Advice on Hop Schedule: Sorachi Ace & Amarillo Saison

So I'm doing a brew-in-a-bag version of the all grain Saison kit from Northern Brewer (my first all-grain).

The extract kit was my first brew ever, so I thought doing it for my first all-grain, would be...um... symetrical.

Anyhow, I'm going to hop the hell out of this one with Amarillo and Sorachi Ace:

Here's what I think I'm going to do, any thoughts? Too much? I'm a little scared of the Sorachi Ace...

• 3 oz Hersbrucker pellets @ 60 mins
• .5 oz Sorachi Ace leaves @ 20 mins
• .5 oz Amarillo pellets @ 20 mins
• .25 oz Sorachi Ace leaves @ 10 mins
• .5 oz Amarillo pellets @ 10 mins
• .5 oz Sorachi Ace leaves @ 5 mins
• .5 oz Amarillo leaves @ 5 mins
• .5 oz Amarillo leaves at flame out

- Dry hop for 7 days during week 2 in the primary w. 1 oz Amarillo leaves, .5 oz Sorachi Ace leaves

If my math is right, that would leave me with .25oz of Sorachi Ace & 1 oz of Amarillo pellets left over (oops).

I think you may be going in a bit strong. I use just over 2oz all told, although I understand leaf hops yield a bit less. You'll get all kinds of flavor & spice from the yeast, so in spite of being a hop head I try to keep my Saison IBUs below 30.

The only other thing that sticks out is 3oz Hersbrucker. When you have that much green matter going in for the whole boil, you sometimes get vegetal flavors. I'd go w/ a touch of nugget or magnum for early addition, but ymmv.

Thanks: Re the Hersbrucker- the original recipe from NB called for 2.5 oz at 60 mins. I upped it to 3, but could probably drop it.

I'm kind of going for a saison IPA with a lot of citrus hop flavor.

Sounds interesting. I've only use Sorachi once and it was a background hop but it has a very interesting flavor and aroma. Personally I think a lot of Sorachi in a brew would turn me off.

Did you end up brewing this? How did it turn out?

goo-gone said:

Did you end up brewing this? How did it turn out?

Click to expand...

I did. It turned out really well, but it had a TON of sediment, especially the whole hops. I lost nearly a gallon in the fermenter to it. Next time, I'll use a hop spider and try to do a better job whirlpooling.

It was nice and citrusy; I think the Amarillo helped punch that through. I didn't get any of the vegetal flavors that some people say they get with Sorachi.