Belgian Blond Ale SWMBO Slayer - Belgian Blonde

Yakima 728
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My swmbo has now developed a liking for some of the stronger Belgian Blonde Ales and wanted to know if I could modify this recipe for a higher ABV% and IBU level. Below is what I cam up with via beersmith and wanted to know if anyone has an opinion, comment or suggestion of this modifed recipe. For my own tastes the IBU level and gravity are way too high for me, but since swmbo went through childbirth 5 months ago she really wants some stronger beer now that she can enjoy it again.

This is to be a 4 gallon recipe

6.5 lb Pale malt
4.0 lb Wheat malt
1.0 lb Carmel/Crystal 10L
1.0 lb Flaked Wheat
0.33 lb Cara-Pils

0.75 oz Williamette (first wort hops)
0.75 oz Williamette (60 min)
1.0 oz Cascade (20 min)
1.0 oz Cascade (10 min)
0.5 oz Williamette (5 min)

Wyeast belgian Abbey II
SG: 1.083 IBU:55 Bitterness ratio IBU/SG: 0.666

I have never tried altering a recipe this much before and I wonder if this is taking it way to far.
 
That is one refreshing beverage. Fortunately SWMBO doesn't like it (what a shame :D )

Silly question, but is this one of those styles where your meant to drink the sediment?
 
Brewed this guy as my first AG brew last Tuesday. I didn't have a large yeast cake to put it on, so I made a starter a few days before hand. SG came out to 1.054. I was impressed with myself, and reading everyone's advice on this board helped prepare me for almost everything. I didn't read far enough into this thread to see how much krausen this beer produced, but after 5 hours in the fermenter it had about an inch of krausen, and after another 6, it was time to switch out the air lock for the blow off tube. I've made a couple high gravity IIPA's and Imperial stouts, and even as vigorous as those fermentations were, none of them have needed the blow off. I'm pretty excited about this beer. Since its in the primary for so long, i'm going to have to find a recipe to throw into the other fermenter while this one chugs along.:mug:
 
VApatriot said:
Countryham - what yeast did you use?
Click to expand...

I used a vial of white labs Belgian wit, in a 1 qt starter. In the starter I had 4 cups water and 3/4 cup extra light dme. After it finished bubbling, I cold crashed it in the fridge and when ready to pitch, just poured off almost all the liquid and threw the room temp slurry in. I pitched at midnight, and when I woke up to go to work 5 hours later, it was going off already.
 
Countryham said:
Brewed this guy as my first AG brew last Tuesday. I didn't have a large yeast cake to put it on, so I made a starter a few days before hand. SG came out to 1.054. I was impressed with myself, and reading everyone's advice on this board helped prepare me for almost everything. I didn't read far enough into this thread to see how much krausen this beer produced, but after 5 hours in the fermenter it had about an inch of krausen, and after another 6, it was time to switch out the air lock for the blow off tube. I've made a couple high gravity IIPA's and Imperial stouts, and even as vigorous as those fermentations were, none of them have needed the blow off. I'm pretty excited about this beer. Since its in the primary for so long, i'm going to have to find a recipe to throw into the other fermenter while this one chugs along.:mug:
Click to expand...

Belgian yeast can go crazy. A Belgian WitBier (Blue moon clone) would go good on that yeast cake. :rockin:
 
Hope this turned out, going to keg today. My fermentation was not near as violent as I thought it was going to be. Nothing came out of the blow off tube. Forget what yeast I used, pretty sure it was the recommended one.
 
Diesel48 said:
Hope this turned out, going to keg today. My fermentation was not near as violent as I thought it was going to be. Nothing came out of the blow off tube. Forget what yeast I used, pretty sure it was the recommended one.
Click to expand...

I just bottled this recipe two days ago. Same thing, blow off tube not needed. But I used a 6.5g bucket fermenter. Plus, I had a lot of suspended particles still. I use one clear bottle to see what's going on, and it's starting to clear fast so I'm sure things will turn out fine. Taste, at bottling, was smooth and a touch sweet with a clean finish. I think it'll be an excellent beer. This is also the first batch I brewed using the new BIAB method in my signature.
 
Mine was pretty cloudy as well, I am sure a lot of it will fall out when the keg goes into the keezer. Naturally priming it now as all my gas lines are being used up.
 
I'm considering brewing this and then splitting it into halves for the secondary. My plan is to leave half as is and put the other half with about 3 pounds of strawberries. Is there going to be any issue doing this? This is only my second brew on my own but it seems simple enough.
 
BierMuncher said:
You'll get much closer to a German hefe with this yeast. A lot of banana and clove flavors.
Click to expand...
BM, what do you think about pitching this recipe to a wyeast 3068 yeast cake and then pitching wyeast 3942? will the 2 yeasts clash in flavor?
 
holy smokes!
That is one fine beer.
I followed the all grain recipe but did it BIAB using a 30qt turkey fryer, sparged the bag with about a gallon of 168F water.
This was my first all grain and I have to say, whoa. The wife doesn't care for it too much but she hasn't liked anything I've brewed except for a Bud Like.
This one reminds me of a Hefe on tap that I had up in Helen, GA. on a patio next to the Chattahoochee. Darn fine beer. Maybe I screwed this one up too (which I do quite often) but I like it... a lot. Nice clove flavor with a hint of banana and a hint of wheat.
txinga
 
How do you think this recipe would be with 3 lbs raspberry puree and a less estery yeast like wyeast 1010?
 
I AG brewed this a couple of weeks ago, hit all the numbers spot on. Fermentation rocketed away no problems at all. I used Wyeast 3944. I took the first SG reading last night and it's sitting at 1.013, still with a large krausen on top so I'm letting it sit for a few more days.

My question: is it supposed to be this watery prior to carbonation? Hydro sample tasted pretty thin. This is my first Belgian, I'm wondering if carbonation will up the body feel.
 
This has been in my keg for awhile and is really clear. Should this beer be clear or should I swirl the keg a bit to get the yeast back into suspension.
 
once settled, all the yeast is going to suck out the dip tube on your first draft anyway, so i'm not sure its going to matter. it'll probably cloud up once cooled
 
It has been on tap for about a month now. It is pretty clear drinking beer. I had a bluemoon from a bar last night and it was super cloudy. You can easily see through the SWMBO. Just want to make sure I hit the style right.
 
I found some "rolled wheat" at Wegman's today. Same thing as flaked wheat? Also, can i just throw it in the mash or do I need to boil it first?
 
I made this beer back in October; it was my first AG batch. I remember it being tasty. Last night I finally tried a Leffe Blonde (well 3 of then actually) and it was tasty. Does anyone know if these two are similar in taste?

Sent from my SGH-T959 using Home Brew Talk
 
I made this on Saturday. Checked on it this morning....barely avoided a blow off! it was all gummed up and when i pulled the airlock off, it shot krausen all over my arm.
 
bmason1623 said:
I made this beer back in October; it was my first AG batch. I remember it being tasty. Last night I finally tried a Leffe Blonde (well 3 of then actually) and it was tasty. Does anyone know if these two are similar in taste?

Sent from my SGH-T959 using Home Brew Talk
Click to expand...

Leffe will be quite a bit different. Leffe is extremely clear and I doubt would have any wheat in the grain bill. The slayer grain bill is more like that of a wit. Here's a Leffe clone recently posted by Revvy, which I am hoping to brew within the next two weeks.
 
just cracked the first bottle of this and i have to say its one of the best beers ive made to date, thanks will be a regular in my house.
 
Brewed this up on Friday and used Belgian Gold strong yeast WLP570. I am going to harvest the yeast and make a Belgian strong on Sunday.

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
0.50 lb Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 4.65 %
5.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 46.51 %
4.00 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 37.21 %
1.00 lb Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 9.30 %
0.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2.33 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 17.0 IBU


OG 1.042 IBU 17 1.5 qts per pound mashed at 151 for a hour 60 min boil.

I pitched at 68F and let rise to 73 as to fermented.
 
Just brewed a slight variation of this. I basically upped the grain bill a little to hit 7% abv. I also subbed flaked oats for the flaked wheat, hoping to get some silkiness to the mouthfeel.

Question for BM: How did you get your beer to be so clear? I used whirlfloc in the boil and proportionally I didn't up any of the wheat or oat %s, but I'm afraid that I'm going to get a cloudier beer than I'm aiming for. Any tricks up your sleeve? Gelatin?

To everyone else, are you seeing a hazy beer as your results or do your brews look like what BM posted?

Thanks!
 
xxHelderxx said:
Question for BM: How did you get your beer to be so clear? I used whirlfloc in the boil and proportionally I didn't up any of the wheat or oat %s, but I'm afraid that I'm going to get a cloudier beer than I'm aiming for. Any tricks up your sleeve? Gelatin?

To everyone else, are you seeing a hazy beer as your results or do your brews look like what BM posted?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

If you're referring to the pic in post #9, that beer is actually pretty hazy. Wheat beers in general are going to be hazy (or beers with flaked oats as well).

My other beers get crystal clear though the use of Whirfloc, gelatin and cold crashing.
 
I'm going to brew a 10 gallon batch of this tomorrow. I've never done any wheat mashes before, I have a barley crusher, do I crush the wheat any different than the pale malt? Or do i just dump everything through my barley crusher like normal and do a normal mash and batch sparge? Thanks!
 
HawkATP said:
I'm going to brew a 10 gallon batch of this tomorrow. I've never done any wheat mashes before, I have a barley crusher, do I crush the wheat any different than the pale malt? Or do i just dump everything through my barley crusher like normal and do a normal mash and batch sparge? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Crush the wheat malt. Not the flaked wheat. You will need to set the gap narrower for wheat malt. It is a smaller kernel. I usually will double crush wheat malt, with a slight narrowing of the rollers the second time through. Flaked wheat just gets tossed into the mash tun directly. :mug:
 
Anyone try this with a little clear Belgium Candi Sugar? I was thinking about adding 8oz to the original recipe.

Thoughts?
 
my thought would be to make sure the sugar doesn't destroy the body of the beer, rendering it thin and cidery. if i were going to make an 8 oz sugar addition, i would mash it at the higher end of the range (156 was the high end if i recall).
 
Holy fermentation Batman!

This stuff is violent!! Brewday went pretty well. OG was a little light, but I ended up with 5.6 gallons of wort. So I guess I'll have more beer!
 
@Biermuncher,
Have you tried Midwests Grand Cru kit? It is one of my all time favorite beers. The wife loves it too.
 

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