Black Pepper & Lemon Saison - Pointers/Critiques

[BigRob]

Style: Saison 
Brewer: Big Rob 
Batch Size: 23.00 L (6gal)
Boil Volume: 27.00 L 
Boil Time: 60 min 
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.0 % 

3.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 60.0 % 
1.00 kg Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 20.0 % 
0.50 kg Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 10.0 % 
0.50 kg White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 10.0 % 

7.00 gm Centennial [8.00%] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) 
7.00 gm Cascade [5.30%] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) 

7.00 gm Magnum [10.00%] (60 min) 

7.00 gm Centennial [8.00%] (25 min)  
7.00 gm Centennial [8.00%] (15 min)  
7.00 gm Cascade [5.30%] (25 min)  
7.00 gm Cascade [5.30%] (15 min)  
7.00 gm Centennial [8.00%] (3 min) 
7.00 gm Cascade [5.30%] (3 min) 

0.50 oz Black Pepper (Boil 5.0 min) Misc  
0.50 oz Lemon Zest (Boil 5.0 min) Misc  

Biere de Garde (Wyeast #3725) Yeast-Ale  

Mash at 60C rising to 64C over 90 min (140F to 147F)
Pitch at 20C rising to 33C as room temp fluctuates (68F to 90F)

Estimated Original Gravity: 1.053 SG  
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.013 SG 
Estimated Color: 5.4 SRM 
Bitterness: 30.7 IBU  
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 5.3 %

The goal is a citrusy Saison with some black pepper notes, the use of the North American hops was intentional. I really like the combination of Cascade and Centennial, and think that the lemon zest will blend well with the grapefruit character. I've used the 3725 and it has a very citrusy flavour contribution as well.

Not brewed yet, going to brew later on today, so any last minute thoughts/critiques?

 

[avidhomebrewer]

Probably started already, but it sounds pretty good. I like the pepper/lemon zest combination. Haven't used pepper in a brew yet.

 

[beaksnbeer]

Keep us posted

 

[BigRob]

Everything went well, missed my OG by .01 which is within acceptable for me. Pitched about 150ml of 3725 Slurry at 60F going to let it do its thing in the closet for a few weeks.

Taste was nice, pepper and lemon with grapefruit and other citrusy aromas, should be refreshing for the august heat. Might try to lay hands on some Amarillo for the follow-up batch.

 

[heckels]

Sounds delicious. I' ve used cayenne but never black pepper. Might have to give that a try.

 

[azscoob]

Recently I brewed a Saison with black pepper, it adds a nice subtle bite to the finish of the beer.

I love a simple recipe, you don't go overboard with spices, the grain bill is simple, it lets the yeast and hops really shine through.

 

[Cascadegan]

what made you decide to go with .5oz of pepper (trying to figure out a good amount for a tripel) also why are the spices in oz and not grams?

 

[BigRob]

I'm a chef, sometimes I forget most folks don't jump between metric and imperial so easily, so that would be me forgetting my recipe was in metric.

As to why 1/2 oz, I googled how much black pepper to add, read a lot of tasting notes for the resulting beers, and then let my own experience with black pepper in big batches of soup and previous beers help me make the final decision.

Fermentation for this beast was explosive, had to re-fill my blowoff bucket with sanitized water twice because it was almost overflowing.

 

[critch]

in radical breing mosher quotes the sort of pepper addition youve used but split into 2 half in the boil @5 an the rest in the primary. i proportionally throw half your amount into my copper to make my pepper poerter it gives a very subtle warming to the back of the throat, its rather good

spire brewery do a fantastic ale called sgt. pepper stout they throw theirs in the conditioner before casking, its beautiful!

 

[Shift]

If you can get your hands on some Pacific Jade they might fit in there.

Planning to do a Saison with it myself, just a ~10 min addition large enough to get the IBU's up.

 

[Herky21]

Did you use whole peppercorns or ground pepper and for whichever, how was the flavor for half an ounce?

 

[BigRob]

I used whole peppercorns that I crushed in a mortal and pestle. If i brewed this again I would double both the pepper and the lemon zest, they were both pretty unnoticeable.

 

[Dok]

I have used black pepper, orange zest, and coriander. It was nice. Be careful when you zest the lemon. I learned the hard way to just scrape the outside of the peel with a knife. I went a little crazy with the zester and got some harshness on a different batch. There is a fine line with citrus. Recipe looks great.

 

[Stauffbier]

I made a German Christmas beer with pepper and bunch of other spices that I use for my lebkuchen and it was delicious. I boiled the spices for 15 mins and I also made a spice tea that I added to the secondary..

 

[eanmcnulty]

I used whole peppercorns that I crushed in a mortal and pestle. If i brewed this again I would double both the pepper and the lemon zest, they were both pretty unnoticeable.

This sounds like a nice saison. I am in the habit of using a hammer on my work bench for my spices, but I guess a motar and pestle would work.
I used some Mexican pilloncillo sugar in my saison and it turned out really nice. I didn't add any spices to it though. My yeast was the Wyeast French Saison. I brewed it a second time with the Wyeast Belgian Saison, but I used white suger, and it wasn't as good. I Don't know if it was the yeast or the sugar, but I suspect the yeast, as the sugar is a small percentage, and the yeast gives the beer a lot of character.
I guess I have to brew them again to figure it out.
Your beer sounds great!

 

[QuercusMax]

I brewed this and tried a half-full sample bottle today. I replaced the wheat with rye and used washed WLP565. It got down to 1.007.

The flavor of this batch is so peculiar I am having problems describing it. It's not sour or infected. I can definitely taste the flavor of the black pepper, but not any pepper spice. Lemon as well. Maybe it's the rye that's giving it such an "interesting" flavor?

I'm hoping that time will mellow it out. Right now I'm not sure i could finish an entire pint.

 

[QuercusMax]

Forget everything I said in my previous post. Another week has done wonders (Don't tell Revvy!). Either that or my palate can now comprehend this brew. The lemon is subtle, and the pepper character is not what I was expecting, but it's good. I can taste the rye, too.

The only weird thing is that the hops are totally different from what I would expect. It's rather bizarre. I think the WLP565 does strange (but good!) things to C hops, compared to Cal Ale.