ONE grist, Five saisons

Use this all-around base recipe to create five distinct saisons just by manipulating the hopping! Whether your taste leans toward traditional or you love to explore contemporary variations, you’ll find a recipe here.

ALL GRAIN

OG: FG: IBUS: ABV:

1.056 1.008 (variable—see 6.1%

MALT/GRAIN BILL individual regimens at

8 lb (3.63 kg) Pilsner malt 1 lb (0.45 kg) Vienna malt 0.5 lb (226 g) wheat malt 2 oz (56 g) Caramunich malt

HOPS SCHEDULE Mate the YEAST grain

to Wyeast 3724 Belgian DIRECTIONS

Mill the grains and mix with 3.5 gallons (13.25 l) of 162°F (72°C) strike water to reach a mash temperature of 150°F (65°C). Hold this temperature for 60 minutes.

Vorlauf until your runnings are clear. Sparge the grains with 3.1 gallons (11.7 l) and top up as necessary to obtain 6 gallons (23 l) of wort. Boil for 75 minutes, adding hops according to the variation selected.

After the boil, turn off the heat and whirlpool for 10 minutes. Then chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, about 68°F (20°C). Aerate the wort with pure oxygen or filtered air and pitch the yeast.

Ferment at 69°F (20°C) for 6 days, then increase the temperature to 72°F (21°C). Add the dry hops (if directed) and hold at temperature for 4 more days. Once the beer reaches terminal gravity, bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to about 2.5 volumes of CO2. You may want to cold crash the beer to 35°F (2°C) for 48 hours before packaging to improve clarity.

EXTRACT

bill Replace the Pilsner malt with 6 pounds (2.72 kg) of Pilsner liquid malt extract. Bring 5.6 gallons (21.2 l) of water to about 162°F (72°C) and hold there. Steep the crushed Vienna, wheat, and Caramunich malts in grain bags in the hot water for 15 minutes. Remove the grain bags and let them drain fully. Stir in the liquid malt extract and stir until completely dissolved. Top up as necessary to obtain 6 gallons (23 l) of wort. Boil for 75 minutes, adding hops according to the variation selected. Continue as directed above.

BREWER’S NOTES the

the hopping regimens as Saison right) listed to the right.

This grist will give you a beer that is slightly on the paler end of the spectrum and uses relatively small amounts of character malts (Vienna, wheat, Caramunich) just to provide some nice grain/malt background. I like Vienna rather than Munich to avoid any “heavy” maltiness and give an increased perception of attenuation. Be sure to give this one time to ferment out fully— saison should be a dry beer!

The Classic A gentle floral, earthy, and spicy hops flavor and aroma (can’t go wrong!) [20 IBUS]

1 oz (28 1 oz (28

g) Fuggle [5% AA] at 30 minutes g) Styrian Goldings [5.5% AA] at 10 minutes The Continental Similar to The Classic, but with a spicier and slightly more fruity hops flavor and an herbal/floral aroma [22 IBUS]

1 oz (28 g) Liberty [4.5% AA] at 30 minutes 1.5 oz (43 g) of Hallertau [5% AA] at 10 minutes The Colonial An American saison with a bright pineapple and blackberry flavor and a distinct resiny Nugget aroma [28 IBUS]

Mash with 1 oz (28 g) of Amarillo [9% AA] 0.5 oz (14 g) Amarillo [9% AA] at 10 minutes 1 oz (28 g) Chinook [13% AA] in the whirlpool 1 oz (28 g) Nugget at post primary fermentation dry hop The Craftsman Go full Northern Brewer and you’ll have a hops character that will be like strolling through the Black Forest. [30 IBUS]

0.5 oz (14 g) Northern Brewer [8% AA] at 60 minutes 0.5 oz (14 g) Northern Brewer [8% AA] at 30 minutes 1 oz (28 g) Northern Brewer [8% AA] in the whirlpool The Question Mark This is fun—do this once a year with some grist, but saison makes a good one for it because of the style flexibility and the “kitchen sink” origin story it has. Forget hops selection and timing and Ibus—just take all of your leftover, remainder, stray-pellet hops and dump them all (up to about 4 ounces/113 g) into an 8–10 minute whirlpool. If you don’t have a bunch of small bags of leftover bits of hops like I do, then you can just pick 2 or 3 ounces (57 or 85 g) at random (go purely by how cool the name sounds) at your local homebrew shop. Ferment, condition, and get ready to find out what you made.

This recipe is built to yield a batch size of 5 gallons (19 and assumes 72 percent brewhouse efficiency.

liters)