Blackberry Saison (My first recipe - advice more than welcome!)

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Oddpac87

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I've been browsing the forums and various homebrew supply sites looking for good summer beer ideas. I decided one of the beers I definitely wanted to make was a saison, but couldn't find a recipe that I really liked so I figured I'd try to design one myself. Feedback would be greatly appreciated as I've never designed my own and am new to homebrewing in general. Here's what I came up with.


Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: WLP568
Batch Size: 5 gallons
Original Gravity: 1.051
Final Gravity: 1.009
IBU: 22.2
Boiling Time: 60 minutes
Color: 7.8
Primary Fermentation: 1-2 weeks @ 70-80F
Secondary Fermentation: 1-2 weeks @ 70-80F

8 oz. Crystal 20
8 oz. CaraVienne
(Steep 30 mins @ 160)

3 lbs. Pilsen LME
3 lbs. Wheat LME
1 lb. Clear Candi Sugar

1 oz. Hallertauer (60 min)
1 oz. Saaz (5 min)

Rack onto 49 oz. Blackberry Puree in secondary or use 4 oz. extract at bottling/kegging


Thoughts? Any glaring problems?
What's the difference (if any) between puree and extract flavoring?
 
I've never brewed an extract batch or used blackberry purée or extract, but I've brewed a blackberry saison in each of the last two summers. I used 5-6 lbs of frozen (thawed) blackberries in the secondary. They turned out great! I think the bitter fruitiness of blackberries is a great compliment to the yeast-driven spiciness of a saison.
 
I would probably not use the Crystal 20 or the CaraVienne. I'd use a pound of Munich instead.
Those crystals will make it sweeter than I think a saison should be, and probably keep your FG a bit higher than I would want.
 
I've never brewed an extract batch or used blackberry purée or extract, but I've brewed a blackberry saison in each of the last two summers. I used 5-6 lbs of frozen (thawed) blackberries in the secondary. They turned out great! I think the bitter fruitiness of blackberries is a great compliment to the yeast-driven spiciness of a saison.
Good to hear it's worked well for you. How's my recipe look to you? I know it's not a direct conversion with AG/extract, but have you used those hops or anything? How do you sanitize the frozen blackberries? Also, which yeast(s) have you had success with?
I would probably not use the Crystal 20 or the CaraVienne. I'd use a pound of Munich instead.
Those crystals will make it sweeter than I think a saison should be, and probably keep your FG a bit higher than I would want.
Thanks, I didn't think about the added sweetness. Should be adding enough from the blackberries. Though, the FG stays the same in BeerSmith with either the crystals or Munich. It would lighten it up a bit.
 
It's hard for me to comment on the malt portion of your recipe because I've never used those grains and I've never steeped grains. I tend to use combinations of base malts to achieve my goals rather than crystal malts. One of my blackberry saisons was heavy on rye, the other used wheat.

As for hops, both of my versions bittered with northern brewer and then added a little bit of American citrusy hops at 5 min. I'm sure saaz will work fine if it's a hop you enjoy. It's prolly a lot more in line with traditional saison hopping.

I did one batch with wyeast 3724 and one with 3711. Both were good, but I liked the 3724 version better. That's kind of interesting to me because I usually prefer 3711. Either yeast can make a great saison.

I just let my fruit thaw a bit and added it to the fermentor. Then I racked the beer onto the fruit for a couple weeks. These days I like to use a bucket for this and put the fruit in a mesh bag for easy extraction. Cleaning fruit gunk out of a carboy can be a hassle but it's not an impossible task.
 
Recipe looks great to me. I did the same as abrahamnormal and added about 6 lbs. of freeze/thawed blackberries to a different brewing bucket and transferred from primary to that secondary bucket. I let it sit on the blackberries for about 10-14 days and then racked it over to a carboy to let everything settle some more before kegging it. My girlfriend says that I haven't had much luck with the fruit beers, but I think it was pretty good, although it tasted a little "wine-y".

Good luck!
 
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