Brewing up a Belgian

[Paddy Bubbles]

I'm looking for a bit of advice on brewing a Belgian beer. I've never brewed one before. In fact, I've tried very few commercial Belgian beers but I've been getting into them lately. I'm planning on doing this during the summer months when the weather is hopefully a little warmer and might not be optimum for other beer styles. Anyone else do this during the summer?

I'd like to try something pale, like a tripel but maybe not as high in alcohol. I've been reading about moderate-gravity Belgian singles, brewed by Trappist monasteries for the monks consumption. This sounds like it could be suitable. Would the "Belgian Pale Ale" recipe from Jamil's book be in the right ball-park?

I'm also thinking about culturing some yeast from a couple of La Chouffe or Duvel bottles. Anyone got any tales to tell about stepping up yeast starters with these particular strains?

Finally, I'll be doing a partial mash, so I'm limited in the amount of Pilsner malt I can use. I know a lot of Belgian recipes use this as the primary base malt. So any recipes involving plain old DME or eveb wheat DME would be preferable.

Any other recommendations, tips etc. are greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

[jmc]

I've stepped up Duvel and Chimay Red yeast from bottles

Before brewing a tripel I'm done a 'single' (5-6%) brew like you mention from Duvel to build up yeast cake so that it can be used on a tripel. I did a similar thing with the Chimay yeast before doing a Chiimay Red clone.

Both 'single' brews were very pleasant with definite Belgian taste from the yeast.

If you want to do a Belgian brew that likes it hot why not try a Saison?
Saison Dupont yeast very happy at 27C

[Paddy Bubbles]

Nice one. How did you step up the starter?

I quite like a Saison, but I wouldn't consider it an everyday beer, which is what I want here. The saison yeasts tend to be to be more 'farmyard' aren't they?

[jmc]

Nice one. How did you step up the starter?

I quite like a Saison, but I wouldn't consider it an everyday beer, which is what I want here. The saison yeasts tend to be to be more 'farmyard' aren't they?

For each starter I added dregs from 2 bottles to 100cc boiled wort. After a few days add this to 500cc boiled wort.

Commercial saisons aren't too funky IMHO but its all a matter of personal taste. I'm doing an experiment with some saisons at the moment - see link in signature.

Good luck with your brew!

[jonnyt]

I've just done this using T-58 yeast, kind of a Duvel Clone with Chimay yeast and it's wonderful in early tasting:

Belguim 1 - Strong Golden (Belgian Golden Strong Ale)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.082 (°P): 19.8
Final Gravity (FG): 1.014 (°P): 3.6
Alcohol (ABV): 8.97 %
Colour (SRM): 4.2 (EBC): 8.2
Bitterness (IBU): 19.2 (Tinseth)

85.71% Pilsner
10.71% Dextrose
3.57% Pale Malt

2.5 g/L Styrian Golding (3% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes (Boil)
1.3 g/L Saaz (2.3% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
1.3 g/L Styrian Golding (3% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
1.3 g/L Saaz (2.3% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma)


Single step Infusion at 65°C for 90 Minutes. Boil for 90 Minutes

Fermented at 20°C with Safbrew T-58 for 2 days, then 22°C for five days then ramped to 25°C until completion

Recipe Generated with BrewMate

[seymour]

jonnyt's suggestion is absolutely perfect for a true-to-style Belgian ale starting point. T-58 is excellent too, many of us believe it's a dry form of the Chimay Trappist strain, and is used for many highly rated Belgian masterpieces such as Struise Pannepot. Do it!

[Paddy Bubbles]

Thanks for the suggestions lads, great help here as always.

[DeGarre]

jonnyt's suggestion is absolutely perfect for a true-to-style Belgian ale starting point. T-58 is excellent too, many of us believe it's a dry form of the Chimay Trappist strain, and is used for many highly rated Belgian masterpieces such as Struise Pannepot. Do it!

For pannepot Struise uses their "home yeast which is regenerated every 5 batches with 2 x 500g of t58" - straight from the horse's mouth. Also De Ranke uses t58 at least for XX bitter.

[seymour]

...For pannepot Struise uses their "home yeast which is regenerated every 5 batches with 2 x 500g of t58" - straight from the horse's mouth...

Exactly, every brewery's "home yeast" came from somewhere. This was the original source I'd seen: http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/ ... php?t=8801

Considering their resulting beer is one of very few to receive 100 out of 100 on Ratebeer, it's a very good reason to consider T-58 for your own Belgian ale.

[far9410]

Glad to hear good reports on the t58, I,m planning a belgian brew on monday using this, i'll post recipe when I've worked it all out

[far9410]

This is the plan, for invert sugar, read candy (or at least my attempt at making candy, must try harder!)

Belgian Blonde
Date:
Gyle Number:
Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Bohemian Pilsner 4 EBC 4 lbs. 6.5 oz 2000 grams 36.4%
Lager Malt 2.5 EBC 4 lbs. 6.5 oz 2000 grams 36.4%
Pale Malt 5 EBC 0 lbs. 14.0 oz 400 grams 7.3%
Aromatic malt 50 EBC 0 lbs. 8.8 oz 250 grams 4.5%
Sugar Invert No. 1 Solid 30 EBC 1 lbs. 5.1 oz 600 grams 10.9%
Carapils 50 EBC 0 lbs. 8.8 oz 250 grams 4.5%

Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Saaz Whole 3.3 % 60 mins 0 lbs. 3.5 oz 100 grams 100%

Final Volume: 22 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.059
Final Gravity: 1.009
Alcohol Content: 6.6% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.1 Litres
Mash Liquor: 12.3 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 31.9149461210232 EBU
Colour: 22 EBC

[Pinto]

IBU's sound a little bit high for the style ? Hopping in belgians is usually light, with the flavour coming from the yeast. I'd knock off 10 IBUs or so - but otherwise sounds rather nice

[seymour]

IBU's sound a little bit high for the style ? ...

I don't think it's too high, keep in mind the IBUs are balanced against fairly high-grav grainbill and profound yeast esters and phenols:

Chimay Blue: 35 IBU
Chimay White: 35 IBU
Duvel: 30 IBU
Westmalle Extra: 31 IBU
Westmalle Tripel: 39 IBU
Westvleteren Blonde: 41 IBU
etc...

[dreadskin69]

In terms of the ibus, i recently had a Belgian beer( in champagne bottle) that was a double ipa Belgian. It wad class. Light coloured, malty, strong and heavily hopped. It was pure class. I will go dig out the bottle later and post the name. Its been my favourite Belgian in a while.

[DeGarre]

In terms of the ibus, i recently had a Belgian beer( in champagne bottle) that was a double ipa Belgian. It wad class. Light coloured, malty, strong and heavily hopped. It was pure class. I will go dig out the bottle later and post the name. Its been my favourite Belgian in a while.

chouffe houblon ipa?

But I also think one could drop the ibus to early 20's and let the yeast do the talking.