[Philbrew]

A grist of Pils, Vienna, and a little wheat malt is my favorite for saison. It's gold, not orange, but is pretty tasty. +1 to no melanoidan, crystal, or sugar.

I've got a lb. of Vienna coming in the mail.  I'm now thinking 10# pilsner, 1# wheat & 1# Vienna = 4.0 SRM.
If I add 2 oz. of dehusked Carafa II it = 8.3 SRM. Do I care? I dunno.  Your thoughts please.

[pkmicha]

Consider brewing Jamil and Palmer's Raison d' Saison from Brewing Classic Styles (a great book to pick up if you haven't already). My brew friend and I just brewed this recipe side-by-side on our equipment to determine whether it would make any difference in the flavor, but I digress:

10.5 lbs Continental (we used belgian) pilsener
0.75 lbs wheat (white wheat I believe)
0.75 lbs Munich malt

Mash at 147 F for 90 minutes
Boil for 90

Hops:
1 oz Hallertau at 60 min. (we used Liberty since the LHBS was out of Hallertau)
1 oz Hallertau at 0 min.


OG: 1.060
FG: 1.008

YEAST: WY3711 French Saison, pitching mid 60's, using a wrap heater with temp controller ramping up about 1.5 degree F over 10 days to finish at 80F.

Impressions: after kegging at 3 volumes and tasting a week later it was a decent beer but kind of boring. I had another beer on tap on my single tap kegerator (but have space for two kegs) so I let it sit for two months. I am glad I did, since the cold storage and time really made this beer pop. We hit the OG and FG spot on, and it finished crisp and dry, and really allows 3711 to shine through.

Personally saisons are not my fav but after this brew I am going to make more. I think that Amarillo would be a nice spicy variant and would do well with 3711. This yeast ferments and flocs well. I would definitely recommend it as an intro to the style.

[ynotbrusum]

I make one or two Saisons per year at most and one is a mixed fermentation with fruit and Brett, but I have never tried 3711 for no reason that I can think of...so maybe that will be what I will use for an upcoming club barrel project (a 55 gallon rosé wine barrel that has tripel in it from January).

I heard that it really drives down the FG.  Which seems fair for a saison.  Hopefully the flavor is still complex - but given the barrel aging to occur, it probably will be just fine.