Recipe Help Thread #1,300,148- "Saison Wannabe Summer Ale"

Well...just looking for some more friendly advice on this Extract + Specialty grains recipe:

4lb Pale Liquid Extract
3lb Wheat Liquid Extract
1lb Pilsner Malt
4oz American Two-row Pale
4oz Victory Malt

60min 1oz Falconer's Flight 7cs
15min 1oz Falconer's Flight 7cs
15min 1oz Lemon Zest
0min 1oz Falconer's Flight 7cs
0min 1oz Lemon Zest

White Labs Belgian Style Saison Ale yeast

Possible "dryhop" after fermentation with some lemon and grapefruit peels


Just say it's crazy if you think it is!

I don't think it's crazy; the general idea sounds delicious. However, assuming you are brewing 5 gal, you're looking at a beer with an ABV over 6% and a final gravity of at least 1.012, which doesn't sound too summery nor very saisony to me. If you were to do something like:

2.5 light lme
2 wheat lme
2 pilsner
.25 victory/biscuit/

you would have a beer with gravities around 1.045/1.009 and an ABV around 4.5, depending on your efficiency and allowing for the greater fermentability of grain vs extract.
I would also probably cut the 60 min hop addition in half, which would cut your total IBUs from 70ish to 45ish. 70 IBU might overwhelm the subtleties you're looking for from zest, late hops and saison yeast.

Feel free to alter or disregard any or all of this. It is your beer, after all.

Hey man, really appreciate that input. I guess I just always see that IBU number when I'm in the beer recipe calculator and my taste wants the number to go up. I do however want to taste a good summer, hot day refreshing beer...so you're probably right there.

The only other thing I was concerned about was using too much lemon zest. May cut back a little bit on that for fear of it being "too lemony". We'll see how it goes, I have been kicking around a couple ideas of what to brew this Saturday and I just need to make up my mind.