Sierra Nevada Brown Saison Question

[funkenet]

I had this beer on tap at the Happy Gnome in St Paul and it is excellent. The beer starts off really malty and heavy(kind of like a porter) then finishes really dry and crisp like a saison for those who haven't had it. I want to try to make this beer. What grains should I use to get the brown color and heavy malty front and how much of it should I use in a 5 gallon batch?

Black Patent,
crystal 120,
light chocolate malt?

If you don't know which one is used than any explanation about the differences between specialty grains above would be helpful.



Thanks,

[mediumsk]

I havent had this but want to try it.
just based on the style I would look into carafa special 2, in the 5 to 10 oz range i find you get a malt taste somewhere between biscuity/toasty tasting and roasty, that will get you a ton of color too. Pale chocolate will give you a somewhat similar flavor but might become overwhelming when used in the quantities it takes to turn a beer dark brown.
crystal 120 is a caramelized malt, it gives off a flavor similar to very dark sugars like dark brown sugar or molasses, there could be some in your recipe but probably not much as it is not super fermentable and makes it hard to get a dry finish if you use alot.
Black patent is SUPER roasty and super dark, think of it basically as malt charcoal, it can get astringent quickly.
hope this helps and im hoping i can find this beer around here soon

[funkenet]

Thanks, this helps quite a bit. I am gonna try a couple 1 gallon batches to try and get it right before commiting to a 5 gallon batch. I'll post my recipe when I'm done.