Munich 10l for single malt IPA?

2-row to 1.050-ish. Add a touch of C10, maybe a bit of carapils...

Bitter and flavor to about 30 ibu's with citrus/fruity type american hops. Plenty of late hops.

Ferment with 3711 at ambient.

It'll be so dry that the hops will really show through, tasting very hoppy. I've actually found that the peppery phenols of 3711 pair well with bright american hops, but to each his own. I made a whole series of similar beers about a year ago. 3711 paired with Amarillo, Citra, and then finally Simcoe...

Amarillo + 3711 was the best, in my opinion.

 

“I've actually found that the peppery phenols of 3711 pair well with bright American hops”.

I have not brewed a hoppy Saison of any sort but the above statement makes sense to me. I really like that 3711 is a ‘workhorse’ yeast strain: it ferments quickly (about a week for my beers) and you have zero worries about a stall with this yeast. The one aspect that I don’t particularly enjoy about 3711 is that it is a bit one dimensional: it has lots of spicy/peppery flavors from the phenols but it is light on the fruity (esters) flavors. By combining 3711 with citrusy hops like Amarillo you obtain a more balanced Saison.

The other option to obtain a more balanced Saison is to use yeast stains that provide a balance of spicy (phenols) and fruity (esters) flavors. Last year I used White Labs Saison III (WLP585) to obtain a balanced Saison. This year I used ECY-08 to obtain a balanced Saison.

Maybe I will have to try a 3711 & Amarillo combo?

Cheers!

 

[warning: this post may contain pointless derails, pointless ramblings of an insomniac (who's had a couple), and/or pointless discussions of things that don't mean a damn thing to anybody. Note the use of the word "pointless" three times.] [/quote]


Interesting.

Well, if I decide to make a hoppy 3711 beer, I'll go ahead and mix up the malts, put some crystal in there etc, because what you are saying makes sense. I still want to make the 3711 smash with Munich, but that one won't be a real hoppy one. And if it comes out with some bock-like character, that's just fine, because I like bocks.

If/when I decide to try a hoppy saison, if it's anytime soon, I don't have any amarillo, and don't plan on buying any more hops till I use up all the leaf hops I have (which isn't all that much, really, less than 3 pounds I think, and one is un-opened) and all of the opened pellet hops (which isn't that much either, but it's not zero or close to zero). Thus, if I go with a hoppy saison anytime soon, it won't be with amarillo. In fact, I don't even know what I would use, as I can't remember exactly what hops I have spread out between two freezers (15 miles apart!), because the computer with the hops inventory on it crashed the hard drive! It's pretty low on the "concern" scale for me tho.

I do know that I have these hops, with around a pound or a little less of each, except as noted:

magnum
belma
super-galena
willamette
cascade
bravo
tettnanger
citra (14.5oz)
centennial (4oz)
serebrianka (about 8oz)

And probably have two or three others that I can't remember.

Anyone used super-galena before? They were cheep, decided to try them but haven't opened them yet (they are pellet). I figure at some point I'll make some sort of smash with them, so I can get a good feel for their taste. Maybe I'll finally find GP base malt, lol. I may have to just order a bag of it (through the LHBS would be optimal, even if they don't want to stock it regularly).

Honestly, I don't know why I'm telling youz guys all this, except that it's 3am, I can't sleep, and there's nobody around or awake to chat with.

Guess I'll have to pop one of those last two bombers of Vienna/Cascade smash, and formulate the recipe for my side-batch of 2 gallons of extract/mini-mash saison.

I was thinking...

2 lbs amber* DME.
1 lb maris otter**
0.25 lb C-20**
0.25 lb C-60**

0.25 oz magnum at 60
0.25 oz magnum at 5
0.5 oz magnum at FO

T-58 will be the yeast, because that's the yeast I intend to use at this residence in the summer. There's no freezer/controller here, so it's "room temperature." My room is cool enough for a saison, but perhaps a little on the warm side for anything that uses "regular" yeast (i.e. non-saison yeast that prefers lower temperatures than saison yeast). I'll use the "ice bath" technique if need be, but I don't think it'll be needed. I have to check the temperature in here during the day, without the AC on, just to make sure tho.

hops wise, at this location I have:

Leaf: magnum
pellet: super galena, belma, willamette, tettnanger, cascade

On the one hand, I'd like to use some magnum, just to use them up sooner. I was reading that thread about leaf hops not lasting nearly as long as pellets (even un-opened and kept frozen?). If that's true, then I'll need to focus more on using up what leaf hops I have, because they're all approaching 6 months old already. So I suppose I could just use magnum for this beer.

On the other hand, my instinct for this beer would be to use belma (of the choices I have at this location, that is). I'm not going to super-hop it, so I doubt it really matters that much. However, both the belma and magnum are un-opened, but the magnum is leaf, so I'll probably just use magnum then. Ironically, it's only going to use up one ounce of it anyway, so why I am I still talking about it, and was anyone even listening in the first place?



*yes, I know, the "light or extra light DME only" police are on their way. Frankly, I just don't care. I have never brewed with amber or dark DME, so it's kind of a necessity in my view to experiment at least once. The small side batches done in my Mr Beer keg will be perfect for this.

**this is from a bag of "generic mini-mash grains" that I made up at the LHBS one day on a whim, just so I could have something on hand when I got around to trying these experimental extract beers. It was 80% maris otter, 10% lb C-20, and 10% lb C-60, and should make about four batches like this one. The mix probably isn't optimal, but again, I am not worried about that because I'll probably be the only one who drinks any of these anyway.