Summer Saison

It's that time of year again where I want to make low alcohol/high drinkability beers to drink during the summer. All I have right now are dark extremely malty beers that really don't go with the hot sweaty summer months. So I have a few new beers in mind and this is the 1st. A nice summer saison, a redux of one I made last year in hops to lower the alcohol a bit and add a more funky earthy taste and aroma to it. From the one I made last year I upped the Vienna malt in hops to bring out a more orange hue and I changed out the 2-Row for the Pilsner malt in hopes to add some grainy taste to the beer. I went with all Styrian Goldings as I just love the flavor of these hops. I added more honey at the end of the boil and went with no spices except for about 1/4 oz of cracked black pepper. I am wanting the yeast to do all the work as far as adding phenols and esters to the beer. The honey was sourced locally through my grandfather. He has "a guy" who keeps bee's on his farm and I asked him for a few pounds of honey a few months ago. I plan on remaking my DIPA at the end of summer so that will use up the rest of it, but for this I only used a pound, which hopefully will help dry things out a bit and darken the beer up some.

Summer Saison

Malt:
5 lbs: German Pilsner
2.5 lbs: Vienna Malt
1 lb: Munich Malt
.5 lb: Flaked Wheat

Hops:
1.0 oz: Styrian Goldings 3.4aa @ 60min
1.0 oz: Styrian Goldings 3.4aa @ 30min
1.0 oz: Styrian Goldings 3.4aa @15 min
1.25 oz: Styrian Goldings 3.4aa @5 min

Misc:
1 lb: Local Wildflower Honey (added @ 1min)
.25 oz: Cracked Pepper (@ Flameout)
1 Whirlfloc Tablet @15 min

Target OG: 1.043
Target FG: 1.009
IBU: ~24

Actual OG: 1.050
Actual FG: 1.010
Apparent Attenuation: 79.3%

ABV: 5.3%
ABW: 4.2%

Yeast:
White Labs Belgian Style Saison Blend (WLP568)

Hopville Recipe

Update 6.14.2010: Brewday was typical got excellent efficiency due to the low malt/grain bill. Yeast was rocking in the starter and it didn't take long for fermentation to start (3-4 hours). Right now I am letting the beer warm up to help attenuate the beer a bit. Took a gravity reading and it was at 1.010 and I would like it a bit dryer if I can get it down there. I am already around 80% attenuation so it should only drop a few more points I would say. Hopefully I can get it around 1.008. I am thinking of racking a gallon of the beer off to secondary and adding some sour yeast. We will see.

Update 6.17.2010: Racked over to a keg with no difference in gravity. Beer tastes a bit thin, but I kind of expected that. Hopefully after it's carbonated up it will even out everything.

Update 7.9.2010: Beer was just great. Lots of spicy fruity aromas with a nice farmhouse taste. Too bad this beer is no more, but I will be making it again!