Saison Faible (Batch 02): Recipe

This was my second time brewing Saison Faible, which is intended to be a light, fruit- and hop-forward saison without the funk and light acidity of Farmhouse Mild. For this one, I wanted to experiment with a few different yeasts, so half the batch was fermented with non-saison Belgian yeasts. It was a 20-gallon batch, so I ended up with around 5 gallons of portions fermented with each of the following: Wyeast 3724 (Dupont, Wyeast 3726 (Blaugies), White Labs 510 (Bastogne, which is Orval's primary-fermentation strain), and White Labs 550 (Achouffe, which is, or at least was, Jolly Pumpkin's primary strain).

After this, I plan to start experimenting a little bit more with European and old-school American hops, as I'd like to see how much of the fruity profile of many of my beers is a result of the yeast and bacteria strains I use, and how much is related to the generally-copious amounts of American and Southern Hemisphere hops I use at flameout.

Here are the full details on the batch:

Batch Number: 99
Brew Date: June 15, 2015
Keg/Bottle Date: See notes below
Batch Size: 20 Gallon
OG: 1.040 (est.)
FG: 1.003 and the 3724 and 3726; 1.008 for the 510 and 550 (measured, prior to Brett/dreg additions)
Fermentation Temperature: See notes below
IBU: 32.0-66.0 (wildly-different estimates from BrewCipher based on the hop stand, and I also don't know how much the aged 60-minute hops affected things)
ABV: 4.9% (est.) for the 3724 and 3726; lower for the 510 and 550 (until I decided to add dregs to each)
SRM: 3.0

Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 152* F
Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

14lb 8oz Dingemans Belgian Pilsner (46%)
9lb 8oz Flaked Wheat (30%)
2lb 0oz Munich (6%)
2lb 0oz Flaked Oats (6%)
1lb 11oz Acid Malt (5%)
1lb 0oz Flaked Rye (3%)
1lb 0oz Honey Malt (3%)

Salts & Water

1.0g Calcium Chloride (all in the boil kettle)
13.1 Gypsum (all in the boil kettle)
17.5g Sodium Chloride (all in the boil kettle)

Resulting water profile is as follows:

Mash pH (est.): 5.30
Calcium: 67
Magnesium: 12
Sodium: 75
Chloride: 123
Sulfate: 99

Hops
8.0oz Styrian Bobek (pellet, 3.9 AAU, 2.5 years old), at 60 minutes
1.0oz of Galaxy (pellet, 15.0 AAU), after flameout*
4.75oz of Mosaic (pellet, 11.6 AAU), after flameout*
4.25oz of Calypso (leaf, 12.0 AAU), after flameout*

* No hops right at flameout. Turned the burner off and let it cool to 190*F. Added the hops at that point for a 90-minute hop stand, with final temperature around 150*F.
Other

4.0 tsp. Wyeast Yeast Nutrient at 10 minutes

Yeast

• Wyeast 3724: Pitched into a water bath at 72*F. At 12 hours, bumped to 74*F. At 72 hours, bumped to 76*F. All temperatures are setting on controller with a 1*F differential. At 5 days, bumped to 78*F. Removed temperature control at 8 days.

• Wyeast 3726: Pitched into a water bath at 72*F. At 12 hours, bumped to 74*F. At 72 hours, bumped to 76*F. All temperatures are setting on controller with a 1*F differential. At 5 days, bumped to 78*F. Removed temperature control at 8 days.

• White Labs 510: Fermented in the basement at room temperature, generally 67-68*F.

• White Labs 550: Pitched into bath at 72*F. At 12 hours, bumped to 74*F. At 72 hours, bumped to 76*F. All temperatures are setting on controller with a 1*F differential. At 5 days, moved to ambient garage temperature, generally 70-75*F.

Notes

06.19.2015: Starters:

06.15.2015 - 06.23.2015: See "Yeast" section above for temperature adjustments.

06.15.2015: Bastogne finished at 1.008 after sitting for 15 days at 67-68*F ambient temperature. Pint of slurry harvested.  Very clean with little sediment.  Flavor is a bit leafy and earthy in the background with some faint phenolics.  Apricot and peach up front. 

550 finished at 1.008.  Lighter profile than the Bastogne.  A bit of pear and honey with a light touch of bread dough.  Very faint fruity notes, quite a bit less than the Bastogne in that area.  Fuller mouthfeel than the Bastogne despite finishing a bit drier.

Blaugies is extremely carbonated for coming out of primary.  Sitting at 1.004.  Dupont is also sitting around 1.004.  Both are fairly tropical and have notes of peach and apricot, but the Blaugies is more subdued.  Many of the fruity aspects are likely coming from the hops.  

07.06.2015: Transferred the Bastogne version to a keg to begin carbonation.  Not sure I like the combination of the fruity hops with the more floral, earthy, and leafy yeast.  I'll have to try this again with Noble hops, as those will complement those yeast aromas/flavors.

07.07.2015: Decent pellicle already going on the Blaugies fementor not too many days after it was removed from the hot water bath.  (Obviously, even filling these buckets with StarSan solution and letting them sit for a while doesn't get rid of all the bugs I have in the buckets and lids.)  My theory on the sudden Brett takeover is that the saison yeast really takes over at higher temperatures, but as the temperature is lowered and the gravity drops, it becomes more dormant and the Brett takes over.

07.09.2015: Added the dregs from two year-old 375mL bottles of Bam Biere to the WLP550 version, as I wasn't terribly happy with the profile, and it has been a long while since I've used Jolly Pumpkin dregs.

07.18.2015: The Bastogne version was on tap, but I'm still not happy with how the yeast character clashes with the hops, so I pulled the keg and plan to add some Orval dregs to let those go to work over time, which will also allow for the hop aromatics to fade a bit.

11.09.2015: Added Orval dregs to the Bastogne keg.

03.04.2016: Added dregs from a bottle of 03.11.2014 Jolly Pumpkin Luciernaga to the Bastogne keg.

05.31.2016: Was never happy with the 550 version, so that one ended up going down the drain, as I didn't have anything to blend it with that I thought would actually work out.  I'm likewise not particularly pleased with the Bastogne version, but I'm still holding out hope for further development with that one.