Saison Thoughts?

Simple, elegant, nothing out of place in the grain bill, it's all down to process on this one. Possibly a bit high on the IBUs for my taste - I find too much bitter and phenolic at the same time tastes vaguely poisonous. That 55g addition at 15 mins bothers me a bit, too - lots of hop flavor there and saison is all about yeast character. But hey, people like Belgian IPAs, which I think tastes like something you'd accidentally drink in a chemistry lab. Go for it and let us know how it turns out.
 
This is the sheet, I am not to strong in AAU calculations so I may be wrong. It didn't seem that strong hop wise to me, but I'm kind of curious now to see what a Belgian IPA is like.

4FYjmXs.png
 
you've got Hallertau blanc listed in your brewer's friend recipe as 3.75.... which is off. The bags of Hallertau Blanc I've seen recently are at like 7.7% AA
 
The one I have in my freezer is 3.75.
 
AAU does not directly convert to IBUs. AAUs are the product of the alpha acid in percent multiplied by the ounces used so two ounces of 6% AA hops would be 2X6, or 12 AAU. IBUs are mg iso-alpha acid per liter of beer (ppm). The AAU calculations I see don't make a lot of sense: I start with 1340g hops, convert to ounces by dividing by 28.3 and then multiply by the 8.5% AA to get 390.5 AAU for that first addition. Unless you're using metric AAUs (grams * AA%?). Either way, to get the conversions, plug it into the calculator and scale it down to homebrew size (or simply divide everything by 11, since you're converting 23 hectoliters to about 21 liters). And to the comment above on Hallertau Blanc, the professional recipe (image above) lists theirs at 8.5% AA. YCH lists the AA at 9% - 12%. The 3.75% listed sounds more like Hallertau Hersbrucker or Mittelfruh.

I like that brew sheet by the way, simple, easy to understand....
 
We're in grams. I was weirded out by the values on mine but that's what it says so it's what I use.

The formulas I used to get the IBU calculations are in the recipe notes if you're curious. I didn't actually think of dividing by 11 though, that's a good idea and probably would have saved me a bunch of time.
 
Hawkbox said:
We're in grams. I was weirded out by the values on mine but that's what it says so it's what I use.

The formulas I used to get the IBU calculations are in the recipe notes if you're curious. I didn't actually think of dividing by 11 though, that's a good idea and probably would have saved me a bunch of time.
Click to expand...
I'd never noticed your location before. Canada. Yes, you use rational units up there....
 
Yup. We use units that make sense. No rods to the hogshead for us.

I'm still curious if the math checks out. The 15m addition was more than twice the size of the 60 minute addition in the sheet they were using.
 
They were using it at our local homebrew guilds big brew day. Alley Kat brewery was where we did it.
 
Hawkbox said:
Yup. We use units that make sense. No rods to the hogshead for us.

I'm still curious if the math checks out. The 15m addition was more than twice the size of the 60 minute addition in the sheet they were using.
Click to expand...
Makes sense if they want to put more flavor in than raw bitterness, and it's the raw bitterness in conjunction with the phenols that I hate in Belgian IPAs. Math seems right to me but put everything the Recipe Builder in as a 23 liter batch rather than a 23 hectoliter batch (I'm sure you're familiar with how the INSANELY EASY UNIT CONVERSION works in metric :D), then scale it down to 21 liters - let the computer check your math! And if you like that sort of beer, looks like a pretty solid recipe!

And about the divide by 11 - I do math for a living. That kind of stuff just jumps out at me.
 
Yeah I went down the rabbit hole trying to go directly to a 21L batch. The math for most was easy, but I was trying to convert AAU into IBU so I could jigger the hop additions to work out to what was expected. I could have just taken 2 zeros off the hop weights and then subtracted 5% to be close enough too in retrospect.
 
Or I could accept that I have some extra beer that won't fit in the keg and just do a 23L batch.
 
i see they use citric acid as thier PH adjustment and added at 90 min or am i seeing this wrong. weird i add my acod to mash water at mash in?
 
Trialben said:
i see they use citric acid as thier PH adjustment and added at 90 min or am i seeing this wrong. weird i add my acod to mash water at mash in?
Click to expand...
I was wondering about this as well - why not phosphoric or lactic, both more neutral in flavor than citric. Of course, the "citrussy" tartness of citric acid may be just what you want in a saison....
 
That was my thought process on it, realistically I should have asked but the guy was trying to deal with a hundred "brewers" pestering him while he tried to brew so I didn't want to be to much of a hassle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Copyright © 2007-2025 Brewer's Friend, Inc. - Send Feedback - Terms - RSS Feed - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Back
Top