Mango Saison - need help w/ recipe tweaks

I'm looking to brew a crisp & fruity mango saison for spring, and could use some feedback. Here is what I'm working with so far:

Batch: ~4 gallons. No sparging (keeping it simple and stupid in a small apartment).

Grain
3# Briess light LME
3# Pilsner malt
2# Mango Puree
5 oz Flaked Barley (head retention)

Hops
1 oz Citra (.5 at 60 mins, .5 at 15)

Yeast
Wyeast 3711 - French Saison

Beer Calculus has the beer dropping from 1.068 to 1.013 (7.3 abv), with 44 IBUs

Some questions:

1) I really want the citra to come out, but don't want a one dimensional hop profile. Also, IBUs are a bit high for the style. Should I think of cutting back on the citra, adding a second (third) varietal, or both? Suggestions?

2) Is two pounds of Mango puree about right? I'm planning on tossing it into the boil to take care of sanitation - is there a better way? Does anyone have experience with commercial purees?

3) Pilsner and LME seems wimpy, any need to add to the grain bill? Would adding a pound of candi sugar to increase abv be needlessly greedy?

4) Any reason to use another yeast?


Any advice or suggestions much appreciated.

If you want to add some depth maybe a touch of saaz at like 5 minutes and maybe bump the citra to 10 minutes (I'm not a fan of 15 minute additions).
If you want to dry it out a bit maybe add some sugar, especially with the malt extract, I think it might finish a bit higher than you anticipate, i've found about 1lb of turbinado sugar to be really nice in saisons.

i've found about 1lb of turbinado sugar to be really nice in saisons.

Click to expand...

+1

It seems to add a little more dimension than just plain sugar.I use it often.

Thanks for the feedback. Does the turbinado have any molasses taste to it, or is it neutral? I've brewed with brown sugar, and would really like to avoid the molasses heaviness for this brew.