#4 Saison 24Nov08

A slight vatiation of my successful #2 Saison:

1) I need to change yeasts since it is winter and my house is now ~68F. WLP568 needs at least mid 70s, and has a reputation for stopping (or taking weeks) at lower temperatures.
2) My LHBS ran out of EKG plugs so I had to use the pellets and strain before pitching the yeast


Recipe:
4lb Belgian Pilsner (Dingemans)
1lb Weyermann wheat
1lb Muntons Cara-pils
8 oz Flaked Oats
3lb Briess light pilsen dry malt extract
1 oz E Kent Golding @ 45 min (5.0%, pellets)
0.5 oz E Kent Golding @ 5 min (5.0%, pellets)
0.5 oz Saaz @ 5 min (3.0%, plug)
Wyeast VSS 3711 (Saison blend), fermented @ 68F (avg house temp)
5.5 gallons total

Notes: Initial mash temp: 151 F; final temp 147 F. Original gravity was 1.052 for a mash efficiency of 65%. Final gravity was 1.006 after 1 week- bone dry compared to #2 Saison, and I'm guessing is a result of the lower mash temperature for the #4 Saison, rather than differences in the yeast. Decided to condition in the primary for another week rather than bothering to transfer to secondary for clarification. Add 6 oz corn sugar before bottling on 10Dec08. Condition @ 68F.

I intitally thought this beer was pretty good. The color, body, and flavors were nice. Grapefruit is predominant with some pepper. Good carbonation and nice head without being annoying to pour. But after about 1 month in the bottle (and having dogfish head 60-min IPA for a period of time) I don't care for it. There is too much of a phenolic character to this beer. I'm not even a big fan of the good (clove-like) phenol flavors (think Hoegaarden). But to me this is more medicinal. These flavors should come from the yeast fermenting, so this shouldn't have changed over time, I don't know why I am just noticing this. A head-to-head with #2 Saison seals the deal. #2 Saison is awesome. No phenolics. A maltier backbone (the WLP568 yeast isn't as attenuative as the Wyeast 3711). Unless I can find another alternative that ferments well at cooler temps, I'll have to buy some warming equipment for my fermenter so I can use the WLP568 at the recommended temps.