Custom BPA Recipe, round 2... Tastes like Graham Crackers? (recipe inside)

[Paradigm]

Hi all,

A quick backstory is that the guy I brew with and I wanted to try our hand at making our own recipe from scratch as a good way to learn more about brewing. We decided we wanted to work towards making a good Belgian Pale Ale.

Our first attempt ended up with a weak body and tasting like toast waster. We tweeked the recipe, removing the biscuit malt and adjusting the hop timings. Our second attempt is much better! But it tastes like Graham Crackers. It's actually really tasty, it has great head retention too. The body is still weak.

The biggest issue is that we didn't plan that. Anyone know why it would taste like that?

Here is the recipe, it's pretty basic until we can get it repeatable:

---

90 minute boil:

10 lbs belgian pilsner 2 row
2 lbs caramunich malt
1 oz goldings east kent @ 35 min until flameout
1 oz saaz @ 20 min until flameout
2 oz saaz @ 10 min until flameout

mash @150-155

1 pkg safale american, rehydrated

estimated OG 1.052, measured OG 1.05
estimated FG 1.009, measured FG 1.01

 

[youreanimpulse]

That's quite a bit of caramunich, maybe cut it down a bit to take away the cracker taste. Mash temp could be your issue with body, but it isn't listed so I can't be sure. I also highly recommend using Belgian yeast in a Belgian ale or it's really something else.

 

[duboman]

+1
The only thing standing out is the caramunich. Also the yeast really needs to be a Belgian strain to actually be a Belgian beer Other yeast strains simply won't impart the true flavor profiles of a Belgian ale regardless of the other ingredients.

 

[castillo556]

You can't have a Belgian Pale Ale without Belgian yeast.

If you LHBS doesn't have any.. culture some from any number of bottle conditioned Belgian style beers.