I'd probably die happy if I had an infinite supply of Leffe around, and I'm thinking of doing an 8 gal batch this weekend, but I'm working out the recipe and I'm coming up with some contradictory information about body and mash temp.
Belgians are tricky because the phenols and esters can give an impression of sweetness in a 1.000 FG beer, and while I think Leffe is a great commerical example of a Belgian blond, I am pretty confident it's not very highly attenuated in the way Jamil and others sometimes describe Belgian blonds to be. BJCP says medium body--it seems to me like "low to moderate" would be better, with Leffe up at the "moderate" end. Clone examples like this and this suggest a high mash temp--this one is the abberation suggesting mid 140s but I don't think that's strictly a clone attempt (just a Belgian blond recipe that says "Leffe-style", maybe inappropriately).
I don't have a bottle on hand to measure, but Googling that up tells me Leffe has a FG of 1.014, if I can trust it.
Now, I'm going to be adding at least a pound of sugar, because I think the mild alcohol heat you get from that is part of the appeal of Leffe and most Belgians (even if it's usually just considered a "drying" ingredient). So I'm going to need a pretty high mash temp to counter the dryness of the sugar to reach that FG. Revvy says 158, others say about 154. What do you think? Is Leffe really that high in body? Is that really from mash temp, or an attenuation trick?
Provisionally, I'm thinking along these lines (scaled for a 5 gal batch, I'll scale up to 8 this weekend):
9lb pilsner
1lb sugar (60min to invert)
1lb munich
8oz aromatic
4oz biscuit
Mash 154-158?
WLP 550 (since it's on hand)
Pitch around 60, finish at... ??--high would be typical for Belgians you want to coax into attenuating, but maybe you don't want this one to attenuate all the way. I guess that's where I'm really undecided.
I'll probably hop all styrian, but schedule and proportions similar to Revvy's, as I can't seem to find any saaz around here lately.
Belgians are tricky because the phenols and esters can give an impression of sweetness in a 1.000 FG beer, and while I think Leffe is a great commerical example of a Belgian blond, I am pretty confident it's not very highly attenuated in the way Jamil and others sometimes describe Belgian blonds to be. BJCP says medium body--it seems to me like "low to moderate" would be better, with Leffe up at the "moderate" end. Clone examples like this and this suggest a high mash temp--this one is the abberation suggesting mid 140s but I don't think that's strictly a clone attempt (just a Belgian blond recipe that says "Leffe-style", maybe inappropriately).
I don't have a bottle on hand to measure, but Googling that up tells me Leffe has a FG of 1.014, if I can trust it.
Now, I'm going to be adding at least a pound of sugar, because I think the mild alcohol heat you get from that is part of the appeal of Leffe and most Belgians (even if it's usually just considered a "drying" ingredient). So I'm going to need a pretty high mash temp to counter the dryness of the sugar to reach that FG. Revvy says 158, others say about 154. What do you think? Is Leffe really that high in body? Is that really from mash temp, or an attenuation trick?
Provisionally, I'm thinking along these lines (scaled for a 5 gal batch, I'll scale up to 8 this weekend):
9lb pilsner
1lb sugar (60min to invert)
1lb munich
8oz aromatic
4oz biscuit
Mash 154-158?
WLP 550 (since it's on hand)
Pitch around 60, finish at... ??--high would be typical for Belgians you want to coax into attenuating, but maybe you don't want this one to attenuate all the way. I guess that's where I'm really undecided.
I'll probably hop all styrian, but schedule and proportions similar to Revvy's, as I can't seem to find any saaz around here lately.
