My co-worker wanted me to brew a beer to drink with breakfast. He wants a light body and to be bubbly/sparkling like champagne, 5ish abv, with a low IBU and an orange flavor. So here is what I came up with:

5.5 gal

7lbs pale
2lbs cane sugar

1oz Amarillo @60
1oz Ahtanum @60
1oz Citra @flameout
orange zest @ flameout
1oz either Amarillo or Citra dryhop

WLP 500

Mash at 150F for 1hr
1hr boil, add the sugar @60

ferment around 65ish to get some fruityness from the yeast
bottle with 3/4 cups priming sugar

Anything you would add or change??

I was ready to come in here with some coffee stout suggestions.

Have you ever dry hopped with citrus zest?  In a month or so I am doing an Oberon clone that I will dry hop with lemon and lime zest.  I'll post how it turns out.

There are some pretty light German beers out there that sound like what you are looking for.

No, never tried it. I have done a secondary with orange peels before. It was delicious!

I'd like to see some crystal 40 or 60 in there for a bit of color.

Base on what he's requesting I'd go for more like the light end of a saison.  You're way bitter to be a low IBU beer, probably around 60 IBU with only about 50 OG.

Maybe something more like this adjust down for 5.5g batch and 5% ABV

Saison - Saison (16C)

Brewer WSG

Date 2/19/14

Batch Size 10.746 galBoil Size12.746 gal

Boil Time 60.000 min Efficiency 80%

OG 1.053FG 1.000

ABV 6.9% IBU26.0 (Tinseth)

Color 5.6 srm (Morey)Calories (per 12 oz.)169



Fermentables

Total grain: 20.500 lb

NameTypeAmountMashedLateYieldColor

Weyermann - Pilsner MaltGrain10.000 lbYesNo81%2.4 srm

Munich MaltGrain4.000 lbYesNo80%9.0 srm

Weyermann - Vienna MaltGrain4.000 lbYesNo81%3.9 srm

Sugar, Table (Sucrose)Sugar2.000 lbNoYes100%1.0 srm

Acid MaltGrain8.000 ozYesNo59%3.0 srm

Hops



NameAlphaAmountUseTimeFormIBU

Northern Brewer9.6%1.400 ozBoil60.000 minPellet19.6

Styrian Goldings4.5%1.000 ozBoil30.000 minPellet5.1

Styrian Goldings4.5%1.000 ozBoil5.000 minPellet1.3

Styrian Goldings4.5%1.000 ozDry Hop14.000 dayPellet0.0



Misc

NameTypeUseAmountTime

Irish MossFiningBoil2.000 tsp15.000 min



Yeast

NameTypeFormAmountStage

Danstar - Belle Saison Ale Dry



Mash

NameTypeAmountTempTarget TempTime

Infusion9.250 gal151.000 F151.000 F60.000 min

Infusion3.000 gal165.000 F165.000 F10.000 min

Infusion3.000 gal165.000 F165.000 F10.000 min



Notes:

Placed 2nd in club comp.

Bill, your FG was 1.000?
 

I agree that is a lot of hops.

Yes.  I did a split fermentation on the batch.  The WLP565 went to 1.002 and the Belle Saison went to 1.000.  With a saison you want to pitch at probably 68-70 and ramp up to 75 or higher over about 4 days.  Saison yeast are efficient fermenters and the warm temps combined low mash temp and sugar addition help dry this out to style.  The Belle Saison was the better of the two BTW.  I can't wait for the summer months I want to rebrew this and do a split with some peppercorns in half and citrus zest in half.

A few things:

This should be like a mimosa, but a beer.
I'm not too convinced yet that I need to use less hops, lower the IBU's. They are very flavorful hops. I'm absolutely up for suggestions though.
I need input on some hops that have an orange flavor/aroma. I know of Summit, and a few others. Most have a high AA though.
I'd like to use a Belgian yeast to give a bit of fruityness, but not too much spice.
I'd like this to actually be good and not a mess that has a weird orange flavor.
I'm not opposed to using orange/tangerine/cutie zest and corriander to get some more orange flavor.
The actual SRM is not important. He drinks clear beers almost exclusively, so less than 10 is preferred.


And I appreciate all the input

This might be a recipe that has stumped me more than any other, but I'm excited to do it

Some ideas:
Move one of the 60min (probably the Ahtanum to more like 20mins as is your IBU:OG ratio is like 1.1 which is in like a high DIPA range.
Use something like a british or vermont ale yeast (peachy) these are fruity, you get more bubble gum, banana, clove, spicy etc. in a belgian yeast british is probably a "cleaner fruit" character.  (S-23 might be good too, it's a little fruity for lager yeast)
Maybe try apple juice concentrate instead of cane sugar? (like a graff with the AJ:wort ratio flipped)  To give that vinous champagne quality... Dogfish Head has a beer with grape must in it.

ETA:  Maybe one can AJ and one can OJ concentrate in there... :) Now it's sounding like a neat experiment
ETA2:  I'd also mash this considerably higher, probably more like 155-158 range, since you taking your inspiration from a sweetened (by the juice) "champagne-tail".  If you want to give that impression you'll need some body and you're going to be fighting the adjunct that is going to try to make it very thin.

I agree on the 60 min, those are way big, will just be a bitter bomb.  maybe a 1/2 oz at 60, move almost all of it to the last 10 mins.

Yeast wise, I think it will depend on the specific belgian yeast.  WLP530 and 510 if available should have a better fruit taste than say wlp500.  

Good thinking on the apple and orange juice.  Look for sorbates on them, though, those won't help and will stop your yeast growth.

coffee/milk stout for breakfast.. whats this fizzy, sparkling crap you speak of?

Decided to make it simple for this. If it needs tweaking I'll do it again. I went and bought the ingredients  today. I'll be doing a slight kettle sour to give it a bit of an acidic bite.

recipe

10lbs pale
.5 oz Summit @60
.5oz Summit @ flameout
1 oz Citra dryhop for the last 3 days before bottling
US-05
6 oranges to zest

Mash at 152 for 90
Cool to 125 and add 1 cup grains to wort
Cover overnight

Boil for 60

pitch yeast @  65
Add orange zest
Add Citra when fermentation has stopped
Bottle 3 days later with 6oz sugar

Not what you are looking for, but I had a bourbon barrel aged IPA from Aviator Brewing near Raleigh that had a very unique orange juice flavor.  The aged IPA/hop remnants combined with the bourbon barrel resulted in a super unique flavor.

Man I love wood aged beers.  I had a bourbon barrel aged wee heavy from Trophy brewing in Raleigh today that tasted exactly like coconuts.  crazy.

Force carbonate and then bottle.  You will have a better outcome.

Why is that?

This hop schedule looks better.  Be sure you perform a mashout.  If you leave the wort overnight without performing one the active enzymes are likely to kill the body and defeat the purpose of mashing at 152.

Brewed it today. OG of 1.041, I might add a bit of DME in a day or 2.  Added the zest from 4 oranges that I heated with a little water to sterilize. Pitched at 68F, placed into a 64F room.

Bottled yesterday with some extra priming sugar, today they are carbing up nicely. I had a taste: very orangy, maybe a touch too dry/bitter.