Sour Saison (For Advanced Homebrewers) Recipe

By
Joe Postma
Joe Postma
Joe Postma is an experienced homebrewer with a passion for craft beer.  He guided beginners through the basics of homebrewing through a series of features in the Serious Eats “Homebrewing” column and developed craft beer recipes for homebrewers of every skill level.  
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Updated August 09, 2018
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If this is your first sour ale, be sure to read through our Intro to Sours and What to Expect posts.

This is a pretty standard saison recipe, but it adds Wyeast's Roeselare Ale Blend, which from Wyeast's description is "a Belgian style ale strain, a sherry strain, two Brettanomyces strains, a Lactobacillus culture, and a Pediococcus culture". For the flavors to fully develop, this homebrew should age for about 1 year. It will produce a rustic farmhouse style ale that will have a mild sour flavor, but it won't be overwhelmingly tart. You will also get some mild barnyard aromas and flavors from the Brett that's in the mix.

Recipe Details

Sour Saison (For Advanced Homebrewers) Recipe

Active 5 to 7 hrs
Total 0 mins
Makes 5 gallons

Ingredients

  • 10 pounds Pilsner malt
  • 1 1/2 pounds wheat malt
  • 3/4 pounds Munich malt
  • 1 ounce Willamette hops - 60 minutes
  • 1 ounce Willamette hops - 10 minutes
  • 1 liter starter of French Saison yeast (Wyeast 3711)
  • 1 package Roeselare Ale Blend (Wyeast 3763)

Directions

  1. Mash-in the 12 1/4 pounds of grain to 152°F using 4 gallons of water at about 165°F (1.3 quarts of water per pound). Stir for 2 minutes to prevent balls of grain from clumping together, creating a consistent mash

  2. Cover the mash, only uncovering to briefly stir every 20 minutes. Heat 4.75 gallons of sparge water to about 185°F.

  3. After mashing for 60 minutes, mash-out and sparge. You should have about 6.5 gallons in the kettle. Add 1 ounce of Willamette hops and bring to boil, uncovered.

  4. After a total of 50 minutes, add 1 ounce Willamette hops.

  5. After 60 minutes remove from heat and chill using a wort chiller to 75°F. Transfer to a carboy and take a gravity reading. It should be around 1.068

  6. Add the French Saison and Roeselare Ale yeasts and ferment at 70° to 75°F for 4 weeks. Transfer to a secondary carboy and age at room temperature in a dark place for at least a year.

  7. Keg or bottle for a medium level of carbonation.

Special equipment

8 gallon kettle (or bigger), homebrewing equipment setup with mashtun

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