Author: The Rabid Brewer
This is Part 2b in my series covering homebrewing a saison. Use the following links to read other parts in the series. An inactive link means that part has yet to be published.
- Part 1 – Introduction
- Part 2a – Recipe Formulation: Overview
- Part 2b – Recipe Formulation: Grain
- Part 2c – Recipe Formulation: Hops
- Part 2d – Recipe Formulation: Yeast
- Part 3 – Water Treatment
- Part 4 – Process and Equipment
- Part 5 – Results
In this part we’ll be looking at the details of formulating the recipe starting with the grain bill. I’ll cover malts, adjuncts as well as spices.
Base Malt
My choice of light and dry means a grist consisting mostly of convertible starches mashed at a low temperature to increase fermentability. Base malts and lightly kilned malts (like Vienna and Munich) can be mashed at temps < 150F to produce highly fermentable wort. (Caramel and darker malts are less fermentable due to the caramelization of their sugars that occur during the malting process.) Pilsner malt is the lightest of the base malts. The BJCP style description for saison confirms these thoughts by saying, “Pilsner malt dominates the grist though a portion of Vienna and/or Munich malt contributes color and complexity.”
So it’s pilsner for the base malt. Living in the Bay Area means I’m very fortunate to have a choice of 3 different pilsner malts from my local homebrew shop: German pilsner from Weyermann, Belgian pilsner from Castle, and a “lesser-modified” pilsner malt from Briess.
The obvious choice for a Belgian style beer might be Belgian pilsner. Although I do have some experience with this malt (having used it in both a Belgian Pale and a Belgian Specialty), I can’t make unequivocal statements as to it’s character as I haven’t done side-by-side, apples-to-apples comparisons with German pilsner. Stan Hieronymus in Brew Like a Monk suggests there are differences between Belgian and other continental pilsner malts, but offers no real guidance other than to say that the choice is varied even among Belgian brewers. In Brewing Classic Styles, Jamil Zainasheff says that it’s important to use Belgian pilsner when brewing a tripel as “this beer doesn’t have a lot of specialty malts to hide behind.” One might infer the same to be true of saison (though I personally find that yeast character typically plays a more dominant role in the overall character of saison.) Anecdotal evidence suggests Belgian pilsner has a bit more subtle sweetness than German pilsner and one source states that Belgian malts are “slightly darker and sweeter” that continental malts.
As often is the case with homebrewing, choices often come down to what is readily available or what a brewer has on hand. I recently purchased a sack of Briess Pilsen Malt for experimentation with decoction mashing. This malt is “slightly undermodified” and intended to be used in step mashing where extended protein rests can have negative effects on body and foam stability when using fully-modified malts. (I also have in mind to use a step-mash for this beer, but more on that later.) It is also one of the lightest malts on the market at 1L.
The bottom line is that I decided to use Briess “lesser-modified” Pilsen as my base malt. If I thought Belgian pilsner was a critical component of a saison, I’d use it regardless of what I had on hand (as I’ll be doing when I brew a tripel in the next month or so.) The ability to step mash this malt without too much concern is an extra bonus. This decision could be one to revisit at some future point once I’m happy with the base recipe and feel like doing some further experimentation.
My Bin of Briess’ “lesser-modified” Pilsen Malt
Other Grains, Spices and Adjuncts
So, what else should round out the grain bill? Saison Dupont purportedly uses 100% pilsner malt, relying on their yeast to provide most of that beer’s character. Markowsk, in Farmhouse Ales, gives a recipe for a “classic saison” that is 90% pilsner and 10% wheat malt. Given my affinity for Saison Dupont, I was tempted to go 100% pilsner. However, I decided I would prefer the additional complexity that Munich would add. One of my last brews was an all-Munich Oktoberfest, so I had a good idea of the flavor contribution this could provide. Most would call it “malty”, but in lower proportions I thought it would simply round out the flavor a bit and add a bit of color. Markowski says that “a light amber/orange color in the range of 10 to 14 SRM is considered to be the classic color” and that “many modern saison brewers choose to add … Vienna or Munich.” Something between 5% and 10% felt about right.
The BJCP style description goes on to say, “Sometimes contains other grains such as wheat and spelt.” Markowski says that “a variety of different grains (raw or malted) would make their way into a farmhouse mash.” Things like wheat, oats, rye, spelt and even buckwheat. Now, I absolutely love rye in beer including saison (check out The Bruery’s Saison Rue.) And, I was certainly intrigued by spelt simply because I’ve never used it before. However, I’m a firm believer that having a solid base to build upon is critically important before working with other ingredients. There’s nothing wrong with being adventurous, but the devil is the details. I’ll definitely explore rye and even perhaps chocolate malt in future saison brews, but I decided to start with a simple base to learn the characteristics of everything else I’ll be dealing with on this inaugural saison brew.
The same goes for spices. The BJCP says that “a wide variety of herbs and spices are often used” and Markowski states that “spices are used by many, but by no means all, contemporary Belgian saison brewers.” These include the standard array of Belgian spices like coriander, orange peal, grains of paradise, star anise and even those less common like cumin and ginger. The problem with spices is that they can easily get away from you. My personal feelings are that spices should complement or enhance existing flavors in the beer. So, before adding them, it’s a good idea to know what you’re starting with. Saison yeast will be throwing plenty of character in the form of phenols and esters. Different yeasts will have different characteristics and there are plenty of options out there for saison (more on that later). Fermentation parameters such as temperature, pitching rate and even wort make-up will play a huge role as well. Before I even think about spices, I’ll be exploring the changes in character caused by these basics first.
Having said all that, I do think the addition of wheat to the grist is a good idea. I’ve had good results using malted wheat to enhance mouthfeel in lighter beers as well as to improve head retention. Although I’ll be adding some Munich malt, the grist will largely consist of pilsner, so a bit of wheat will certainly help. Typically I’ve added it at around 5% of the total grist.
Finally, the BJCP style description says, “Adjuncts such as sugar and honey can also serve to add complexity and thin the body.” Markowski suggests up to 10% sucrose. Since I’m targeting light and dry, substituting simple sugars for a percentage of the grist is just the ticket. (John Palmer’s How to Brew, 3rd Edition has a great section on Sugars Used in Brewing.) Simple sugars are highly fermentable and keep the body of the beer light for a given alcohol level. Various sugars can be used and some impart their own unique flavors, but cane sugar is 100% fermentable and neutral in flavor. So, using around 10% cane sugar sounds about right.
Finalizing the Grain Bill
At this point, I was pretty close to finalizing my grain bill. But, I won’t lie and say I’m completely confident in my ability to formulate a recipe from scratch. Especially for a style I’ve never brewed before. My dog-eared copy of Jamil’s Brewing Classic Styles is usually on my desk and is often the first book I reference when considering a new style. (Borrowing from recipes developed by a double Ninkasi Award winner isn’t going to hurt this brewer’s pride!) His recipe calls for roughly 80% Pilsner, 6% each of Munich and wheat, plus 7% cane sugar. That’s close enough to what my gut was already telling me to feel pretty comfortable with his recipe.
However, there was one ingredient I wasn’t entirely comfortable with: CaraMunich – a caramel malt in the 60L range. Adding unfermentables to a beer I wanted to be extremely dry didn’t make a lot of sense. So I did a bit of “research” (web browsing), and here is where things got a bit muddy.
First of all, CaraMunich is NOT a caramelized Munich malt as some might think. The word “CARAMUNICH” is actually a registered trademark of Weyermann Malting and is simply one of their caramel malt offerings. However, the term “caramunich” as used by most homebrew supply stores seems to usually denote a Belgian-style caramel malt in the 60L range. I say “Belgian-style,” because even when described as Belgian, many shops are not selling a true Belgian caramel malt such as those available by Castle or Dingemanns. For example, MoreBeer! lists their supplier for caramunich as Briess.
So, what is this stuff? Checking with Briess’ website, one finds Caramel Munich 60L described as a 2-Row 60L caramel malt with a “caramel, roasted [and] malty” flavor. They also have a “standard” Caramel Malt 60L which is described as a 6-Row 60L caramel malt having a “sweet pronounced caramel” flavor. Also in this description they say that a “true Caramel Malt” has a “glassy endosperm” that “creates the desirable non-fermentable components” to enhance body and provide caramel flavor.
So, there you have the objective differences. One my rightly ask, “So what?”
To be sure, the only way to really get a feel for something like this is to subjectively evaluate the differences in a controlled way. If I was truly obsessed with beer ingredients (I’m only rabid, remember?) I might go to my homebrew shop and chew on a handful of each (well, ok I admit it – I did that!) Then I might do the 100-grain taste test. Count out 100 grains in the same proportions as your recipe. E.g., 80% pilsner = 80 grains of pilsner malt. 7% Munich = 7 grains of Munich malt, etc. Crunch them all down (perhaps with a glass of water – ugghhhh… ) to get an idea of how it might taste. Better yet, do as Jamil suggests: crush them and make a tea. Whatever way you do it, the idea is to get some idea of what you’re dealing with without having to resort to brewing each permutation of ingredients.
At the end of the day, only a fermented final beer tells the whole story. If that’s your take as well, then you might follow the advice of a wise brewer (I can’t remember which) who suggested pushing the envelope when using new ingredients to be sure you understand what impact they’re having on your recipe. This again assumes you’re working from a strong base. E.g., I once added 2# of honey malt to my blonde to get an idea of what honey malt tasted like. I dumped the batch, but I know I truly know what honey malt tastes like!
So what to do? As Charlie Papazian often said, “Relax Don’t Worry and Have a Home Brew.” The total contribution of CaraMunich to Jamil’s recipe is but 1% of the total grist. Hell, I’m already borrowing his grain bill, why question that trifle amount? So, I decided to go with it for whatever contribution to complexity it might add. If the end-result wasn’t what I was after, I could always tweak the recipe next time around.
Determining Amounts
Now that I’ve decided on what the grist will consist of and in what proportions, the next step is to determine exact amounts of each for a 5 gallon batch. At this point of recipe development, I highly recommend a program such as BeerSmith or ProMash (MAC users can try BeerAlchemy or BeerTools.) I personally use BeerSmith and for the price (around $20) and ease of use, I find it to be one of the most important pieces of brewing equipment I own. It’s also a great way to document your recipes.
I target a final boil volume of 6 gallons (I loose about 0.5 gallon in the kettle and another 0.5 gallon when racking from primary to secondary.) Assuming an evaporation rate of 9% for a 90 minute boil means my starting boil volume is 7.8 gallons. My mash utilization typically runs at around 75% or better and I batch sparge in two rounds of equal size. Finally, the target OG for this recipe is 1.060, but I decided to amp it up a bit to 1.063. Assuming an attenuation of 85%, this would yield a final ABV of ~7%. Using these parameters, plugging in the recipe and adjusting the base malt to account for my utilization yields the following:
- 10.5# Pilsner – 80%
- 0.75# Munich – 6%
- 0.75# Wheat – 6%
- 1# Cane Sugar – 7%
- 2oz CaraMunich – 1%
In the next installment of this series, I’ll continue to look at recipe formulation with a focus on hops.
