Belgian Blond Ale SWMBO Slayer - Belgian Blonde

Here are my buckets. Like the lid on that one?

BTW - just re-read the recipe. Seems I "tweaked" it and got up to an OG of 1.062, so even more sugar for those hyper yeasts to fizz up on.

BierMuncher said:

If given the choice, I would usually save my extract for brewing. You never know when you're going to want to kick up a recipe just a bit.

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Point Taken,
Thanks.

I have converted this in Beersmith from Biermuncher all grain recipe. Does any one have an opinion on it?

Recipe: SWMBO Slayer
Brewer: Stan
Asst Brewer:
Style: Belgian Blond Ale
TYPE: Partial Mash
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.25 gal
Boil Size: 6.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.058 SG
Estimated Color: 4.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 19.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.50 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 37.63%
0.75 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 8.06 %
2.75 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 29.57 %
2.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 21.51 %
0.15 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 1.61 %
0.15 lb Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 1.61 %
1.00 oz Williamette [4.50 %] (75 min) Hops 19.3 IBU
1 Pkgs Belgian Wit Ale (White Labs #WLP400) [StarYeast-Wheat


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 5.05 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 6.31 qt of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F

I am wondering if the caramel/crystal and the caravienne are necessary. The amount is so small that it makes me wonder. This is the first conversion I have done in Beersmith and only my second pm.

Thanks for you comments.

Thumper: you have the hops going in at 75 in. How long are you planning on boiling? 60 in is more normal. And there is some caramel and caravienne in the original. I'd leave it in if you can. Caravienne is a "Light Belgian crystal malt. Used in light Trappist and Abbey style Belgian ales."


This was my first AG, and I'm drinking it a week after I bottled it: it is WONDERFUL!

BioBeing said:

Thumper: you have the hops going in at 75 in. How long are you planning on boiling? 60 in is more normal. And there is some caramel and caravienne in the original. I'd leave it in if you can. Caravienne is a "Light Belgian crystal malt. Used in light Trappist and Abbey style Belgian ales."


This was my first AG, and I'm drinking it a week after I bottled it: it is WONDERFUL!

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I will have to go back and check it. My computer @ home is down and that it where it is of course. I think I may have worked out a different recipe also. I believe that I left the caramel and caravienne in that one.

Thanks,

SWMBO had a bottle of this last night instead of her usual Chardonnay. She was, of course, slain.

I have made this multiple times and it has been a great hit with everyone. So much so that it is going to fill 2 out of the 4 kegs I am making for a friends wedding.

A couple of questions...

I have the misfortune of living in a town with some of the worst tap water in the USA. Like nitrates and selenium barely under the legal limit. So I'm forced to brew with reverse osmosis water.

First question: Does anyone have a clue what a good water profile would be for this recipe?

Second question: Since I have to buy a pound of Caravienne malt anyway, how bout if I just skip the Caramel/Crystal and use a pound of Caravienne instead.

Thanks.

Well, if you start with John Palmer's Spreadsheet, or brewsmith, and these
Belgian towns: Ca++ CO3-- Cl- Mg++ Na+ SO4--

Antwerp 90 76 57 11 37 84
Poperinge 8 528 206 2 380 124
Eeklo 138 255 65 28 115 8
Luik 98 134 142 14 110 14
Brugge 132 326 38 13 20 99
Gent 114 301 38 17 18 84
Willebroek/Rumst 68 143 60 8 33 70
Mechelen 116 330 36 14 16 62
Beerse 41 91 26 8 16 62
Brussels region 100 250 41 11 18 70


You can build it up yourself. For this one, looking at Antwerp, I might just use store bought spring water.

Perfect. Thanks.

Well, after reading this thread, I decided to make this my next brew. Went to the local Brew and Grow, and got the all grain ingredients. Only thay didnt have CaraVienna malt. Only vienna.

So........whatcha think this difference will do to the brew?

I need to stop reading these recipe threads. MY Cascade Wheat is only 4 days into the fermenter, and I now have another ready to go on the pot.

Who's signature says " i need more carboys?"...guess thats me....

NTOLERANCE said:

Well, after reading this thread, I decided to make this my next brew. Went to the local Brew and Grow, and got the all grain ingredients. Only thay didnt have CaraVienna malt. Only vienna.

So........whatcha think this difference will do to the brew?

...

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Crystal #20 would be a suitable replacement. Barring that, at only .25#, doing without and simply upping your base to compensate will work well too.

BierMuncher said:

Crystal #20 would be a suitable replacement. Barring that, at only .25#, doing without and simply upping your base to compensate will work well too.

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I upped the base, and its into the fermenter.

Things go soooo much easier in my head than in reality....lol.

I set up my tun from a cooler with the steel braded line inside, with the internal hose removed. I still had lots of grain coming through. I think the mill at the LHBS is set too small, as I seemed to get alot of powder through.

Beer alos seems alot darker than what I thought it should be. Maybe because of the small grains getting through?

One of these times I will have a smooth brew day.

BierMuncher said:

Belgian yeast is notorious for violent, prolonged fermentation. Sometimes it will
actually get so thick on the fermenter wall that fermentation slows down and you have to knock the yeast back down into solution.

It's pretty typical.

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Youre not kidding its violent. Glad I went with a blow off tube, and it hasnt even been 24 hours.

Beer has lightened in color considerably as well.

Thanks again.

I brewed this up yesterday' I did make one change though. The only pale malt I had on hand was maris otter so I used it instead. I will probably brew it again in a couple weeks after I pick up a sack of 2-row and compare the finished product.

BierMuncher,

This looks like a really good recipe. I think that I might make this for my first attempt at an all grain batch. I do have a question though, what is the flaked wheat and what does this do for the beer? Thanks.

Flaked wheat looks like a lighter colored version of oatmeal.

It helps with head retention, adds a nice mouthfeel, but ferments crisply.

If you can’t get to an HB shop, you can sub in quick oats from the grocery store and get acceptable results.

BierMuncher said:

If you can’t get to an HB shop, you can sub in quick oats from the grocery store and get acceptable results.

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Thanks BM! I have a pretty good LHBS about 10 minutes from where I work and it happens to be on my way home. On thier website they show that they do stock the Flaked Wheat, they also have just Wheat and something called Torrified Wheat but it doesn't look like they carry Wheat Malt unless that what the Torrified Wheat is. Any ideas what that is? By the way the name of the place is Adventures In Homebrewing (Homebrewing, Beer Brewing, Wine Making, and Home Brewing Supplies).

Anyway, thanks for the answer.

p.s. my wife doesn't like the term SWMBO, probably 'cuse it's true!

This was my first all grain brew yesterday. Fastest activity to date. Pic looks darker than actual.

brewed up 10.5 gallons today. made a 2L starter 2 days before.

Has anybody used Safbrew WB-06 for this? The LHBS didnt have any WLP-400 (the only white labs yeast they were out of) and suggested the WB-06 as the next closest yeast strain. This is going to be for a buddy's wedding, so I dont want to screw this up. If it isnt a good yeast for this I'll just hold of brewing and order some WLP-400 from an internet shop.

EDIT: After reading about hte WB-06 on here Im not going to use it. What other yeasts have you guys used successfully with this recipe? Or is this recipe dependent on the yeast for its flavor?

I started a batch of this over the long weekend and pitched White Labs Belgian Wit (WLP400) right out of the vial. It blew the airlock right out of my plastic bucket fermenter on the first day. I should have listened and put on a blowoff tube. Hope all the crud from the fermenter lid that leaked back into the hole won't ruin it.

Has anybody used any other yeast with this recipe and had it turn out good? I can't find any WLP-400 close enough to get it this weekend without paying $50 in shipping.

My local LHBS has the entire White Labs line except for the WLP-400, which they are out of.

Edit: I ended up using the White Labs Belgian Golden Ale for this since I couldnt find WLP-400. I made a 2 liter starter, pitched it last night around 7 pm, and it was bubbling through the blow off tube by ~10:30. I'll update the post with the results in a month.

Here is a picture of what mine turned out. I used 5# of maris otter instead of the us 2-row. Maybe that's why its a bit darker? I just kegged it a couple days so its not carbonated yet but it is still a tasty beer.

I'm now on day 10 in the fermenter. I haven't noticed any action in the airlock for a couple of days so I popped the lid. Still about 1/4" of random yeast gunk and foam on the surface; the SG was 1.012 after an OG of 1.056. I gave it a swirl to rinse the caked yeast off the walls. Now I'm going to give it another 4-5 days to see if the yeast (and SG) will drop.

My LHBS doesn't carry Belgian Wheat malt. They do have Rahr White and Red Wheat which is from the US. Will one of those be ok to use or should I find Belgian Wheat malt somewhere?

This lasted 4 days at my house.

bashe said:

This lasted 4 days at my house.

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Two words:

Dixie Cups.

bashe said:

This lasted 4 days at my house.

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Are you going to brew it again with MO, or will you try it with US 2-row instead? This may be my next brew, and I will use MO since I have 100# of it.

im brewing up an 11 gallon batch tomorrow w00t!

I made this today. OG was only ~1.049... usually my OG exceeds the expectations. Not sure what's up with that. The starter I made had a thick krausen for 3 days, is that typical for this yeast? Oh well, guess it might end up as a SWMBO calmer, rather than slayer.

Yeah the Krauzen can get pretty thick and hang around for a while with the wit yeast.

MgMt_Home_Brew said:

Yeah the Krauzen can get pretty thick and hang around for a while with the wit yeast.

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Yep.

Give that carboy a rocking and knock that thick yeast-laden krausen back into the beer. Sometimes the bulk of the yeast actually beached itself on those walls and needs to be pushed back down into solution.

Wow, I'm really glad I used the blowoff tube on this one. It took off within an hour, and was like a geyser into the pitcher of star san.

Ryan said:

Are you going to brew it again with MO, or will you try it with US 2-row instead? This may be my next brew, and I will use MO since I have 100# of it.

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I will probably brew two 5 gallon batches the next time I make this. One with MO and with with 2-row just so I can compare them side by side.

hey BM, I want to thank you for posting this recipe. I converted it to PM and turned out very good! This was the first recipe that I have tried of yours, so i may have to try another. My keg is running almost empty after only a week. Heres a pic. I gave it a 4 weeks at 65 degrees then cold crashed for 5 days at 40 degrees. Very clean beer.

Cheers!

ezboarderz said:

hey BM, I want to thank you for posting this recipe. I converted it to PM and turned out very good! This was the first recipe that I have tried of yours, so i may have to try another. My keg is running almost empty after only a week. Heres a pic. I gave it a 4 weeks at 65 degrees then cold crashed for 5 days at 40 degrees. Very clean beer.

Cheers!

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Looks like Forrest is eye-balling your beer.

"....good beer is, as good beer does..."

I picked up the kit from Midwest and brewed this yesterday. Things went well for my second AG batch. I shaved some time off my brew day by being better prepared. I missed my mash temp by 1 degree but was right on on my sparge temp. That will get better with experience I suppose. The only thing is my OG was a little high at 1.060 and the hops they sent were Willamette but only 3.4% which is only 11.5 IBU's according to Beersmith and is a little on the low side for this style. Any reason not to go 3 weeks in the primary instead of racking to a secondary? I can be lazy sometimes.

My first batch of this went down so easy, so I just brewed another. I added a little coriander and some bitter and sweet orange peel this time, just for fun. My first was 6.4% ABV, so I lowered my grain bill too this time.

We cracked our first bottles Friday night and my wife was asleep by 8:00pm as advertised. Excellent recipe.

Now... I have enough grain leftover for another batch but my LHBS didn't have any Belgian Wit yeast. I got WLP320 American Hefeweizen instead. We'll see what happens.