditional <5% one.

[Peter Smith]

read this beer for a year list

http://beerforayear.wordpress.com/category/saison/

They all have there own thing happening.....   would be doing the dupont strain tonight but its blowing about 35knots here and I am on gas in the car port,,,,  not worth it with this wind and the 3 burner unit I have, just takes ages to boil etc.

[Peter Smith]

Brewed 17th Jan with a big dupont saison dregs starter and 100% glads pilsner malt.   Almost ready to bottle.

[David R]

Looks good! What hops did you end up using?

I opened the second bottle of it a few days ago and the citra flavour is still way overpowering the yeast character, but it isn't an unplesant drink. I shared it around at a bbq with a bunch of mates (one brewer/beer guy, the others just normal people), none guessed it was over 8% and they all thought it was pretty good. I'm going to go slow on it, I think in another month or two it will be great.