Belgian Blond Ale

[coatesg]

Hi chaps,

I've got a batch of recultured Chimay yeast on the go at the minute (needs stepping up a couple more times to 1 litre then maybe 2 litres, but I seem to have a good whack of yeast in the half-demijohn already, and smelling like a good Belgian should ) and I'm looking for a Belgian Blond Ale recipe to start with (and then repitch the slurry in a stronger beer later ) - anyone got any thoughts on this one? It's fairly similar to the one from classic styles, but the hops have to differ as my Hersbrucker is only 2.1%...

Pilsner malt - 5.5 kg
Wheat malt - 250 grams
Aromatic - 250 grams
Cane sugar - 680g
OG: 1068-1070, 5 gall imperial.

Hall. Hersbrucker 2.1% 40g, 90min
Styrian Goldings 3.9% 40g, 90min
23IBU Tinseth

Yeast Chimay Red reculture (2 litres, stirplate)

A little unsure on the hops - I have Hersbrucker at 2.1%, Styrians at 3.9% and Saaz at 4% to play with (though also N Brewer and Goldings as other options) - any thoughts? Flavour hops needed or just the one addition to low bitterness for a little bit of balance?

[Barley Water]

I have a Blond formulation very much like what you posted and it has done very well for me every time I enter it into a competition. I tweeked it a little though, I added a little honey malt, used jaggery instead of regular white table sugar and also I added just a little lemmon rind just before the end of the boil (I just can not leave well enough alone). I am also using the Chimay yeast and I will tell you that you need to be pretty careful with it or else you will end up with more bananna than you will be happy with. The usual caveats apply, pitch plenty of yeast and make sure you control the fermentation temperatures to get the best results (I start at around 65F and run the temperature up to around 72F over 7 days). I bottle the entire batch and naturally carbonate so that I can really jack up the carbonation and get a really big head on the beer. I personally don't like to keg beers this big as I end up getting myself into trouble (although I currently have a double bock fermenting which I will keg, I guess I am a glutton for punishment).

Assuming that your beer will have an O.G. somewhere in the 1.062-1.069 range, I don't know that I would harvest the yeast for an even bigger beer. The yeast will almost for sure be stressed because you have a pretty high alcholol enviorment that also has a pretty big load of adjuncts and because of that, you may run into performance problems on your next batch. The trick with these big Belgians is keeping the hot alcholol flavors at bay and if the yeast is not performing at it's best, you could easily get fusels which you won't like at all. Anyway, your recipie looks fine and I am sure the beer will be good. I would encourage you to experiment though, these Belgian styles just beg for a little creativity. Try brewing with some honey or maybe some other spices to make your effort unique.

[coatesg]

Assuming that your beer will have an O.G. somewhere in the 1.062-1.069 range, I don't know that I would harvest the yeast for an even bigger beer.

Thanks for the advice - I'll maybe abandon the idea of repitching afterwards (I was contemplating doing a tripel or a strong dark later and I'm wary of having enough yeast to pitch for it - I'm not 100% sure I can grow up enough in a starter jar really - maybe I'll try a weaker Belgian pale at 5% for that purpose at a later date).

My plan for the ferment is fairly similar to yours - I was planning on 19C at pitch, and then to 23C (so 66F to 73/74F) - slightly higher at the end to get a bit more fruit out of the yeast if possible. These will be bottled too - I'll want to serve them slightly chilled, and I don't have a way of doing that from keg at the moment (plus 7% beer in keg is just too tempting).