Creating a recipe for a Lift Bridge Farm Girl clone

Mashing
1

I posted this in the recipe section but only got 1 response, so I thought I would put it in here to get some advice:

I am going to attempt my first original recipe for a clone of the Lift Bridge Farm Girl. This is my wife’s favorite beer and I cannot find a recipe, so I thought I would try to make my own. I am wondering if I can get some opinions on if I have a good recipe or not.

First of all, this is the information from Lift Bridge’s website:

Perfectly balanced and moderately sweet with light citrus notes and a distinct spiciness from choice Belgian yeasts, Farm Girl is a refreshing beer with universal appeal. Enjoy it after a long day on the farm, or anytime the mood strikes you– whether you’re on the water, in the sun or hiding from the winter’s chill. Pairs well with most foods, including spicy dishes and Thai.

Malts: Belgian Pilsner Malt
Hops: Goldings, Perle, Spalt
Yeast: Belgian
Additions: Seville Orange
ABV: 5.8% IBU: 19 Color: 30

So, I opened up BeerSmith and this is what I have setup:
10 pounds of Belgian Pilsner Malt
Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison yeast
1 ounce of sweet orange peel - boil 5 minutes
.75 ounce of East Kent Goldings - boil 60 minutes
.5 ounce Spalt hops - boil 10 minutes
1 ounce Perle hops - boil 5 minutes

Beersmith shows the following:
OG will be 1.055
Bitterness of 22.7 IBU
Color 3.8 SRM
ABV 5.4%

The bitterness is a little high, so maybe I should cut down the hops some - ideas?

What do you all think? If you have had Farm Girl, does this sound close? I know that I will not get it perfect my first try, but I want it to at least be close.

Thank you for any help!

Jon

2

I can recall faintly looking into it in the past, and the only thing that I remember is that Farm Girl is not a true saison. I’m not certain it even uses a saison yeast. I think the “Seville orange” addition is important; the orange flavor in that beer is rather prominent. Also, I believe that’s a “bitter” orange, not a sweet orange.