Biere de Mars Partial Mash

I decided to try out the Biere de Mars style and here is what I came up with:

For 3 Gallons:

2 lbs Munich Malt
1 lb Two Row
1 lb Oats
1/2 lb Crystal (60L)

Mash grains in bag at 150F for 90M.

1 lb Light DME (20M)
1 lb Wheat DME (20M)

Saaz 1 oz- 60M
Saaz 1 oz- 10M

Lemon Peel (?) 5M
Lemon Balm (1/2 oz?) 5M

Yeast: Wyeast 3711 (French Saison)

Expected OG: 1.063
Expected FG: 1.018
" IBU: 24
" ABV: 5.8%
" SRM: 11

Couple of questions- how much lemon zest would be appropriate? Also, I have lemon balm listed here- I know lemon verbena is traditional, but I still have bags and bags of dried lemon balm from last years harvest- will this work? Probably will keep it to a 1/2 oz at the most.

Additionally, I'm skipping the Brett at the moment, but I was thinking of aging on some oak for a little of that barrel flavor. Good or bad idea?

Scratch that- The French Saison yeast was N/A from my supplier so I went with a Kolsh strain. Eh?

Another thought occurs to me...how about a little French tarragon in the boil?
Shockingly, I see not a single thread on here regarding Tarragon in a homebrew!

No comments on this? Not to be self-referential or anything, but I think I'm going to brew this up this weekend, any critiques? Am I even in the ballpark here with my recipe?

Update please when you finish this. I'm curious how it is going to come out, it looks like a nice summer sippin' brew to me. Lemon balm is a nice touch. Also, +1 on the tarragon thought. That's quite interesting.

I just finished brewing this tonight! Made a few minor adjustments, Mash started @ 120F added grains and raised to 154F.

Hops, .5 oz American Saaz @ 60M; 1.0 oz Saaz + 1.5 tblsp each lemon balm and banana mint (a French mint variety that smells like bananas! From Richters, which is a great place to find herb plants if you garden (I'm not affiliated); I didn't think it was too out of line since the variety originates from France and its not inconceivable that it has made it into a batch of French farm house ale, as well as lemon balm which many French gardeners grow)

Flameout = zest of 1.5 lemons, + same amount of herbs again

Yeast was pitched at 58F, but ambient temps are in the 70's in the house, so I will let that rise.

We'll see what happens! Keep you posted.

:rockin: Thanks! I can't wait for my primary to get free so I can try this out. Seems to me like you managed to capture a bit of rustic france in a bottle. Cheers!

So you didn't go with any of the French tarragon? I was kind of curious to hear how that might turn out. After one bad experience I got gun-shy about trying new spices and off the wall stuff on my beers, but I always have the itch to. Maybe I'll just have to suck it up and give it a go!

Anwyay your beer sounds like it has a lot of potential and I hope you post an update when you finally get to taste it.

Yeah unfortunately I didn't have any fresh (dried) french tarragon like I thought. Plus I thought the licorice note might be distracting in this brew, though I do plan to go that route in the future (I have some dried anise hyssop that smells awesome that I'm planning on trying in some brews). I'm hoping what I added won't be too weird!

Additionally, I had my first stuck fermentation with this batch. I think my Kolsch yeast was DOA- I should have made a starter first, but I had extremely limited time to brew while the missus was gone. I happened to have an extra packet of T-58 around so it should be fine, but I am disappointed that I didn't get to try the Kolsch.

Luckily I had my new brew buddy to help me out this weekend!

I tasted the hydrometer sample last night, and holy cow- bitter! I think the lemon zest made it more bitter than I intended- its still not bad- (will wait to make a final judgement until its in the bottle and carbed!). I decided a honey note would be totally kick ass, so I added 2 lbs of honey to my vessel last night. The T-58 is powering through it like no one's business!

oi! honey too. this is gonna be one heck of a high powered summer brew. would you have cut your lemon zest after tasting it? i'm betting that some of that bite should mellow out in the bottle. I'm moving my IPA over next weekend, so my version of this is coming up. I made a few changes to the recipe:

1lb munich
1lb rahr 2-row
1lb flaked oat
1lb light DME
1lb wheat DME

and I'm going to use 1oz total of citra hops (50% at 50 min, 25% at 15min, 25% at 2min). I'm betting that the oat and wheat will give me the body I want and the citra aroma should match nicely with the lemon. I was also pondering on 'dry-hopping' with some lemon grass for a few days if the aroma doesn't settle in well. I'll also be carbing it at around 2.7 or 2.8 vols CO2. I'll let you know how mine turns out. Thanks for the updates!

Yours sounds tasty as well. Good luck!

acidrain23 said:

Yours sounds tasty as well. Good luck!

Click to expand...

I'll raise a pint in the direction of chi-town as soon as it finishes and let you know how mine worked out as well. Thanks for the idea!

Salud

I'll tack onto this one...

Pale Malt (2 Row) UK Grain 1.313 lb
White Wheat Malt Grain 1.063 lb
Cara-Pils/Dextrine Grain 7.600 oz
Oats, Flaked Grain 7.600 oz
Aromatic Malt Grain 5.700 oz
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L Grain 4.200 oz
Briess LME - Bavarian Wheat Extract 3.300 lb
Briess LME - Golden Light Extract 3.300 lb

Cascade 30
Willamette 60
Cascade 10

Lemonpeel 1 oz
Lemongrass .6 oz

Wyeast Belgian Abbey II for 21 days
Wyeast Brett b. 5 mos

1.064 OG
1.010 FG

Getting ready to bottle.

I'm not a real serious brewer, but the Biere De Mars has been a favorite since I had the New Belgium version (pre Lips of Faith).
My sample is tasty. Very pleasant citrusy, malty nose. Nice citrus finish, probably more from the lemongrass than the lemon peel. I pick up nearly zero Brett. character after 5 mos in secondary. One issue I've always had with my brews is the lack of body and this holds to form.

How much sugar should I use for bottling? The FG suggests that bottle bombs won't be an issue?