Kentucky Saison... that's right.

First post in a long while, got in the mood to brew today, no time or patience to convert grain so I put together this interesting extract brew.

Kentucky Saison
Kettle Volume: 4.92 gal (S.G.: 1.037)
Final Volume: 4.0 gal (S.G.: 1.046)

Ingredients:
3. lb Dry Light Extract
0.5 lb Dry Wheat Extract
0.12 lb Belgian Special B (steeped) ~165 23 min.
1.0 lb OB Honey

Hops:
1.0 oz Crystal (3.2%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
0.5 oz Tettnanger (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 30.0 min
0.15 oz Amarillo (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
0.25 oz Tettnanger (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min

? Peaches (fresh/frozen) - added to secondary
? Wild Turkey American Honey w/ special spice - added to secondary

White Labs WLP565 Belgian Saison I

Original Gravity: 1.046
Terminal Gravity: 1.012
Color: 10.7 °SRM
Alcohol: ?
Bitterness: 25.2
Guideline
1.048 - 1.065
1.002 - 1.012
5.0 - 14.0
5.0% - 7.0%
20.0 - 35.0

I brewed it today, and it is in my closet as I type, what I have to think about now is:

A. How many peaches for a 4 gallon recipe am I going to have pitted, frozen, unfrozen, and thrown into the secondary?

B. How much American Honey (Wild Turkey product) would be enough with out overwhelming the beer? I'm thinking between 1-2 cups, but I'd like to hear anyone's input of adding liquor to beer, no matter what style you did. fyi, American Honey is a bourbon product but very subtle, and very honey flavored. I believe it's about 35 percent.

As for the American honey, i drink the stuff alot, i like it, i'd stay under a pint, prolly use 1/2 pint the first time.

As for the peaches i'm not sure you'll get much out of them in the secondary but i'd start with a 5# can of strained peaches. Drain all the strup off.

You in KY?

HillbillyDeluxe said:

As for the American honey, i drink the stuff alot, i like it, i'd stay under a pint, prolly use 1/2 pint the first time.

As for the peaches i'm not sure you'll get much out of them in the secondary but i'd start with a 5# can of strained peaches. Drain all the strup off.

You in KY?

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No, but wild turkey is and my "special ingredient" that will be infused with the american honey makes it seem down south moonshineish to me.

Update: Holy crap, this is the best smelling beer I've ever smelt in the primary. Couple weird modifications... I've been playing with my crock pot the last couple weeks, threw in 4 peaches, some more honey, brown sugar and a little cinnamon and had it on low for 15 hours or so. That was the first peach addition. THEN... I pitted 6 fresh peaches, froze thawed, threw in the bottom of a carboy and siphoned the beer on top, leaving the older cooked peaches behind.

I had plans to put in pectic enzyme to clear the beer out but have yet to do so. Would anyone think adding it at this stage (secondary) would have any effect in clearing the beer? I suppose the beer looking like a peach hoegaarden isnt the worst thing to happen.

I like the sound of this (and I can't say that I am a peach, whiskey or Saison fan and it still sounds good!). Have you thought about aging it on oak?

Parker36 said:

I like the sound of this (and I can't say that I am a peach, whiskey or Saison fan and it still sounds good!). Have you thought about aging it on oak?

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Oak may be too much for a beer thats already trying to hard, but we'll see what it could have been used (or not) after my first taste. An oaky Saison? I probably wouldn't, but then again I probably wouldn't put whiskey in it either, but in this case I'm doing it to up the alc. while gauging the honey flavor of American Honey in a beer.

So I split the batch, putting 2 gallons with out the whiskey/herb blend in a small keg, 3 days ago. Pulled two beers today; Nice, almost heffen like but I guess just a saison... no peach taste, haha 10 pounds and nothing. Nice color though. Amazing what the yeast can do with some malt and a bag of peaches, very light and flavorful, great session beer, with out being lawn mower beer... though it'd be perfect for it. The other two gallons is waiting in the bottling bucket. I was thinking of using belgian bottles/champaign bottles, but I decided I'd rather not buy a corker. As soon as I remember where I put my flip tops, I can put the whiskey in the bucket, the elixer in the bottles, and get those puppies going.