Rye Saison

I have some rye malts available, so I thought I'd give it a shot, doing a variation to the ginger saison recipe that my wife and I both really liked.  With this one, I'm going for a little spice from both the rye malt and the German Tettnang hops.

Brew Day: 17 Dec 2015

Partial Mash
8 oz Rahr Pale Ale Malt
8 oz Briess Rye Malt
1 oz CaraPils

*I followed my usual partial mash process.

Boil (60 min)
1 lb Muntons Extra Light DME (@ 60 min)
3 oz corn sugar (@ 60 min)
7 g German Tettnang hops (@ 60 min)

7 g German Tettnang hops (@ 10 min)
< 1 oz fresh ginger (thinly sliced, @ 10 min)

Once the boil was complete, I let the wort rest of 10 min before putting it in the ice bath to cool it down.  Once the wort had cooled to approx. 80 deg F, I followed my usual procedure for transferring and pitching the yeast.

Yeast: Danstar Belle Saison

Addendum, 31 Dec: Bottled, with 1 oz table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup of boiling water.  This one should be ready to try NLT 14 Jan.

Addendum, 12 Jan 2016: First taste of this beer; initial impression is that is very spicy, definitely need to go with 4 g German Perle as a base hopping for this style of beer.  The body, color and head are very good, and it is very drinkable, just more hops than are necessary.

Addendum, 2 Feb 2016: Opened a 22 oz bottle tonight, thinking I'd just drink it to empty the bottle.  Nice pour, pillowy white head, moderate lacing.  Still kind of a straw-yellow color.  Not as spicy as previously experienced, seems the spicy bite has settled quite a bit.  Much smoother flavor, a touch of sour in the taste, and I definitely get a boozy warmth. I'm really enjoying this one now, much more than I did when I first tried it almost a month ago.  Definitely something to keep in mind, particularly when using more hops in the brew; give it time for the flavor to settle, and even out a bit...take the edge off.

As it turned out, my daughter came home from college for her mother's birthday, and "found" my rye saison.  She's more of a cider girl, but she really seemed to enjoy the rye saison, having two bottles of it that evening (no, she wasn't driving anywhere...).  It looks as if the key to this one was to let the beer sit for two more weeks before enjoying it.