Belgian Pale Ale Belgian Pale Ale

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Saccharomyces

Be good to your yeast...
HBT Supporter
Joined
Jun 17, 2008
Messages
5,438
Reaction score
166
Location
Pflugerville, Texas
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
WLP515
Yeast Starter
2L
Batch Size (Gallons)
5.25
Original Gravity
1.055
Final Gravity
1.013
Boiling Time (Minutes)
90
IBU
20
Color
copper
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
21 @68*F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
-
Tasting Notes
Well balanced, light bodied session Belgian ale similar to DeKoninck
This beer scored an average 43 at the 2009 Bluebonnet and advanced to the second round. Comment from one of the judges: "I would buy this beer!". It has been immensely popular with my guests. This will be a regular tap at my house you will find brewed every fall when the WLP515 Platinum strain is released. Thanks to DeathBrewer for the idea and the original grainbill which morphed into this wonderful brew.

dsc017771.jpg


Grain Bill:
77.5% Belgian Pils
10% Caravienne
5% Flaked oats
5% Biscuit
2.5% Aromatic

Mash 152*F for 60 minutes.

Hop Bill:
6 AAU (1.5 oz of 4% AA) Saaz 60
.5 oz Saaz 15

Notes:
The WLP515 Antwerp Ale yeast from Brouwerij De Koninck has a spicy, peppery ester profile with minimal fruitiness essential to getting the right character for this brew. If you can't find WLP515 and want to try it I would use a blend of WY1388 and WY1056 to give a moderately clean, spicy profile with minimal fruitiness.
 
Did I try this beer from the last christmas beer swap?
 
you think that a lack of fruit character is essential to a Belgian Pale? It seems the judges might think so... but I was planning on going with just 1388.
 
Filtered and kegged this last weekend. Get an A+! Ended up going with just wlp570 which is the wyeast equivalent of 1388.

I agree though that if the spiciness was backed off a touch it would be better, so do what the OP said and get 515 or blend the yeast.
 
Got this in the primary now. I pitched the 1388 and will try to keep it in the low to mid-60s and see how it turns out. If it ferments well, I'll probably submit this one for the state fair homebrew competition in a few weeks.
 
Im very tempted to try this with the Wyeast 3711 that I just washed. It will make my FG finish a little lower so I may have to make a couple ajustments. Any objections? I will let you know how it turns out!
 
I have this on tap now. I used it as a starter for the 10-10-10 as well. I used the 1388 at temps in the mid-60s and it came out great! SWMBO even likes this one, and she has very picky tastes.
 
Sorry guys apparently I forgot to subscribe to this thread. :eek:

Did I try this beer from the last christmas beer swap?

Yes that was the 'D'.

you think that a lack of fruit character is essential to a Belgian Pale? It seems the judges might think so... but I was planning on going with just 1388.

It should be nutty and biscuity, but not fruity.

Filtered and kegged this last weekend. Get an A+! Ended up going with just wlp570 which is the wyeast equivalent of 1388.

I agree though that if the spiciness was backed off a touch it would be better, so do what the OP said and get 515 or blend the yeast.

Great to hear it. 1388 doesn't flocc worth a dang, so that was a good move to filter it. I bottled with that strain once, won't do that again, I should have filtered the beer and bottled with a strain like WLP002 instead!

Got this in the primary now. I pitched the 1388 and will try to keep it in the low to mid-60s and see how it turns out. If it ferments well, I'll probably submit this one for the state fair homebrew competition in a few weeks.

Mid 60's I would think would be fairly clean, perhaps with spiciness but subdued fruity esters that would suit this beer.
 
I brewed this on the 6th. Hoping to keg on the 26th or 27 and brew the 10-10-10 the same day. Due to poor planning I didn't do a starter but I still had airlock activity within 12 hours. I'll probably split the yeast cake for 10 gallons of 10-10-10.
 
I think I am going to try your brew in a week or so...

Most likely PM format though. Looks like a good recipe
 
Goose Island makes a delicious BPA called Matilda. It's a little higher abv, at 7+%.

Am very interested in trying out the Antwerp Ale yeast! I'll definitely wash and save afterwards.

Jim
 
WLP515 is back in season, I picked up my tube. I'm planning to try home roasting my own grain to re-brew this soon. I'll be slanting the yeast so if anybody can't get this yeast and wants to trade a slant I should have some in my library.

My plan for biscuit and aromatic sub is to toast 2/3s Bel Pils and 1/3rd Munich for 200*F for 15 minutes followed by 10 minutes at 300*F. This is Mosher's recipe for Amber malt which should yield similar lovibond to Biscuit and Aromatic but slightly nuttier. For the Caravienne, I will create a 20*L crystal with Belgian Vienna using the method in this thread.

I saved one bottle of the last batch (which is a year old now) to compare vs. the re-brewed version. I'll be sure to post my notes on the roasting of the malt here in case anybody else decides to give it a try.
 
I'm thinking about making this but fermenting with pure brett. Any thoughts on doing so or advice? I've never used brett. before but I love the funky flavors and aromas it produces. Would you alter the recipe any to use brett or stick true to the proportions you give?
 
All brett will probably be fruity rather than phenolic, I'm not sure how well the character would meld with this brew. I'd personally stick with a lighter brew for all-brett fermentation.
 
From saq's comments on the Muse, maybe Brett L. would work well with this brew. I definitely think of all the strains, Brett L. would be the right one, given the malt profile. I may go for 10 gallons and split 50/50 between WLP515 and Brett L. Would be interesting!
 
Brewing this recipe today. Using 1056 cake that I washed from another batch to test it out. It is cooling now but looks like barely 5 gallons. Must have undersparged. :(
 
Brett L in this beer would probably be pretty good, my Brett L Pale Ale was somewhat inspired by your grainbill. The brett character is totally dominant but its fairly nice. Some mango/passionfruit and light pie cherry filling without the tartness and some brett funk describes it pretty well. I think B or C might make for a more smoothy integrated brew.
 
Cliffs Notes:
//5 Gal 1.054 @ 75%//
7.75# Belgian Pils
1# Caravienne
0.5# Flaked oats
0.5# Biscuit
0.25# Aromatic
 
Just kegged The Rabbit v2, my BPA which is closely related to this.
My differences are
.75lbs caravienne and .25lbs caramunich instead of 1lbs caravienne
Styrian Goldings @ 60 and 30 with a 23.8 IBU level
And last but not least I'm using some Allagash yeast which I cultured up myself from a bottle of Tripel Reserve. It hit 86% attenuation so it really put the malt character in the background, but its still pretty good just a different beer. It was kind of an impromptu beer I put together for a double brew day since I had just grabbed a bunch of Allagash yeast from the conical so I didn't need a starter.
 
If there is any hop flavor it should be barely detectable in this style, if you are going by BJCP guidelines.

If you don't care about style then do whatever you want... Jamil suggests dry hopping his BPA recipe with noble hops, says it makes for an awesome beer. :)
 
I just picked up the ingredients to make this, although with WLP550. Not sure when I'll brew it though.
 
Got around to brewing this on Saturday. OG 1.066 w/ 89.5% efficiency. Mashed at 149.5*F for 90 minutes. My last belgian that used belgian pilsner base malt also had this high efficiency. Is there just something about belgian pilsner?
 
Brewing this recipe soon. Did you toast your flaked oats? I toasted some last night for the first time and like the smell and taste.
 
Followed the recipe exactly, with the exception of switching the yeast the flanders wyeast 3739, and woohoo!!!

One of my top five beers to date, and something that I will probably keep on tap because the wife loves the belgian beers...

Thanks saccharomyces, and deathbrewer too!
 
Followed the recipe exactly, with the exception of switching the yeast the flanders wyeast 3739, and woohoo!!!

One of my top five beers to date, and something that I will probably keep on tap because the wife loves the belgian beers...

Thanks saccharomyces, and deathbrewer too!

I think that Flanders Ale Yeast really does something to this beer! I brewed it in 2009 the last time Wyeast released that yeast and it was great! I brewed it again July 4th this year, again using the Flanders Ale Yeast and again it was great! I took a keg of it to a home brew festival last weekend and had a couple guys that kept coming back for it and at least one guy said it was in his top three beers. I nearly floated the BPA keg (in four hours limited to 2oz samples) while my porter was still about half full.

Good thing I brewed a ten gallon batch this time!
 
Brewed this today. The O.G. ended up a tad high (1.060) and I used a slightly modified hop schedule since the Saaz on hand at my LHBS was 2.5% (and would have necessitated me spending at least another $2 to reach the intended IBUs that way, bleargh).

1 oz. Kent Goldings (5.8%) at 60
0.5 oz Saaz (2.5%) at 60
0.5 oz Saaz (2.5%) at 15

I'm pretty excited about this. :)
 
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