Autumnal farmhouse ale

Well, seeing as it's warmer in New Jersey than I had previously planned, I am putting off the brewing of the steam beer until October or so.  Since it is still well within the 70s for temperatures and I don't want to pay exorbitant amounts of money to cool my townhouse down to the low 60s, I am going with a new idea for my second fall beer in Princeton.  I would like to brew a fall saison.  Saisons are often known for being summer beers, light in color and peppery/citrusy/lightly tart in flavor...definitely delicious.  What people don't know however, is that the Saison is a relatively loose style category with lots of possibilities.  For a beer that has its origins as a farmhouse ale, there is definitely a saison for every season.  For more info, definitely check out the saison article from Zymurgy that's on this page.

So here's what I'm thinking...I would like to do a dark saison that's amber to light brown in color with plenty of malt and spice character for the fall season.  I'm feeling like I might want to incorporate pumpkin into the recipe, too.  Delicious!

Because of the time of year, I won't be able to use the traditional DuPont strain, which requires really warm fermentation temperatures, in the realm of 80-90 degrees.  I'll use the Wyeast 3711 French Saison strain, which will still add nice peppery/spice complexity to the beer.  That one ferments well in the mid-70s so it will do well right now.  More on this really soon.  Busy week/weekend so the possibility of brewing is a big maybe right now, but I'll get to this one soon.  Want to get a couple batches going so that I can have a few different ones to enjoy.

Cheers :)