Lurker finally posting - with a question

[SPIslander]

Hey All,
I've been poking around here for a while and finally feel like I'm worthy of posting a hello and a question. I started brewing all-grains straight out of the gate last September and have seven 5-gallon batches in various states of consumption. Right now, I've got an Imperial Amber Rye Saison in secondary that clocked in at 9.7 ABV.

I've gotten to a point where I want to build my own beer. I'm playing with a California common recipe and would like your thoughts and input.

10# American 2-row
2# Vienna
1# American Crystal (60)
8 oz. Victory Malt
4 oz. Light Chocolate malt (200 SRM)
1.5 ounce Northern Brewer (60 min) Bittering
.75 ounce Falconers Flight (30 min) Flavor
.75 ounce Falconers Flight (5 min) Aroma
1 t Irish moss (10 min)
Wyeast #2112

The thing I'm questioning is the use of Falconer's flight hops. I've dialed back from the 1.5 oz of cascade hops I had originally planned for bittering and aroma as I thought that might be too much for the style. What do y'all think?

Thanks for your time and input!
Tony

 

[freisste]

First off, hello and welcome.

Second, I don't know. But here's my assumptions and advice: if you are building your own recipe, you will hopefully brew it several times. (Assuming you like it, etc.) so what I would do is plug the recipe into the brewing software of choice and choose saison for the style. Shoot for the middle of the road as far as IBU and try to estimate where the flavor and aroma will be and compare to style guidelines.

The next time you brew it, change as you see fit. Too bitter? Dial back the hops. Too much flavor, but no aroma? Move flavor addition later in the boil. And so on.

 

[freisste]

Just looked over the style guidelines (if you care, and I'm not saying you should):

Hop aroma is low to moderately high, spicy or floral.

Hop flavor is low to medium, spicy.

It is not mentioned in regards to the hops, but a citrus aroma and flavor are both present.

All of this together makes me think you can do whatever you want.

Also, I noticed in the comments (again, this would only matter if you entered it in a competition) -

"Strong versions (6.5%-9.5%) and darker versions (copper to dark brown/black) should be entered as Belgian Specialty Ales (16E)."

 

[shaggy727]

There is some great brew design software and apps out there that can help with this. One design method I have used in the past is to figure out 3 or 4 beers in the same style that I am a big fan of. Clone recipes exist for most of these beers. I look at the grain bill for similarities. I then pick the other grains out of the mix and get the total grain amount to a similar amount as the other beers. Next I look for common hops/additions. If they all call for an Amarillo Gold hop, its pretty clear that I enjoy Amarillo Gold so ill chose that one. If they all use different hops, I try to think of what portions of each beer I like the best. Generally speaking, this turns out to be a very tasty brew because it should combine all of your favorite parts of your favorite beers. Hope this idea helps.

 

[shaggy727]

And also, glad you decided to chat. In my experience, the homebrew community is a very laid back and helpful group of individuals. Almost everyone here understands that we are all here to learn about our craft. Not to mention, ask 5 people how to do something and your going to get 7 different answers that all might be correct

 

[SPIslander]

Thanks Y'all!! I've read the style guides and about a bajillion recipes from other folks in the process of developing the one above. I just didn't want FF hops making it turn into a pale ale... We'll see how this one shakes out.

To the point of brewing the same thing twice, I haven't gotten there just yet... I'm still having too much fun trying out new things. That said, the common is going to be a session beer (along side a Kolsch for SWMBO) for the spring. Getting a Kegerator/lagering fridge together and these will be the first two batches where I have complete control of fermentation temps. I'm really looking forward to the results!

 

[shaggy727]

For your hops, think of this like a sliding scale: Bittering-Flavoring-Aroma (longer boil time - shorter boil time). You first hop addition at 60 minutes will extract more of the bittering qualities from the hop. 40-15 is more of your flavoring hops. Under 15 starts to go more on the aroma side of things. You will still extract bitterness from the shorter times but not nearly as much as the longer times. I am not terrible familiar with Falconers Flight hop but you are not using a ton of them so you will probably not get to the IPA level.
I use the software from beersmith.com (I am sure there is others out there). There is a free trial for the software so you can try it before you buy it ($25-$30). It allows me to input my equipment, ingredients, efficiency, and schedule. The software calculates all of the info about how your beer should turn out including bitterness, abv, color, etc. It also has style guidelines that you can overlay with what your result should be. That really helps figure out if you are hitting the style you are shooting for. It shows a high and low sides of the style marked with what your result should be. It’s a great tool in my opinion as it contains a ton of helpful items.

 

[joyceman]

Not to be the style commissar, but a california common is one of the few styles that requires a specific hop, northern brewer. Its generally single hopped. The style profile from BYO is below.

http://byo.com/wheat-beer/item/2123-california-common-style-profile

The recipe you have will make a nice amber but it wont have that woody, minty flavor of a cali common, if thats what your looking for. If style is not an issue, go for it.