Mardi Gras Beer

What do you guys think about this? I may change the yeast to belgian wit but I want to do this at high temp with the saison yeast.


Recipe Mardi Gras Wheat Saison Style Saison
Brewer Batch 5.00 gal
Extract
Recipe Characteristics
Recipe Gravity 1.072 OG Estimated FG 1.018 FG
Recipe Bitterness 31 IBU Alcohol by Volume 7.0%
Recipe Color 10° SRM Alcohol by Weight 5.5%
Ingredients
Quantity Grain Type Use
0.50 lb CaraVienne Grain Steeped
1.00 lb Cane sugar Sugar Other
1.00 lb Flaked wheat Adjunct Steeped
1.50 lb Light D.M.E. Extract Extract
6.00 lb Wheat malt extract Extract Extract
Quantity Hop Type Time
0.50 oz Saaz Pellet 60 minutes
0.75 oz Hallertauer Pellet 60 minutes
1.00 oz Strisselspalt Pellet 60 minutes
Quantity Misc Notes
1.00 unit Orange Peel, Sweet Spice
1.00 unit Saison Yeast Other
Recipe Notes
Steep grains (60 min/155-165f) in two gallons of water. Add extracts and boil with hops for 60 min. Add orange peel in a bag for the last 15 min of boil and remove. Cool to 70, put in primary, fill to 5 gallons and pitch yeast. (S Gravity should be 1.063) Ferment for two weeks (FG should be 1.016), transfer to a secondary and add sugar (light turbanado). Ferment to final gravity (1.018).

If you really want the local flavor to celebrate mardi gras then I'd go with Satsuma over orange peel. I made up a bacth not too long ago with satsumas and it came out tasting great. A little sweeter than orange peels. You know the drill: $3/bag from the guys on the side of the road.

Man that's a great idea! Did you dry them out or what?

goodgreener said:

Man that's a great idea! Did you dry them out or what?

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I ate the satsumas (mmmm) and kept the peels. I then ran the inside of the peels over a cheese grater to get all the white off the back. I threw 'em on a cookie sheet and baked them for a bit to dry them out. I don't recall how long or what temperature (maybe 350-400 for 30 minutes or so. Just keep an eye on 'em). I threw the peels into the boil with 5 minutes left and then left them in there throughout fermentation.

I guess I should get some sort of brew going and ready to take out to the parades.

Sounds real good. Do you go to spanish town?

If I'm not in New Orleans I usually go to the Spanish Town parade. Depends on what SWMBO feels like doing as I could care less as long as I get to get drunk and yell for free stuff. This year it might be different, though, as both her and I are out of school and no longer get a few days off to celebrate. We might stick around here.

Do you ever buy stuff from bootlegger?

Instead of using regular white cane sugar, use a semi-refined sugar like Demerara or Turbinado or just caramelize the white sugar a bit to add a little more depth to the flavor. Otherwise, looks pretty good. And as I was just noting to another brewer, make sure you only use the zest of the orange - you don't want any of the white pith as it is extremely bitter and not in a good way.

Good luck.

Cool, thanks man...

goodgreener said:

Do you ever buy stuff from bootlegger?

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I don't know where they are located anymore. I know their old place burned down a while back. The address for it in the phonebook says it's at it's old address, but there is only an empty lot there now. Where did they move to?

They are up on Scenic now, "Pelican State Supply".