Headline: Monk ruins Belgian Blonde Ale!

Just kidding...so far. When I asked for recipes and advice for a Belgian Blonde Ale, I got some good help, but most people said they had no experience with brewing one. I thought, for those who might be interested, I'd update you here on how things are going and how it turns out.

So after reading through several recipes, I compromised with this one:

7.4 lbs. "Alexander's" Pale LME
1 lb. Clear Belgian Candi sugar
1/2 cup white cane sugar
1 oz Styrian Golding hops (60 min)
1/2 oz Styrian (20 min)
1/2 oz Styrian (2 min boil, 5 minute steep)
White Labs Belgian Abbey Ale Yeast

Now, apparently, many Belgians and non-Belgians have beef over different ingredients. One person told me to use candi sugar, another book said don't. One person said Crystal hops, another Styrians. One supposedly good recipe involved 2 lbs (read POUNDS!) of cane sugar. Basically, everyone I asked said the other people who gave me advice were retards, and not to listen to them. So I used a little cane sugar, a little candi sugar, and styrians because they seem to be the more traditional hop for the style. We'll see how it turns out.

Belgians are one of those styles where the right yeast is the most critical thing.

At least you didn't ruin a belgian blonde, that would be expensive.

We're not retards, we're "special"!

So Friday I brewed this thing.

I boil about 2 gal of water, remove it from heat and add 1.4 lbs of pale LME and the cane and candi sugars. Candi sugar takes frickin' forever to dissolve and stop clinking around in the kettle. Monk feels great trepidation and pre-regret whilst adding cane sugar to wort.
I brings it to boil and add the hops in a bag and hang it from the microwave door, as I am want to do...
Joy ensues.
I stir while juking my head back and forth to make for a moving target. (upon introduction of the mixing spoon, Cali Pale Ale #2 once attacked the monk with great fury and sticky foamy stuff all over his kitchen floor).
Time passes like a river.
After 30 min boil, I add 6 lbs of pale LME. After dissolving, I add the flava hops.
At Tminus 2 minutes, aroma hops are added and then I turn off the fire and let our baby steep for five.
I cover the pot and put it in a cold bath to chill...(to the next episode?).
Wort is cooled and added to 2 gallons of cold water in the lovejug.
Monk checks temp using stupid fishtank temp strip, which deceives him with lies about 76 degrees. I pitch the yeasties. The tempstrip, it's deception complete, now shows the temp to be 84 degrees...Monk uses inappropriate language and adds some more cold water. Now 74 degrees.
Oh yeah, I shook that jug a lot. Like, really a lot...

Next episode...Yeast, dead or alive?

So after I pitch the yeast, I put the carboy aside with an airlock on it. Within hours, there is a large sediment on the bottom of the carboy. Late that night, approximately pitch+6 hours, there is NO activity. I'm used to the safale us56 dry stuff, which starts foaming with a few hours, often. So I proceed to consciously not worry.
In the morning, I continue to not worry, even though it's pitch+14hrs. The label says 5-15...so I relax, and since it's 7am, have a homebrewed coffee (I know, I'm a pansy).
Come back later to find a little bubbly going on. Ah yeah.
By bedtime, there's and inch and a half of krausen and approximately alot of bubbles per minute. I am happy now and show my fiance--she feigns interest (because she's awesome)...
...then, deep in the darkness of slumber, I awaken to..."PPFFFFFUUUTH!" The whitelabs yeast is kicking so much fermentable-sugar-ass that the 5 gal batch is foaming up through the airlock. This has never happened to me before. It is 2:55 am. Approximately 2% of my brain is functioning. I pop the cork and wipe with a paper towel. While hurrying up, slowly, I attempt to sterilize a tube and some water. I fashion what might be referred to as a "Macguyver at 3 in the morning" blowoff tube (cuz I don't actually have one) and attach it. The blowoff tube proceeds to make fart noises in my bathroom (it wasn't me) all throughout the night and day.

Just last night, I attached the airlock again.

Monk said:

The blowoff tube proceeds to make fart noises in my bathroom (it wasn't me) all throughout the night and day.

Click to expand...

You should have run the blowoff tube under the sheets to give your fiancee a homebrew dutch oven.

Wouldn't that be a belgian oven?

okay, then. Miss Belgian blonde ale smells quite sulfury (sp?) and a bit on the rotten egg side. These traits are not very becoming in a young lady, I'm afraid. I'm going to have to search the "rotten eggs and sulfury" sections of this website. I believe it has to do with my yeast type, however...

aha! i've found it...

"We used White Labs WLP530 in our belgian dubbel, and it has been a little over a week since we put the beer into the primary. We've noticed some sulfury aroma coming from the beer."

But i wonder if it turned out okay for these guys?

i did a Kolsch recently with a WL Kolsch yeast and it reeked of sulpher, more so than I recall from any other yeast. As promised on their website, after a few weeks it subsided and at last tasting after gravity reading it was undetectable.

So I say don't worry.

jeffg said:

i did a Kolsch recently with a WL Kolsch yeast and it reeked of sulpher, more so than I recall from any other yeast. As promised on their website, after a few weeks it subsided and at last tasting after gravity reading it was undetectable.

So I say don't worry.

Click to expand...

thank you. i took a hydro reading yesterday and it stunk BAD. It was so stinky that it was funny. But I still tasted it! It was pretty sweet and ~1.021 at 67 degrees. That's after 5 days. I brought the house temp up a little bit to see if the bpm would increase. We'll see. This morning the soup was 69-70 degrees.