Looking to make a Belgian Pale Ale with Citra and Mango.

This idea has been floating in my head for a while now but I'm really not sure where to start. The two beers I've made so far have been from kits and were brewed successfully so I want to start learning how to make my own recipes.

Unfortunately, I don't have the capabilities to do all-grain yet so this one will have to be a partial mash.

So I guess I'll start by listing off the ideas I have for the beer to be and you guys can help be build it from there.

ABV: I'd be happy with anything between 5.5-7.5%.

Hops: I know it will go against the style but I want a more american hoppiness to this brew. I just ordered 3 ounces of Citra pellets which will definitely be used for the beer's aroma hops. I'm not sure what kind of hops I want to use for bittering but I was thinking Cascade.

Malt: I want the malt to be more belgian/european. For steeping grains I was thinking some belgian biscuit malt, pilsner, maris otter, and caramunich. I was also considering maybe a little bit of wheat. As far as the malt extract goes I guess something on the light side.

Adjunct: Mango is definitely something I want to give a try, I just don't know exactly how I'm going to do it. My guess is I will end up having to buy some mangos, juice them and add the juice late in the boil. I want the mango to be be definitely noticeable, but not the main flavor. Also, should I use any belgian candi sugar or honey? I'm ok with it being on the higher end of 5.5-7.5.

Yeast: I'm fully open to suggestions, as long as it's a belgian yeast.

I will greatly appreciate any assistance you guys can give me with this.

Frozgaar said:

My guess is I will end up having to buy some mangos, juice them and add the juice late in the boil.

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I see no reason to juice your mangos.
Well, to be honest, I've never used mango in my brews but I've got some experience with peaches. Both are fruits and I don't see a reason to threat them differently So I just freezed them well waiting for my brewday:



Prior racking to secondary, unfreezed them, peeled:


Cut in cubes, and added to the bucket:


I believe that could work with mangos, too

Run quite warm water over those frozen peaches and the skins come right off. Tomatoes too.

You should probably read the "sticky" threads at the top of the Beginner Forum on this site. The moderators all caution beginners about adding fruit. I don't know the details but I think people have posted a lot of emergency posts with titles such as: "Help! My strawberry IPA has gone wrong!"
I think going from the experience of 2 kits to brewing with fruit is like having your first kiss and saying "I'm ready for marriage." Then again you may do it successfully and taunt me on this thread. But I believe we all need that sober friend at the tattoo parlour. I am willing to be the bad guy knowing there are 2000 miles between us.

Sir-Hops-A-Lot said:

You should probably read the "sticky" threads at the top of the Beginner Forum on this site. The moderators all caution beginners about adding fruit. I don't know the details but I think people have posted a lot of emergency posts with titles such as: "Help! My strawberry IPA has gone wrong!"
I think going from the experience of 2 kits to brewing with fruit is like having your first kiss and saying "I'm ready for marriage." Then again you may do it successfully and taunt me on this thread. But I believe we all need that sober friend at the tattoo parlour. I am willing to be the bad guy knowing there are 2000 miles between us.

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I actually do feel I know the risks of adding fruit, which is why I'd feel more comfortable adding it to the boil instead of doing what UralsBrewer suggests. I'm sure that works well, but it seems a little risky for my 3rd beer. I guess technically it will be my 4th beer if you count the amber ale I helped my friend brew. In that one we added fresh squeezed orange juice to the boil and it turned out great. I've heard that boiling fruit can ruin the flavor, but I think we added it late enough into the boil (almost flame out) for it to not be much of a problem. It didn't seem to release enough pectin to make it any hazier than it should have been, but we didn't care about that anyway.

One other thing I've considered was sanitizing the juice with campden tabs and then adding it to primary. I'll can figure that out later.

The main thing I need help with is my amounts of steeping grains, malt extract and my hop additions.

Ok here are two options: The recipe I know and love, and the one I designed on beer calculus with your ideas.

Here is the hop schedule I really like in an APA sold by the LHBS (6 Gal, 7# pale LME, 2.5# wheat DME, 1/4# Crystal 10L, 1/4# Cara-pils, 1/2# Crystal 45L)
45g Chinook, 15 Cascade, 45 Centennial at 60
30g Cascade at 10
15g Chinook, 15 Cascade, 15 Centennial DRY HOP

Here is the one I designed for you (5 gal, 7# light LME, 2# mango puree, 8g Belgian biscuit, 8g marris otter, 8 belgian pils, 8g caramunich)
.5 ounces cascade, 1.5 ounces Citra at 60 mins
1 ounce cascade at 5 mins
.5 cascade dry hop in secondary for 7 days
Og 1.065 FG 1.016 11 SRM 71 IBU 6.5 ABV
for lower IBU (51) drop the Citra at 60 to 1 ounce