Saison Indochine

I have always loved saison's for their spiciness, dry, hoppy flavors. I have also loved the flavors of Thai (well all South East Asian) food, specifically the ginger, keffir lime, and lemon grass. I brewed a saison about 4 years ago (my first) with galangal ginger, keffir lime leaves, and lemon grass, all dried. The beer was over spiced (ginger) and just not a great base beer. So I waited until I became a better brewer and was re-inspired by my honeymoon to Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. When I got home I sourced fresh galangal, keffir leaves, and lemon grass. I decided to attempt the beer again. I wanted a light colored, dry and balanced beer with a nice low spice/herb characteristic. I also wanted to add sugar to the beer so I added palm sugar and rice solids; two common ingredients in South East Asia. The recipe calls for turbinado sugar but I subbed for the specialty sugars. I also made a extract of keffir leaves and lemon grass soaked in vodka, to add to the keg. You can see that in the jar in the pictures above.

So here is the recipe:

Fermentables

Ingredient	Amount	%	MCU	When
Belgian Pilsen Malt	8.00 lb	74.4 %	2.4	In Mash/Steeped
US White Wheat Malt	1.00 lb	9.3 %	0.5	In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Munich Malt	0.75 lb	7.0 %	0.8	In Mash/Steeped
Sugar - Turbinado	1.00 lb	9.3 %	1.9	Start Of Boil

Hops

Variety	Alpha	Amount	IBU	Form	When
UK Golding	5.5 %	1.00 oz	19.3	Loose Pellet Hops	60 Min From End
US Amarillo	5.0 %	0.50 oz	5.3	Loose Pellet Hops	20 Min From End
US Amarillo	5.0 %	0.50 oz	0.4	Loose Pellet Hops	1 Min From End

Yeast

Wyeast 3711-French Saison

Mash Notes

Mash at 147-148F for 60 minutes

Boil Notes

1.3 oz of lemon grass, 0.6 oz galangal ginger, 0.1 oz keffir lime (about 8 leaves). Added .5 lbs Palm Sugar and .5 Rice Sugar to start of boil. Added spices last minute of boil and kept in wort for 10 minutes as wort chilled.