Opinions Please

[james4242]

Hello,
Santa was very good to me this year, and I've been given a pile of good hops, and a copy of Beersmith 2. So I've made an attempt at my first custom recipe, and thought I'd ask if there are any tweaks that might make it better on paper before I brew it.

The recipe is a somewhat hoppy saison:

3 Gallon Steep:
1.5 lbs Amber Malt
1 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt

Boil:
4 lbs Amber Liquid Extract
2 lbs Wheat Liquid Extract
1 oz Galaxy Hops for 60 mins
1 oz Citra Hops for 45 mins
1 oz Amarillo Hops for 15 mins

Fermentation:
Add water to 5 gallons
White Labs Saison Yeast
Possibly 1lb honey

I'm contemplating dry hopping with Simcoe as well, but I'm not sure. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks!
James

 

[Schumed]

personally would stick with one base like pilsner extract...
use a netural hop other than the 3 selected...mainly those are such great aroma hops it would be a waste to use them at bittering....use those hops the last 5 minutes

honey should help you get your saison nice and dry

personally for a saison I would let the yeast be the focus...by fermenting warm to get all the spicy aromas

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

Yeah, drop the amber extract. That is made for more amber american styles and will have too much crystal malt already in it. I would also cut the crystal steeping malt down some(not sure what color crystal you are going with here). The amber malt will need to be mashed to be converted. Steeping won't help you there. Mini mashing is really easy though and very similar to steeping. Look up some threads on that and you will find it is pretty easy to do. That much amber malt in a beer like this may be too much also. It can overpower a beer pretty easily.

Swap the amber extract straight up for pilsner extract. The wheat is fine. I would cut the amber malt down to maybe .50 lb and the crystal to .50 lb also. You can make up the difference with a nice German Munich malt. That should give you a nice flavor. The Munich will have to be mashed also, but it will self convert. Reference partial mashing or mini mashing for how to do this.

I have heard people talk about getting great results from dry hopping saisons with citra and amarillo. I would look there rather than the simcoe maybe, but I have no experience of my own. I wouldn't go more than 1 oz/5 gallons though total. Start there and see what it is like.

 

[james4242]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'd thought of using the stronger malt flavor to balance some of the bitterness.

I'm generally like a bit more malt flavor in my beer than some, so I'll have to think on the substitution.

Thanks!
James

 

[Cyclman]

IMO, use light extract for your fermentables, add more specialty grains for darkness / flavors. That way, you have more control of the flavor, rather than relying on the extract maker.

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'd thought of using the stronger malt flavor to balance some of the bitterness.

I'm generally like a bit more malt flavor in my beer than some, so I'll have to think on the substitution.

Thanks!
James

Color is not an indication of malt flavor. Light malts have wonderful malt flavor.