Belgian Pale Ale

[SiHoltye]

Chimaybe Baby - Belgian Pale Ale

Ingredients
25L brewlength, 90min SI mash, 60min boil
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.50 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 90.73 %
0.23 kg Caramunich Malt (110.3 EBC) Grain 4.64 %
0.23 kg Munich Malt - 10L (19.7 EBC) Grain 4.64 %
40.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.60 %] (60 min) Hops 19.5 IBU
20.00 gm Saaz [4.00 %] (15 min) Hops 3.8 IBU
1 Pkgs Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.050 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.96 %
Bitterness: 23.4 IBU
Est Color: 13.8 EBC

Am going to Batch sparge for the first time tomorrow. Looks simpler than fly to me.

[spearmint-wino]

Looks good, gonna have a go at this one myself sometime

[ECR]

Have a good one!

[Barley Water]

What temperature are you going to ferment? You will end up with wildly different beers depending on your choice (none bad but different). You can get a fair amount of bananna out of that strain plus some very spicy flavors. Just don't let that stuff get below 65F or it can potentially stall out on you.

[SiHoltye]

Pitch at 19°C, after 24hrs (and if it hasn't reached there already) increase temp to 22°C ~1°C? What do you think? I want to get the plummy fruitiness if I can, should I go higher?

[Barley Water]

Hmm, I don't know that I can answer that one. First of all, remember you are doing a Belgian so you can do any damn thing you want, it's all about artistic expression. When I think of Belgian pale ale, I don't think of "plummy" flavors so much as a spicy, nutty, somewhat tart flavor. A classic example I can get over here is deKonick. Compared to say a double or strong dark, the spicy flavors are usually subdued. The other thing is, I don't think you have the malt bill to get the "plummy" flavor but I think you can do a really nice Belgian pale ale with what you have.

There are tables in the book "Brew Like a Monk" that give you an idea of what to expect with that yeast at differing fermentation temperatures. To a large extent it depends on what you like, everybody has different preferences. I think that the book is really good reading and I look at brewing in general differently after reading it (along with "Radical Brewing"). Yeast handling and control of fermentation parameters is a very big deal with these types of beers and that is partly why they are so much fun to brew.

I am personally on a quest to develop a good Double but so far the Holly Grail has eluded me. I have been messing with different sugars and grain formulations so if anybody has any good experiences, please pass them on.

[SiHoltye]

Yes BW, I am blindly setting foot in Belgian territory! The yeast should be good in the Chimay Blue recipe I have lined up next I'm told. This brew is just a stepping stone really. I can't recall drinking Belgian Pale Ales particularly, might have but not known they were so!
Have bought some Westmalle which I've not tried before today. Will try a bottle later after I'm back from football training if I haven't got too much of a thirst on, could be dangerous otherwise - necking the Belgians, beware.

[Barley Water]

Well if you have any aches and pains from football training (we call it soccer over here) you won't be feeling much after a 750ml bottle of that stuff (I assume we are talking about the Triple).

Anyhow, it sounds like your real target is a Belgian Strong Dark. I would probably handle the yeast differently making these two styles. I would opt to run the fermentation cooler for the pale ale than I would for the Strong Dark. Generally, the Belgian pale ales have subdued fruity, spicey profiles when compared with the their higher gravity brothers (although when compared to English or American ales they are pretty spicey). To some extent, this happens naturally since the higher gravity stresses the yeast a little and so it throws off more of the goodies. You don't want to overwhelm the lower gravity beers by getting too much yeast character (unless of course that is what you like).

It sounds to me like you need a research session. Get thee to the nearest high end beer store and see if you can find some deKonick or maybe some Palm and try those out. It will give you a pretty good idea what you are shooting for and of course it's always a good time.

[mysterio]

SiHoltye, if you like Chimay blue try and get yourself a bottle of Rochefort 10... amazing stuff, and better than the Chimay I reckon.

[SiHoltye]

In the name of research, I will . Westmalle Dubbel to start with. Maybe Tripel after, no work tomorrow. Brewing

[SiHoltye]

I have just been reading the current Fly vs Batch Debate thread and with reference to my first attempt at batch sparging tomorrow my recipe is based on 80% extraction (which I've been acheiving with fly). What is an average batch sparge efficiency? Gonna do 2 batches as most seem to.

[mysterio]

Westmalle Dubbel

One of my favourites

They make a flemish beer stew with it in Belgium, like their equivalent of steak & ale pie. Very tasty indeed.

[SiHoltye]

Whoa M, that R10's a big beer! I love Thomas Hardy which I think demonstrates you can produce whoppers without making Gold Label - thank goodness. Will have a look around for R10.

[steve_flack]

Westmalle Dubbel

One of my favourites

They make a flemish beer stew with it in Belgium, like their equivalent of steak & ale pie. Very tasty indeed.

I know you can get it all over Belgium but if you're ever in Ghent then there's a restaurant called Max in the main square that makes a killer Gentse Stoverij. Very tasty and very large. Nice washed down with more Westmalle Dubbel. You won't be walking far after that one....

The place was recommended to us by another restaurant owner when we asked who did the best one in town.

[SiHoltye]

Mash is on. Had to add a little more liquor to raise mash to 67 initially, but adjusted the batch sparge calcs to reflect this. Also I upped the grain bill to get me my OG from 70% efficiency, rather than 80% I was getting when fly sparging.