Saison Queen Bee - Imperial Saison

Boil Time: 90min
Batch Size: 5.5
Efficiency: 65%


FERMENTABLES:
12 lb - Belgian - Pilsner (70.6%)
2 lb - American - Caramel / Crystal 10L (11.8%)
3 lb - Orange Honey (17.6%) (10 Minutes)

HOPS:
1 oz - Saaz for 60 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 3.5, IBU: 10.03)
0.5 oz - Perle for 45 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 8.2, IBU: 10.79)
0.5 oz - Perle for 1 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 8.2, IBU: 0.51)

MASH STEPS:
1) Temp: 150 F, Time: 90 min

YEAST:
Wyeast - French Saison 3711
Fermentation Temp: 70 F

EDIT:
Just moved this to my secondary and it is tasting amazing. Will keep updated with final results.

EDIT:
Just bottled last night, FG was 1.003 making my final ABV 10.63%. Its the clearest beer Ive ever made. Gonna have to take it easy with my "Lawnmower beer"

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Made this beer exactly 1 year ago today. It just got HM in a comp with a score of 38 last week. It just keeps getting better with age. Very important that you use orange blossom honey, it is what holds this whole recipe together.

How long did it take from primary to bottle?


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IIRC around a month

How's the honey in this? Most folks I've talked to here have said (paraphrasing) that honey is only good for fermentation due to the fact that it finishes dry.
Trying to get a sense of honey in a beer wondering what it gives



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Totally stealing this recipe, but going to add some orange peel too

The orange honey defiantly gives it a citrus orange taste. And it does dry out the beer a lot. I will have tasting notes from BJCP judges on here when ever I get them in the mail. Tasting this beer I dont think I would have ever guessed it is as low FG as it is. Not sure if that is because the honey left a little sweetness or just the 2lbs of crystal.

Probably the crystal. I've brewed a lower gravity saison with honey and orange peel a couple times and was very happy with it. 3787 and 3711 are my house yeasts

I think 3711 is horrid but Id love to see how pc3726 comes out with this!

Fuzzymittenbrewing said:

I think 3711 is horrid but Id love to see how pc3726 comes out with this!

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Different strokes I guess lol

Well just think 3726 is way more funky. And I loooove funky saisons

I do too, but I like the spiciness of 3711, I get all the funk from my sours

I'm looking for a new imperial saison recipe to try. This one looks tasty. Do you have any updates/changes you would make?

I really liked it and will brew it again. On my score sheets that I got back, basically the only complaint was that it lacked hop aroma. so you could maybe up the 1 minute addition to a full oz, or maybe do an oz for dry hop just to add a little more depth to it. Just make sure you use orange blossom honey.

So I picked up some ingredients to brew Queen Bee this weekend but due to supply had to make some substitutions. I picked up weyermann bohemian pilsner malt instead of belgian, and I got the store's last 1.75 lb of crystal 10 and picked up 0.25 lb of some kind of 7 L caramel to make up the rest.

What do you think the affects will be?

After I happen to see this thread I'm wondering am I going to have to do a step mash now for the weyermann bohemian? (I'm able to with RIMS, just never have)

I use weyermann pilsner all the time, never step mash it. But I suppose it couldn't hurt to give it ago with the bohemian stuff. I cant imagine that will make much of a difference at all.

After reading this thread it looks like I'll be fine with a single step infusion. Though some people have had some great results with this malt and a hochkurz double decoction in their pilsners.

Kegged this last night. As usual I just couldn't resist taking a 'sample'. This is gooood! Thank you for the recipe poptarts.

For the record the 3711 took a lot longer to ferment this out than I thought it would, about 12 days. I thought I had a sufficient starter... Oh well, it still turned out.

I'm looking to brew this today. How much did you sparge and at what temp?

klowneyy said:

I'm looking to brew this today. How much did you sparge and at what temp?

Click to expand...

Who are you asking? Mine was a full volume no sparge mash.

klowneyy said:

I'm looking to brew this today. How much did you sparge and at what temp?

Click to expand...

sparge amount is very brew system specific, sparge temp is generally 168-170, dont go above 170f.

Op what was your o.g gravity?

it says 1.084 for the OG using the recipe posted for 5.5gal

Thanks didn't see it

That seems like a ton of Crystal malt in a saison. I'm planning on brewing a big Saison soon with some citrus zest, and I'm wondering if I should bump up my proposed addition of caramel 20. Any tips you can give on the link would be great.

Been on a saison kick lately, going to brew this on Monday (Labor Day).

What's the difference in flavor between a saison and an imperial saison? What's the funky taste to it? I enjoy your standard saisons.