Please critique my first recipe...an Amarillo Rye Saison

I just came up with this and I'm ready to brew this weekend. Any input? I was thinking a dry, spicy, and tart saison with a slick, vinous mouthfeel and bright citrusy hops. What do you think? Will the Amarillo hops clash? I also have some French Strisselspalt that I could use for the late hops instead.

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.50 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 78.00

Ingredients:
7.50 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 62.50 %
3.00 lb Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 25.00 %
0.75 lb Acid Malt (3.0 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
0.75 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
1.00 lb Rice Hulls
0.50 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 22.7 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (10 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
1.5 oz Amarillo [8.5%] (0 min) Hops
1 Pkgs French Saison (Wyeast #3711) [Starter 1000 ml] Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile:
Est Original Gravity: 1.058 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.004 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.9 %
Bitterness: 27.7 IBU Calories: 254 cal/pint
Est Color: 5.0 SRM Color: Color

Thanks!

The recipe looks pretty good, but I would worry about the clashing of all the complex flavors. I really like the idea of a rye Saison, in fact I brewed a Rye English IPA with Saison yeast on a kind of dare. Like Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Wild, there are just some flavors that don't really play nice together, especially when they're all HUGE and in your face. Obviously, some people like that, and if you're one of them, go for it.

French hops and French yeast sounds like a no-brainer combo, though. I'd do that (and probably quite a bit more bitterness).

I'd say brew it, Amarillo tend to do well with Belgian yeast because they are more towards fruity than dank/pine. Stillwater Stateside is a solid hoppy saison that is fermented with 3711, so it can work. I would second the up the IBUs a bit, especially with such a clean hop like Magnum. Good luck.

Looks interesting! Oldsock, would you say "up the IBUs a bit" for just this beer or others that are bittered with Magnum? I've got a lot of that hop to use up.

Oldsock said:

I'd say brew it, Amarillo tend to do well with Belgian yeast because they are more towards fruity than dank/pine. Stillwater Stateside is a solid hoppy saison that is fermented with 3711, so it can work. I would second the up the IBUs a bit, especially with such a clean hop like Magnum. Good luck.

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Thanks for the advice. Do you know if the stateside saison has amarillo aroma hops? The one time I had that beer I loved it.

Regarding the IBU's, what would you suggest? I was thinking that since 3711 attenuates so well, the 25-30 range would be good, but I could be wrong.

Magnum has a really smooth bitterness, so I tend to go a bit higher than usual anytime I use it. 3711 does attenuate really well, but it seems to leave enough fullness to balance the hops. It all depends what you want, but for a hoppy saison I’d creep up into the 30-35 IBU range.

Not sure what Stateside has exactly, I know there was/is some Nelson Sauvin in there, not sure what else. Brian (the brewer) had some problems getting the exact varieties in the amounts he wanted initially. I wouldn't be surprised if Amarillo is one of the other hops in there. I was actually hanging out at his house the night he opened the first bottle of Stateside, talk about nerve-racking. Here is a little write-up from back then from my now defunct second blog BrewLocal.

I'll be doing a single infusion mash on this. What would you suggest for mash temp and time on this one? I want to make sure it gets down to at least 1.008.

I recently made a beer exactly like this, A rye saison single hopped with Amarillo. Though, I just hop-backed with 2 oz of amarillo and fermented in the low 70's with 3711 - it turned out to be a pretty decent beer, but it really did taste a lot like Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat...which I'm not too much of a fan of.