RBBC Abbey Pale Ale

Brewed this up attempting to fit it into the Belgian Pale Ale BJCP Guidelines, but also to just have a light, easy drinking 'Belgian'. I love the estery and sometimes phenolic profile of Belgians provided by the yeast strain, but I don't always want to be drinking 8.5-10% Tripels, etc. Or even 6.5-7% Saison or something... (I mean, I would like to, but you get the point...) This is a Belgian "Session Ale" if you would.


BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: RBBC Belgian Pale Ale
Brewer: Roaring Bull Brewing
Asst Brewer: NA
Style: Belgian Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (40.0) See Belgian PA BJCP Style Guidelines (19A) for general description of style. More true to style with little hop aroma.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated FG: 1.012 FG
Estimated Color: 6.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 66.7 %
2.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 22.2 %
1.00 lb Munich Malt ('Dark') - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 11.1 %
1.50 oz Hallertauer [3.20%] (60 min) Hops 17.9 IBU
0.66 oz Hallertauer [3.70%] (15 min) Hops 4.5 IBU
0.66 oz Hallertauer [3.70%] (10 min) Hops 3.3 IBU
1 Pkgs Abbey Ale (White Labs #WLP530) [Starter 1 Pint - 1 Quart]

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 9.00 lb
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Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 11.25 qt of water at 165.4 F 153.0 F 60 min

Notes:
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Saaz, Tettnang, or Spalt hops could be substituted. Pay attention to the AA% of the hops - my hallarteaus I used were very low AA. Fermented in primary for about 3 weeks, needed blow-off tube in 6.5g carboy with only 5g beer! Secondary for about a week before kegging and carbonating to 2.5 volumes CO2. Feel free to bottle condition also, if you want more authenticity. I wasn't that worried since this was a pale ale as opposed to a tripel or bigger Belgian style. Beer has an estery malt profile ('typical' aroma associated with Abbey or Trappist yeasts) with herbal hints from the later addition hops in the background. Drinks smooth and somewhat fruity (repeat yeast comment), but not excessively fruity as I fermented this around 63F on average. Will duplicate in the future with the same or very close to the same recipe - will add any tweaks I make to this post.

View attachment RBBC Abbey Pale Ale.bsm

Scored a 41/50 in the NHC first round. Not enough to place in the difficult 16 category (that had high score of 43 - mostly Tripel, etc.), but no other 16B (Belgian Pale Ale) placed either.

"Overall Impression" Comments from my sheets:

"Very good example of the style..."
"Balanced and very drinkable with obvious Belgian character. Basically what one would expect from a Belgian Pale Ale."

Myswell brag a little bit:

Congratulations on your competition results!

I've been looking for a first Belgian to brew, and I think this will be it.

Thanks! I'm very pleased... -

FWIW, a Belgian Pale Ale isn't nearly as 'complex' as a tripel or something (probably why no 16B's placed in the top 3 of category 16) that some might expect, but this is a great drinking beer and complex for being only 5%ish ABV. A good example of the style, if this style is what you are looking for. A greatttt beer to get someone into Belgians, as it introduces them to the phenols, spiciness, etc. of Belgians without going too extreme, 9% ABV, etc.

Let me know if you brew it and if you make any changes. Obviously there is still some room for improvement when it was scored 41/50 (9 points to go!), but they didn't give me many pointers that I could use to improve it. Personally, I've noticed it could use a little better head retention, so maybe use .5lb of wheat? Can't think of anything else I'd do to change it at this point... maybe ferment a little warmer than I did (low-mid 60s) to get even more Belgian character from the yeast.

Good luck!

I'm brewing this with some changes:

7lbs belgian pale malt
1lb belgian aromatic munich
1lb vienna
0.5lb crystal 10

1.25oz saaz 60min
0.75oz saaz 15min
1 oz saaz 5min

wyeast 3463 forbidden fruit

In addition to the flavor, I'm hoping to see good clarity from the forbidden fruit and strong foam charactaristics from the addition of crystal 10. I pulled a pound of vienna to keep the malt sweetness at about the same level as the original recipe.

I had to make another modification on brew day. As I was cutting open the saaz hops I noticed that the AA was waay lower than I had planned (2.5%). Here's how it ended up looking:

2oz Saaz (2.5%AA) 40min 13.6 IBU
1oz Saaz (2.5%AA) 15min 3.8 IBU
0.5oz Bitter Orange Peel 10min
1.5oz Mt Hood (5.2%AA) 5min 4.8 IBU

For a 22 IBU total. Also, my OG was 1.058. I also added .25lb of table sugar.

So really in the end my recipe is significantly different from your original but not that far off. I'm sitting here drinking the hydrometer sample after 7 days in primary. It is extremely delicious. This is only the second time I've savored every sip of the hydrometer sample. It has the tasty yeast character of a tripel but is more quaffable. After I had racked it and fermentation was getting going I was not pleased by the overly hoppy/weird smell coming out of the blowoff jug but it is superb. I have a belgian IPA competition next year and I think I found my yeast and a baseline for the grist.

Finished product:


Very tasty. It has a really smooth, rich, almost creamy mouthfeel that is good but I'd sacrifice it to make the beer a little drier. Forbidden fruit is not a high flocculating yeast so I'm not sure why I wrote that before but it is a tasty yeast. I washed and saved some samples of that.

A second week in the keg (cold) has done this beer nicely. The little twinge of green beer taste in the aftertaste has subsided and it has also brightened. Obviously it is far from clear, but it is a much more luminescent orange which fades to gold as the glass narrows.

Hmm, I'm thinking of doing a Belgian Pale for my next brew (I havne't brewed a Belgian yet,) and this one has tickled my fancy. What would I need to change to make this a partial mash? I don't have the equipment to do all-grain yet, but I pulled off a pretty good stovetop partial mash for my last brew.

Here's how I'd do it, although I've never done a PM:

Put the vienna, munich, (and crystal if you're brewing it the way I did) along with however much of the belgian pale you can fit for your mini-mash, and use light extract for the rest of the gravity. If you can tell me how much grain you can mash and your approximate efficiency, I can plug it into beersmith and figure out how much extract you'll need.

OK, you got me. I want to brew this next.

questions: How specific is the belgian pale malt to the outcome of this beer? I have lots of MO on hand, and everything else for this too.....I'd have to order the belgian pale malt online somewhere and I'd rather avoid that.

what temperature, roughly, was this fermented at? I'll be using the the Abbey Ale yeast, BTW.

I just brewed this beer a few weeks ago and it is fantastic. The absolute perfect summer beer and almost everyone who has sampled it has loved it. Hell, even my wife said it was not bad, and she hates beer.

Thanks for sharing.

Woah old thread! But none the less I thought I would comment. This was my first all grain brew, and I hit the gravity right on the money! I have some fermentis t-58 churning away on it as we speak. Can't wait to try it, thanks for the recipe!

Oops! I was just reading the recipe again and I realized that I used Hallertau 6,9% in the same quantity... I will have like 90 IBU. :cross:

Well, in a few weeks I'll can taste it.