Belgium Leffe water quality?

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ricardomanjarrez
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Belgium Leffe water quality?

Post by ricardomanjarrez » Mon Jan 14, 2019 6:52 pm

I'm trying to brew a Leffe ruby,and u would like to know which parameters has their water I. Belgium in order to be the closest possible to their flavor...


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IPA
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Re: Belgium Leffe water quality?

Post by IPA » Tue Jan 15, 2019 8:29 am

ricardomanjarrez wrote:
Mon Jan 14, 2019 6:52 pm
I'm trying to brew a Leffe ruby,and u would like to know which parameters has their water I. Belgium in order to be the closest possible to their flavor...


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I don't think it's the water that gives Leffe its unique flavour. I have been trying for years to replicate Leffe Blonde and have never got anywhere near except once when I added a clove to the bottle before maturation. Which leads me to believe that they do incorporate cloves at sometime during the brewing process.
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Re: Belgium Leffe water quality?

Post by Northern Brewer » Wed Jan 16, 2019 6:38 pm

The official ingredient list for Blonde only lists "Barley malt, Maize, Barley, Sugar, Hops" so I doubt there's cloves in it. Clove flavours in beer are mostly down to the presence of 4-vinyl guaiacol produced from ferulic acid by the action of enzymes found in POF+ yeast such as the classic "Belgian" and hefe yeasts. Both 4-VG and ester production are promoted by stressing the yeast a bit, but at higher temperatures the esters take over so for more of a clove balance you want to go a bit on the cool side. A ferulic acid rest also helps - 10 minutes at around 44C on the ramp up to mash temperature.

See viewtopic.php?t=63973 for some Ruby recipes. Most of the groundwater in Belgium isn't great for brewing, but I assume in Dinant they use a fair bit of surface water which should be fairly low in minerals. Most European water companies provide a basic analysis of their water on their website, however it looks like Dinant is served by SWDE and on a quick scan of www.swde.be I can't see any analyses. But I'd guess it''s got a fair bit of alkalinity but is otherwise not too weird. I wouldn't sweat too much about it, there's a lot going on in that beer between the yeast and the fruit which will dominate the flavour.

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Re: Belgium Leffe water quality?

Post by IPA » Thu Jan 17, 2019 3:41 pm

Northern Brewer wrote:
Wed Jan 16, 2019 6:38 pm
The official ingredient list for Blonde only lists "Barley malt, Maize, Barley, Sugar, Hops" so I doubt there's cloves in it. Clove flavours in beer are mostly down to the presence of 4-vinyl guaiacol produced from ferulic acid by the action of enzymes found in POF+ yeast such as the classic "Belgian" and hefe yeasts. Both 4-VG and ester production are promoted by stressing the yeast a bit, but at higher temperatures the esters take over so for more of a clove balance you want to go a bit on the cool side. A ferulic acid rest also helps - 10 minutes at around 44C on the ramp up to mash temp
Tried all of that many times and it does not work.
"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." Dean Martin

1. Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip

It's better to lose time with friends than to lose friends with time (Portuguese proverb)

Alone we travel faster
Together we travel further
( In an admonishing email from our golf club)

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Re: Belgium Leffe water quality?

Post by Northern Brewer » Thu Jan 17, 2019 4:08 pm

What yeast are you using?

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