New pledge from Vancouver, BC

[LostBoyScout]

Hey folks,

I have used the forums to answer random questions I've thought of over the past couple months but just became an actual member. Also just bought my first homebrewing supplies on the weekend, so soon I'll have actual homebrew experience too!

I've been a beer nerd for quite some time, have a pretty extensive cellar and regularly participate in some pretty crazy bottleshares, but never dabbled in homebrewing to date despite a long standing interest.

For better or worse, I'm fast-forwarding to as interesting of a brew as I dare take on for a first beer. Going all-grain right off the bat, and brewing a dry hopped saison. I read a bunch of different recipes, got a feel for the options, then just wrote out my own recipe based on what I hope to achieve. It may be an unusual choice to develop one's own recipe before trying any standard recipes, but it's quite a straight-forward one:

12 lbs pilsner malt
2 lbs wheat

150-155F mash for 60m
75m boil (may up to 90)

1.25 oz Azacca @ 15m
1.25 oz Azacca @ flameout
2.00 oz Azacca dry hop

WYeast 3711

I hope to tweak and re-brew the saison many times, as it's a go-to style for me and my apartment is typically 75F so it's a good fermentation option as well.

A longer term goal of mine is to brew a big English barleywine, and also to develop the saison recipe into a brett & lacto beer eventually.

I look forward to all the stuff I'm going to learn here! Hoping that first brew of mine turns out tasting like beer, too...

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the group, and the hobby, from Colorado I love Saisons, let us know how it comes out.

 

[OkanaganMike]

Hey welcome fellow British Columbian! You'll find this forum is full of great friendly experience. Just off the top of my head though I think 75 is too high for your saison. But I'm a bit of a noob myself. Do a search and check it out as that high I'm sure you may get off flavors showing up.

 

[LostBoyScout]

Cheers OkanaganMike, 75F might be pushing it but 3711 appears to be pretty resilient to higher temps. The higher ester production won't hurt it so much based on the style too.

We fermented our first batch of this recipe at 71F though, so that's our baseline. Bottled it yesterday, tastes pretty alright currently (considering it's green and flat and warm), can't wait to crack the first carb'd bottle!

 

[LostBoyScout]

let us know how it comes out.

Quite well! 3.5 weeks after bottling now. Spice / pepper notes tend to dominate, well carbed with good head retention, and a decent bit of lemon-orange citrus from the azacca. There is a bit of a harsh medicinal / alcohol note on the nose, but doesn't show up in the taste so much. Overall, really pleased for the first batch. We've re-brewed the same recipe but using WLP568 Belgian saison yeast so we'll see how that one goes.