Anybody got a good Belgian Pale Ale recipe?

[adm]

I've got a sack of Lager Malt, a pack of Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale yeast, and....umm.....some other bits and pieces including 3kg of Munich Malt.

I was thinking of brewing a Belgian Pale Ale, then reusing the yeast cake to brew a Trippel.

So - has anybody got any recipe ideas for either? I'm not really sure what a Belgian Pale should taste/look like....

I was thinking for the Pale Ale (23L)

4kg Lager Malt
1kg Munich Malt
0.5kg invert sugar (home made candi sugar from cane sugar)

Goldings 30g 5.5% AA First Wort
Saaz 60g 3% AA 15 mins
Saaz 50g 3% AA In Hop-Back

Yeast, 3l starter of Wyeast 1214
Mash at 63-64C for 3 hours for high attenuation

Start fermentation at 16C and ramp to 24C at 1C per day.

What do you think?

[don'tmakemegobackinthebox]

belgian pales seem to be a bit of minefield

get hold of a copy of "brew like a monk" it should point you in the right direction

i have felt brave enough to tackle a belgian yet, let us know how you get on with it

[delboy]

I'd just bung in ordinary table suagr and forget about turning it into candi sugar or bung in some golden syrup instead.

I think the candi sugar that the belgians use (the dark stuff at least) can't really be made at home. From what i've read the candi sugar they use isn't the candi sugar itself but the syrup thats left behind afer candi sugar is produced. This contains the 'impurities' of the origional beet sugar.
Basically its the mollases not of cane sugar but of beet sugar.

In regard to light candi sugar, brew like a monk has a story of an american microbrewer looking to recreate the belgian light candi sugar. He got some and sent it of to some food processing lab in the states to see if the could work out the composition and possibly make it for him, the result from the company was that it was basically sugar and they suggested he save himself a packet and just use ordinary sugar instead.

[Barley Water]

Probably the most popular example of the style is DeKonik from Antwerp. I made some in the fall when Wyeast came out with the Antwerp yeast as part of their platnum series (this last go around was the second time I had made this style). It is what you guys would call a pretty strong ale but for us over here is about average (O.G. of about 1.050). Anyhow, I more or less used the formulation that the great Mr. Z. published in his book (basicly Belgian pils, a little caramunich if I remember right and some aromatic malt, I'm at work and not looking at my brewing notes as I post). The bitterness and hop flavor is moderate at best, I know I used Saaz to help with the spicey flavors (I remember taking some liberties with his hopping suggestions). There is no sugar in his formulation at all, mainly because of the moderate O.G., you really don't need to worry about making a cloying product. The body of the beer can easily be controlled by adjusting the mashing temperature. The dark candy sugar would not be appropriate for this style since the beer is basicly copper colored and you can easily get the color you need from the specialty malts. Also, you want some yeast character but you don't want the beer to get over the top so I wouldn't let the fermentation temperature get over 70F.

[adm]

It's going to be "Game On" for this one at the weekend. I've smacked up my yeast (Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale Yeast) this morning and it's swelling nicely. I'll make up a 2 or 3 litre starter over the next 48 hours

I'll drop the Candi sugar (and in fact any sugar) from the recipe above and just go for a simple Lager Malt and Munich Malt grist in either 80/20 or 75/25 ratio.

I think I'll keep the hop schedule to Goldings for bittering and Saaz for flavour and aroma (seems to be common in "Brew Like a Monk"- but instead of using the hop back I'll just do a standard kettle aroma addition to keep the aroma down a bit as I'm not aiming for a hop bomb.

I'm still going to go for a low temperature mash - maybe kick off at around 65C and let it continue to mash until it falls to 62C which should be around 4 hours or so in my NO mash tun.

I'll probably also narrow the fermentation temperature profile a bit and kick it off at 18C and raise to 22C as it goes so as not to get too estery a profile from the yeast.

I thik this yeast is meant to be the Chimay one? I'm not trying to emulate any particular beer, just making a general purpose Belgian Pale type beer.

Then once its fermented out, I'll use the yeast cake to try and brew a Trippel. Wahey!

[adm]

Or maybe I'll cut the Munich down to 10% and just use 90% Lager Malt and leave out the aroma hop addition completely.....

I can't find any real guidelines for Belgian "Pale Ales"......it could be almost anything!

Still - at least the Trippel style seems to be more closely defined. I think I'll start working on a Trippel recipe tonight.

[steve_flack]

The Zainasheff recipe in 'Brewing Classic Styles' makes a nice beer - I used the Antwerp Ale yeast though. It's pretty clean.

[boingy]

Here is the BJCP style guide for Belgian Pale Ale:

www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style16.php

There are also some other Belgian styles here:

www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style18.php


Of course, unless you are entering a competition that has a BJCP judge, these are not definitive styles but I do find them useful, particularly for the commercial examples of each style.

[mysterio]

DeKonick is the only one i've tried, It's a reddish colour so you might want a handful of carafa special in there.

It's a malty tasting beer, in the same way that a munich dark lager/vienna is, I wouldn't be afraid to go 50/50 lager malt munich malt (with maybe 1% carafa)

[adm]

Hmmm.....I think I want to keep this to a very pale colour if possible, so I'll probably not go the carafa route, but I might up the Munich content.

I'll keep the hops way to the background but try and get some pepperiness from a Saaz 15 minute addition and some spiciness and character from the yeast. I've got a 2l yeast starter just on the stirplate now. I think I've decided against any aroma hops.

I think my recipe is OK within the style guideline for OG and IBU. ABV will depend on how much I can the yeast to attenuate (should be about 5.2% at 80% attenuation) and the colour will probably be too light for the style, but that's what I want!

I want this to be pale, crisp, spicy and malty. Nice for a refreshing afterwork glass on the patio if Spring decides to put it's head over the parapet!

Gonna brew on Sunday....

[delboy]

What sort of gravity are you aiming for?

[steve_flack]

I'm not terribly sure that a 'Belgian pale ale' is a good match for the yeast you're using. I would probably make a Abbey Single style beer - indeed that's what I did when I needed to grow up some WLP500/1214 last time i used it. Basically they're like a pils but fermented with an ale yeast. My grist (IIRC) was just pils malt with a bit of sugar to keep it dry. I bittered with Goldings and finished with Saaz (which is a combo I like in Belgian style beers). I think I aimed at around 1.048

Of course this is just nitpicking over beer style descriptions...

I can check out the recipe later if you're interested.

[adm]

Steve,

That sounds almost exactly like what I am trying to do.....maybe "Belgian Pale Ale" just isn't the right description for it! The grist and the hops sound very similar to my recipe anyway (especially the original version that used sugar). If you do have the recipe, then I'd love to see it.

Abbey Single......yeah, that's the ticket!

More importantly though....how was the beer?

Del,

I'm looking for around 5.0 - 5.5% or so

[mysterio]

Hmmm.....I think I want to keep this to a very pale colour if possible

Makes sense you don't want to colour the yeast if you want a nice pale triple

Steve, whats your recipe for your German pils? I tried brewing one last year and it was nothing near the likes of Bitburger. Is there a secret to getting it so dry ?

[Barley Water]

I think I would have to agree with Mr. Flack, if you want to use Chimay yeast, maybe an Abby Single would be best. I have a little experience with that strain and I like it alot. It will throw off a fair amount of bananna if you are not careful which in my opinion would be a flaw in the beer for either a Single or a Triple. I have used the stuff to make both a Dubbel and a Belgian Blonde, with O.G.s in the 1.065 neighborhood. In both cases, I fermented starting around 65F and increased the temperature to around 75F over about a week. Although there is a hint of bananna, overall I was really pleased with the flavors and I suppose that is just a component of that strain's profile. Of course, when making a lower gravity beer, I would expect you will get less yeast character but hopefully it will turn out well. The other good thing about making a Single is that you can spice it if you want. Let us know how it goes and what you ended up doing in the way of formulation.