I made a Christmas brew last year that was a bit rubbish due to my lack of experience (it was called Bad Santa from BYO magazine, but I subbed in different hops with a much lower AA rating, but I didn't add more to compensate, so it was just very sweet with nothing to balance it out). I quite fancy making a dark saison this year, although it may be more a cross between a saison and a dubbel.
Here's what I've got so far:
12 litres
2.5kg lager malt (77%)
250g wheat malt (7.7%)
350g homemade dark candi syrup (10.8%)
150g DRC malt (4.6%).
30g hallertau hersbrucker @ 90 minutes
20g hallertau hersbrucker @ 20 minutes
To be fermented with WLP566 Belgian Sasion II yeast.
33 IBUs, aiming for 1063 OG, BeerSmith estimates 1007 FG, and I'd probably mash high because I've not had a saison yeast that hasn't given me more than 1002, and this might benefit from being slightly sweeter than that!
Any thoughts on this? I can't decide between having that bit of DRC malt (supposedly like Special B), or up the dark candi sugar that I'm going to make to make it just as dark.
Here's what I've got so far:
12 litres
2.5kg lager malt (77%)
250g wheat malt (7.7%)
350g homemade dark candi syrup (10.8%)
150g DRC malt (4.6%).
30g hallertau hersbrucker @ 90 minutes
20g hallertau hersbrucker @ 20 minutes
To be fermented with WLP566 Belgian Sasion II yeast.
33 IBUs, aiming for 1063 OG, BeerSmith estimates 1007 FG, and I'd probably mash high because I've not had a saison yeast that hasn't given me more than 1002, and this might benefit from being slightly sweeter than that!
Any thoughts on this? I can't decide between having that bit of DRC malt (supposedly like Special B), or up the dark candi sugar that I'm going to make to make it just as dark.
