belgian IPA ver 1

going to try my hand at this specialty style.

i have an 18lb grain bill which should get me to 1.093.

13lb pilsner
3lb two row0
1.5lb caravienne
.5lb aromatic.

i've done a stepped starter of wlp530. 2L, decant and then another 2L. ran an aquarium pump in the starter for both steps.

mash is going to be two step, 45mins at 146 and then 30mins at 155.

hops are all 15 and 10 minute additions of citra, simcoe and amarillo. comes out to about 90 IBU's

any tips/hints/questions? am i in the right neighborhood? should i consider a bitter addition or fwh? the idea was to stay closer to a tripel in style. wanted a hoppy tripel not an IPA fermented out with belgian yeast.

Your recipe looks a lot more like a West Coast IPA than a tripel, which would be great if I were drinking it, but isn't your stated intention. A lot of tripels are made with only base malt--usually pils--and sugar. I don't have a problem with the aromatic. 1.5# of caravienne is not at all stylistically appropriate for a by-the-book tripel, and is overkill on a DIPA. I'd probably kill it entirely or drop to about 1/2lb, and make up the gravity with either more base malt or sugar. Assuming you do that, you'll end up with a pretty dry final beer, one that might not stand up to 90 IBUs. I'd use a bittering addition of 20-30 IBUs and try to add everything else late enough in the process that the IBUs aren't worth worrying about. Mixing on some Noble-type hops with the American ones might be nice, although it's entirely optional.

You might look at, for example, Hurric4ne's Dragonmead Final Absolution clone. He gets the toastier flavor from Munich malt (you could use Vienna), rather than CaraVienne. And if you want to use sugar, you might try something with some additional flavor, like a brown sugar.

the idea is to end up somewhere between a tripel and a west coast IPA. the grain bill is out of a clone book. i think it was a'choufe's tripel that most of it was taken from. assuming that book is accurate. the aromatic malt was a recommendation from LHBS. he said it's not necessary it just ups the maltyness in the nose. figured i'd take a little bit of that to go with all the exotic hop i'm pouring in.

the overall goal is dryness. WCIPA's and tripels are both known to be quite dry. so a light body tripel type beer with west coast hops. something like that.

if i had it to do again i'd mix some noble hop in but part of this is i'm trying to use up my ingredient collection which consists only of these three hop varieties. move some stuff out of the fridge for SWMBO.

i messed up the ingredients when i started this thread. this batch had been waiting for me to get around to it for weeks (tough term in school). i forgot my measurements. here it is corrected. confirmed by LHBS.

8lb pilsner
3lb two row
1.5lb caravienne
.5lb aromatic

hit 1.066 on brew day. expected 1.071. off by 3%. not so bad. have to get my sparging process nailed down. i was 1.067 at first runnings. should've hit my number or better if my sparge went right. think i ended up watering it down. i have a whole bag of table sugar and maybe .5-.75lb of light brown sugar.

so how do we feel about a pound of sugar in this thing? that would put me to 1.075 and 45IBU. bu:gu shifts from .74 to .6 which seems a bit more in line for something "belgian". fwiw 1.5lbs shifts the numbers to 1.080, 44IBU and bu/gu of .5

I'd use all of your brown sugar, rather than adding any table sugar. 8-12 oz. won't dry it out too much, and will give you some additional flavor. Boil it first, obviously.

I'll offer another opinion and say go with a lb of the table sugar. You've already got the caravienne and aromatic in there for some flavor/sweetness and malt backbone. I think you may want it lighter and drier. I made the houblonmonstre recipe from NB (I think supposed to be after houblon chouffe) that is just Belgian pale malt and 2 lb corn sugar and it turned out really well.

sptaylor70 said:

I'd use all of your brown sugar, rather than adding any table sugar. 8-12 oz. won't dry it out too much, and will give you some additional flavor. Boil it first, obviously.

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done. :cross:

chickypad said:

I'll offer another opinion and say go with a lb of the table sugar. You've already got the caravienne and aromatic in there for some flavor/sweetness and malt backbone. I think you may want it lighter and drier. I made the houblonmonstre recipe from NB (I think supposed to be after houblon chouffe) that is just Belgian pale malt and 2 lb corn sugar and it turned out really well.

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yeah there's a bit of caramel malt to this. thinking about adding another half lb but regular table sugar this time.

have this one tapped and building bubbles. have a bit more carbing to do but it's drinkable.

pretty happy with this. can't wait to get more bubble on it.

8lb pils
3lb pale
1.5 caraviene
.5 aromatic

1oz simcoe @15
1oz citra @15
0.5oz simcoe @5
0.5oz citra @5

1.070OG (with sugar addition)
1.006FG (92%)
47IBU.
~8.5% ABV

mashed at 146F for 45 mins then 155 for 45 mins. mash in at 1.25qt:lb. nearly one gallon of boiling to raise mash temp to second temp then another gallon to reach 170 mash out. collect 7ga for a 90minute boil

stepped wlp530/westmalle starter 2L and 2L. on day 3 of fermentation add 1cup light brown sugar disolved in 1 cup water. just melt the sugar. at this point there's so much yeast activity infection isn't a concern. ymmv.

room temp for fermentation was relatively cool. this was fermenting through the heatwave so we had the air on. never saw north of 70F.

flavor and aroma are very fruity of course. all hoppy fruit in the nose with hints of belgian/wild yeast phenols. lots of malic and stone fruit flavor. fresh cherries without as much tartness comes out straight away. mellow apple like fruit through the mid and some citrus astringency towards the end. finishes with a touch of dryness. just enough to push the sweetness away some. distinct belgian character without the phenols. not a hint of detectable alcohol with the keezer set at 42F.

i'd like a bit more malt in this. the hops are great so i'd like to keep that where it is, maybe a touch more bitterness but the body is very thin and there's not much malt flavor going on. i don't need more sweetness as the hop flavor is already doing that pretty well. rather i'd like some backbone. thinking about swapping out the caraviene and 2row pale and replacing it all with vienna. someone keep me in check though. vienna is my flavor of the month and i'm putting it in everything i think up lately.

for me this beer is all hop flavor with minimal bitterness. i'd like to see what would happen with a bit more bitterness. i'm thinking adding .5oz simcoe at 25mins would give enough without detracting from the smooth hoppy flavor this has going already.