Home Brew Batch #13: All Grain Saison de Noel #1

The Summer always seems to get in the way of brewing with so many things to do away from home. By the time I started to think about my next batch it was already late August. I was trying to think ahead for something for the holidays and I came across a Saison de Noel recipe online. I adapted it as follows for a 2.5 gallon batch:

5 lbs. Belgian Pilsner Malt
0.25 lbs. Aromatic
0.125 lbs Carafa III
0.125 Cara Munich
0.50 lbs. Dextrose
0.50 lbs Belgian Candi Syrup 80 L
0.50 oz. Magnum Hops 15.2% AA
1/2 vial White Labs WLP 566 Saison II
1/2 tsp. Yeast Nutrient
1/4 tsp. Irish Moss
2.5 oz. Priming Sugar

I started with 3 gallon of strike water at 160 f. The mash started almost exactly at 150 f and held its heat
well. The sparge method I tried on this one was to heat 0.5 gallons of sparge water to 168 f and then I poured it over the grain bag as it was sitting on a colander suspended over my boil kettle.

After boiling for 15 minutes, I added the Magnum hops at 60 minutes. At 45 minutes I added the Dextrose and Belgian Candi Sugar (I didn't add them at 60 minutes because I was trying to avoid some carmelization, but this recipe is dark enough color and had lots of malty flavor, so it probably didn't matter too much). At 15 minutes I added the yeast nutrient and irish moss. Then cooled, pitched yeast, and let ferment for 2 weeks in the primary.



Update: I gave away a growler of this one and a couple of bottles, so there wasn't a whole lot left for me to enjoy after those. The beer was good, but not as memorable as the second batch. I wonder now if the yeast pitch rate was way too low. I tried to split a vial of yeast, so maybe it was unequal. For this high of gravity I definitely should have gone with a full vial per 2.5 gallon batch. The only other issue I can think of was that it fermented a bit too warm.