Blood Orange Honey Saison

[jrfehon]

Since all of my carboys are full I'm contemplating what my next brew will be. Blood oranges are coming into season and with all the snow on the ground here in Philly I'm trying to picture spring. That's lead me to a saison recipe. I also love orange blossom honey so I have it in my recipe and I might use it as my priming sugar as well. Combine that with my American hop bill really pushes this recipe away from a traditional saison, but that's what's fun about being a home brewer - no boundaries! Thoughts?

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 3724
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70
Original Gravity: 1.062
Final Gravity: 1.005
IBU: 49.6
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: 5.8
ABV: 7.5%

Grist
9 lbs Belgian Pilsner 75%
.8lbs Wheat, Flaked 6.7%
.8lbs Honey Malt 6.7%
.4lbs Caramel Pils 3.3%
1lb Orange Blossom Honey (added at flame out) 8.3%

Hops/Spices
1oz Centennial (90 Minutes)
1oz Amarillo Gold (15 Minutes)
1.5oz Sweet Orange Peel (5 Minutes)
.35oz Crushed Coriander (5 Minutes)
1oz Citra (FO)
1oz Simcoe DH
1oz Amarillo DH

Mash Schedule
Single Infusion, 154°F, batch sparge

After a month in the primary I'll split the batch - adding 5lbs of blood oranges to half. I know I have honey malt and honey in the recipe so maybe I don't need both? I also might consider pasteurizing the honey and adding it during primary fermentation. I know honey is almost 100% fermentable so I want to use it in the best way to preserve some of the flavors. Has anyone here had luck using honey? I was also thinking of mashing higher at 154 degrees to try to add a bit more body. What do you think?

 

[FarmerTed]

I brewed an orange blossom cream ale a couple months ago, and added a pound of the honey at flame-out. It worked great, imo. The honey aroma and flavor is very present (a couple judges in a comp thought it was too strong, the third liked it). I'd probably punt on the honey malt, though. I doubt that you'll need it. OB honey has a really distinct aroma and flavor, and to me it doesn't taste like normal wildflower or clover honey. Adding it straight to the kettle at flame-out is much easier than dinking around trying to get it to dissolve in the fermenter, and you have the added benefit that you can measure the original gravity. I've read plenty and heard plenty of people who say you shouldn't add honey on the hot side, because you lose all the delicate aromas, but in my experience they're wrong.

 

[glugglug]

I've added honey in pale ales. I don't know the technical terms, but basically honey is a pretty sterile environment. No need to pasteurize it. I have added it to flame out, or very late in the boil. Take the kettle off the flame so it won't scorch on the bottom of you kettle, and make sure to stir it all in.

Honey adds a distinct flavor, and is very fermentable. It'll dry your beer out. It's a good ingredient. The oranges sound good too. I may brew this myself!!

 

[jrfehon]

I brewed this yesterday with basically the same recipe listed above. I ended up using only 1/4 pound of honey malt and I used WLP 566 instead of Wyeast 3724. The only snag was I missed my target gravity of 1.060, which would have given me 70% efficiency. My wort came in at 1.056, my third all grain attempt, so I'm still struggling with brew house efficiency. The plan is to split after a month in the primary and add blood oranges to one half and age the other half before dry hopping.

 

[jrfehon]

The saison has been in the bottle for over a month. I'm really happy with the results! The blood orange half has the red color I was looking for and a nice citrus taste. The other half is a standard saison, nothing too different but still flavorful. The honey didn't really add much if anything.