Sean's Saison

My nephew, Sean, is interested in brewing beer, and helped me brew my peppercorn amber ale. This time, though, I thought we would brew an extract beer. Mainly because I have not been very lucky with my all-grain batches.

The recipe is based on a recipe in Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainashef and John Palmer. I made a couple of changes based on hop availability, which brings up a rant.

Look, Local Home Brew Shop (LHBS) owner: I get it. It's hard to get hops, and you can't guarantee the alpha acids in them when you advertise them on your website. But puh-lease, don't put something like this on your website:

The shortage of hops will require us to buy hops from a variety of sources. This fact combined with the adverse weather conditions in hop growing regions means that the alpha acid percentage will vary so much that we can no longer post exact alpha acid percentages on our website. If you need to know the alpha acid of a particular hop, email us.

Especially if the AA will fluctuate dramatically. If I get hops from you that are 4% one time, I would very much like to know if they are 1.5% the next time. If you can't specify the exact percentage, give me a range, like 1-4%. I will figure 2% and formulate my recipe accordingly. And, I will buy a couple extra ounces of hops. If you make me ask the alpha acids, I will ask you, and buy what I need to get close to, but not above, my target. Which means I might buy more from you.

So here's the recipe:

Sean's Saison

BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
-------------------------------
19-D Belgian & French Ale, Saison
Min OG: 1.055 Max OG: 1.080
Min IBU: 20 Max IBU: 45
Min Clr: 6 Max Clr: 12 Color in SRM, Lovibond

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (GAL): 5.00
Total Extract (LBS): 10.13
Anticipated OG: 1.072
Anticipated SRM: 8.1
Anticipated IBU: 31.5
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Gravity SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
74.1 7.50 lbs. Light Liquid Malt Extract 1.035 7
9.9 1.00 lbs. AHS Wheat Liquid Malt Extract 1.030 2
4.9 0.50 lbs. AHS Munich Malt Extract America 1.034 8
1.2 0.13 lbs. CaraMunich 40 France 1.034 40
9.9 1.00 lbs. Corn Sugar 1.047 0

Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.00 oz. Hallertau Pellet 1.50 13.3 60 min.
1.00 oz. Cascade Pellet 4.10 18.2 60 min.
1.00 oz. Hallertau Pellet 1.50 0.0 0 min.

Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP565 Belgian Saison I

Steep the CaraMunich until the water comes to 155 F. Remove and add all extracts (except the sugar). Stir until dissolved. Bring to a boil and boil for 60 minutes. At 10 minutes, add corn sugar. Cool and pitch yeast.

I got an OG of 1.062. I didn't take the gallon of extract into consideration when filling my kettle, so I collected a bit too much wort.