Help with a recipe

[ebr5002]

I am relatively new to home brewing. I want to get past the kits and do things my way, with my taste. I have a brewers club meeting in June and the theme is Saisons. I have thought of something that I think will be good. Would you be so kind and to look it over and see what incites you have or if there is any tweaking that needs done. I was going for a pine and grapefruit taste for this.
60 Minute Boil
6 lbs Pilsner LME
2 lbs Wheat DME
1 lb 20L Crystal
Tsp Irish Moss (last 15 minutes of the boil)
1 oz Simcoe Hops (@ 60 minutes)
1 oz Cascade Hops (1/2 @ 20 minutes and 1/2 @ 5 minutes)
1 oz Amarillo Hops (Dry Hopping)
some grapefruit zest at flameout for an extra zing

I think I might need to bump up to 2 oz of Simcoe for a stronger pine taste but not sure how to go about this to get a good Saison with a good mix of pin and grapefruit. Please let me know what you think.

 

[ebr5002]

So I just modified it and it will go as follows
6 lbs Pilsner LME
2 lbs Wheat DME
Tsp Irish Moss (Last 15 Minutes of boil)
.5 oz Simcoe Hops and .5 oz Chinook Hops @ 60
.5 oz Simcoe Hops and .5 oz Chinook Hops @ 30
.5 oz Cascade Hops @ 15
.5 oz Cascade Hops @ 5
2 Tsp of Spruce Extract @ 2
1~2 Tsp of Spruce Extract @ Flameout

2~3 Grapefruits (zest the grapefruits with as little pith as possible, put zest into a pan, juice the grapefruits, put juice in pan, then proceed to boil zest and juice down to a syrup) Put the syrup in the secondary, then rack the mix into the secondary after the syrup.
1 oz Amarillo Hops for dry hopping

Let me know how you all think about it.

 

[stpug]

An ounce of high AA hops at 60min, and another ounce of high AA at 30min will yield a highly bitter beer. Pair that with a highly attenuative saison yeast strain and you're in the ballpark for really bitter, dry experience. You should reconsider the overall IBUs of this beer.

Additionally, your choice of yeast strain will be as important as the recipe, if not moreso. What yeast strain are you going with?

 

[TheCanisDirus]

An ounce of high AA hops at 60min, and another ounce of high AA at 30min will yield a highly bitter beer. Pair that with a highly attenuative saison yeast strain and you're in the ballpark for really bitter, dry experience. You should reconsider the overall IBUs of this beer.

Additionally, your choice of yeast strain will be as important as the recipe, if not moreso. What yeast strain are you going with?

Agree 100%. Lower the IBUs. Personally, I'd do .25 Simcoe and .25 Chinook FWH and move another 1-1.5 oz of whatever combo to 5min or flame out.

Yeast in a saison is arguably the most important ingredient. You going peppery French saison or fruity Belgian saison? Or look into blending some yeasts. There is also the option of using some bugs... they always work in a saison.

 

[ebr5002]

I was thinking the Wyeast 3711 for my yeast selection. So I should mild back on the high IBUs. Maybe just go with the .25 simcoe and .25 Chinook FWH and then just Cascade at about 5 minutes. But I hear that the Amarillo is great for dry hopping and has good aroma, but will I need that? I will be basically doing a gin and grapefruit saison style, so should I step back from aroma hops and just let the natural aromas from the pine and grapefruit go

 

[progmac]

This looks a little over-the-top to me. I think you are trying to combine a lot of ideas in one beer. Think about your favorite beer and how many ideas it conveys. From bittering to aroma and flavor, I would worry that it would come out sharp and unpleasant. Below are two examples of gold medal saisons at the national AHA competition.

http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/Soma
http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/SaisonLite139

 

[ebr5002]

Or would the Wyeast 3724 complement the flavors more than the French strain

 

[ebr5002]

Thanks for all the help. I am completely new to this so I just wanted to make sure I was doing things correctly. I guess I need to do what that saying is talking about "Less is more"