Hop substitution question for Saison

[olie]

Planning on having a go at the Saison recipe in Randy Mosher's 'Radical Brewing'.

The hop supplier I've been using doesn't have any Northern Brewer. As long as I take account of AA%, would it make sense to substitute East Kent Goldings? I've got some in the freezer, and I know they're used in Saison Dupont for example, although I don't know if it's a good choice for bittering (which is what the Nothern Brewer is in this recipe)? Or alternatively how about two additions of Saaz, at 60 and 30 mins?

 

[zgoda]

They use hops from all over Europe in Belgium, so this will not ruin your beer, but Northern Brewer is characteristic hop. Maybe you have some Northdown or Challenger somewhere in fridge? These will be better substitutes.

 

[Mark1964]

you should use either nugget columbus chinook bullion perle or super stryians the ones mentioned already just wont cut it

 

[olie]

thanks for the advice, just realised they do stock it, but under H for Hallertau

 

[TheMumbler]

you should use either nugget columbus chinook bullion perle or super stryians the ones mentioned already just wont cut it

So long as quantities are altered so that the IBUs for the bittering addition are the same it should be fine to substitute. Personally I would go european (maybe mittlefreuh) and avoid very strong tasting hops for that 60 min addition. I'd say EKG would be fine (dupont use it, orval used to use it) and I wouldn't put Chinook in a saison unless I was trying to do get sort of US slant on the beer. They aren't really hop heavy beers in my experience.

YMMV and all of that

Probably not an issue since Olie seems to have found Northern Brewer. Hope it goes well.