Kumquat Saison

It's summer time and I've been craving something flavorful, but not sweet. I love a good, dry saison. And, if you haven't had a Fantôme Saison, then go out and find one. It's one of the best beers I've ever enjoyed. It's dry, crisp, and it has a great tangy citrus, lemon quality to it that I've never had in another beer. With that as my inspiration, I set out to brew another saison. While I was mulling this over, I happened to be house sitting for a friend of mine who has a kumquat tree on her front porch. So, picked them all off her tree, put them through a food processor and dumped it into the beer. Mmmm, tangy!

Julian and I brewed this beer before. It never dried out as much as we wanted, but the basic flavors were good. So, I used it as a starting point. Here it is again:

Grain:
76% Belgian pils
11.5% Wheat malt
4% Caravienne
8.5% dextrose.

Single Infusion Mash:
148 degrees for 1 hour
Sparge at 165 degrees.

Boil:
90 min. boil

Hops:
E.K. Goldings hops totaling about 30 IBUs.

Yeast:
A 3 day starter of White Labs WLP565 saison yeast.

Predicted Original Specific Gravity:
1.064

Notes:
Ferment at 80-90 degrees!

UPDATE 6/29 - After fermentation completed I pitched in a packet of Wyeast Rosilaire blend and about 2 cups of processed kumquats, skin and all. That should dry it out and tart it up a bit.

UPDATE 7/20 - Tastes fantastic. It has a wonderful kumquat nose. The rind comes through more in the beer than it does even just eating a kumquat, but it's very nice. It smells slightly of orange, but much more interesting. I love the kumquat. The sour bugs don't really come through, but it's a little earthy and bretty. And, wow is it dry. It finished out at 1.011 you can't ask for much more than that.