I found this saison recipe I'd like to try out. It calls for 1lbs of Bavarian wheat DME. Can I use wheat DME? Does it matter? Is it a matter of semantics?
You actually linked us to "Bavarian" wheat dme as breiss is the manufacturer in the description. That site just doesn't have it labeled as such
Not necessarily true. I hear that's what happened to Jimmy Hoffa, he used regular ol' wheat DME instead of Bavarian Wheat DME and the boss finally had enough of it...
There's really (generically) no such ingredient type as "Bavarian Wheat DME." Briess happens to call their 65/35 wheat/barley DME "Bavarian," I assume because its main intended use is for Bavarian Wheat beers (i.e. hefeweizens).
One thing I would be wary of about this recipe is the spicing. 3 whole cardamom pods is a LOT of cardamom.
Oh, but cardamom is wonderful! I love it. Wheat is wheat. Ignore the false advertising and use what you have. It will be great.
So, I just noticed on the recipe I linked: the adjuncts: some say boil, some say mash, how should I incorporate them? Throw them in the boil with 15 minutes left? It is an extract batch, so there is no mash. I'll be honest, I didn't see that till now. I thought the adjuncts were going to be dry hopped post fermentation.
Lots of ways to deal with spices. Putting them in the boil sort of commits you. If the spices are too potent, you are stuck with them. But if the recipe is known and trusted, this is the simplest approach. Your could add them in a hop bag and treat as a dry hop. If so, maybe you want to taste your bee frequently to known when you like the spice level, and then pull the. Or you could make a spice tincture in vodka or other neutral spirit and then dose a glass of finished beer dropwise until you like the result. Then scale up in the bottling bucket or keg.
and while your at it... ditch the French Saison yeast in favor of Belgian Saison yeast if you can get it. the French ain't bad, but the Belgian Saison strain is something like magic. yeah, "Bavarian" is sort of marketing joke i think. there is not too much subtlety here with the fact it is DME and all. you may feel better if you can get German sourced wheat DME. if you can find that. otherwise don't sweat it. just tell people it's got Bavarian malt because the continental terroir is crucial for this style. you wouldn't have it any other way. Cheers.
Forgot to ask: why do you recommend 5 minutes for the boil as opposed to the 15 minutes listed on the recipie? Do you think the flavor would be too strong / over powering from a 15 min boil?
5 minutes is pretty common for many spices. I can't say what 15 minutes will do because I always use 5. Sometimes cooking a spice too long will have the opposite effect such as less flavor or a less desirable flavor. Cardamom is going to be really strong because of the quantity. I'd use one pod or skip it entirely. Spices are easy to overdose in beer. When you see a recipe on the internet, there are no guarantees it will make a good beer. The recipe has zero feedback. If there were at least a few people that brewed it and gave it a good review, then I'd be less skeptical about the spices.
I was thinking the same thing. I think in the logs, it says that there were 2 people that made it. But they didn't say anything about it. Which seemed kinda sketch... I was kind of going off the presumption that if it turned out bad, they would have said? But who knows right?
