please critique my fig recipe

[GeneDaniels1963]

I am very new to ale making, although I have been making ciders and wines for 4 or 5 years. I have an idea for a dark, fig saison:

1 lb Briess dark malt
1 lb raw sugar (or maybe brown?)
6oz crystal 80L
4oz flaked rye
zest of one orange
1.5 lbs dried, chopped figs in brew bag
1/2 tsp. Yeast Nutrient
128oz water
1 pt herbal tea (instead of hops)

I will make a yeast starter with some of my fruit so it is all local yeast. I might even add another lb of chopped figs into the secondary.

Any thoughts?

 

[RPh_Guy]

What do you mean by "dark malt"?

Using spontaneous/wild yeast only: it might take a long time for it to taste good, if it ever does. Adding a known Brett culture or sour/Brett dregs would help ensure it reaches that point.

Malt has phenolic precursors, unlike fruit juice, so wild fermentations have a lot more that can go wrong. Brett can eventually "fix" a lot of the initial off-flavors, but in a wild culture Brett is not guaranteed to be in the mix, or guaranteed to produce desirable flavors if it is present.

Hope this makes sense. Interesting recipe!

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

A saison yeast should give it a little funk/tartness if that is your goal. Want more of that select a strain of Brett that will give you what your looking for. As stated above wild fermentation can turn out good, but it could also be quite lackluster or just bad. If you go the wild route you are much braver than I.

 

[RPh_Guy]

To avoid confusion, the word "funk" is generally reserved for the unconventional flavors from non-Saccharomyces yeast (e.g. Brett) and/or bacteria, and not typical phenols from POF+ Saccharomyces (e.g. Saison yeast).

If you want to use your own purely wild yeast, I would recommend making several starters with wort and see which ones attenuate and have desirable flavor/aroma. Give each at least a few weeks to ferment. Protect from oxygen to avoid mold.
Mixed cultures are an interesting beast in wort because the variety of available sugar compounds causes fermentation to undergo stages.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

I have done several wild ferments with my fruit wines, they were all good except perhaps the the perry was a little too funky. What if I started with a wild ferment for a few days, then added a commercial yeast to agressively clean up?
What yeast would you recommend for this?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Brettanomyces is the only yeast that can clean up the undesirable wild funk. ... Brett is slow, so regardless of when you add it, the wild microbes will handle the primary fermentation.
It will take time, probably at least 6 months; for example I heard one story of a spontaneous beer changing from bad to amazing after 4 years. If you get lucky it may taste great in only a few months.

I'm not really sure which strain is best for this situation, but I can recommend WY5526 or any Brett blend from the The Yeast Bay.

Of course you're welcome to try it without adding Brett. You can add it at any time if you change your mind. However Brett is the reason why wild fermentations actually taste good, so I strongly recommend adding it to make sure it's in your culture.

Cheers

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

You guys have me rethinking the wild fermentation plan. I don't mind a wine that sits for a year or two, but I don't think I want to do that with a beer. I might just go with a commercial

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

For saison yeast strains you have many choices, liquid and dry. The last one I’ve used was Belle, and it is slowly finishing up. I have heard positive things about Omega’s saison, and want to use it on a future brew.

 

[brownni5]

That seems like a lot of sugar for a 1-gallon batch, at least for so little malt.

And stay away from Brown sugar - it can taste weird in a ferment. Turbinado, Demerara, piloncillo, and others are nice.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

I went back and looked at my notes, and I should have typed "1/2 lb sugar." I usually use "raw sugar" so I think I will stick with that.

Also, I think I will use Lallemand Belle Saison Belgian yeast, since my homebrew store carries in regularly.