2 weeks to have a Belgian Pale ready for competition

[Homercidal]

So I somehow forgot that we have a Club Competition coming up on October 11th. I can't brew tonight, but I may be able to get yeast and whatnot for a beer tonight and plan to brew tomorrow. This is how I plan to brew it:

2.5 gallon batch.
Pitch lots of yeast.
Ferment in 5 days.
Cold Crash/Clarify for 5 days.
Burst Carb for 4 days.
???
Profit.


What am I forgetting? Any other tricks or tips to do this?

Luckily it's a lighter style and although clarity is an important part of a Belgian pale, it only counts for 3 points in competition, so I think if color and head retention is decent I may lose only 1 point. I've had a problem getting head lately. Not sure if there is a protein deficiency or what, but even beers coming from tap have been plenty carbed, but lacking head. Even some wheat beers, and I don't do a cereal mash either.

Should I plan to use something to boost head?

 

[bucketnative]

2.5 gallon batch.
Pitch lots of yeast.
Ferment in 5 days.
Cold Crash/Clarify for 5 days.
Burst Carb for 4 days.
???
Profit.

How about dry hopping???

I've had a problem getting head lately.

Might think about rephrasing the statement.

 

[Homercidal]

How about dry hopping???




Might think about rephrasing the statement.

According to the style guidelines, it shouldn't have much hop character. I plan on skipping dry hop, and instead doing a mild late hop addition. I'd love for it to be more of a hoppy american style belgian, but that's not on the agenda this time.

 

[Buc_Nasty]

You know, I don't know if it's just me imagining things but every since I started using FermCap S, I noticed that the head retention of my beers has improved a lot. I haven't done any side by side brews to compare and prove it, though.

 

[bucketnative]

According to the style guidelines, it shouldn't have much hop character. I plan on skipping dry hop, and instead doing a mild late hop addition. I'd love for it to be more of a hoppy american style belgian, but that's not on the agenda this time.

After I typed that, I looked at the style guide and saw the low-mid hop level. I know that some of the "BIPAs" are dry-hopped but for competition, best to stick to the BJCP.

 

[jekeane]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=117569

I have had good success (3 medals) with this recipe as a starting point. I have changed it a fair bit to my liking but the original is good.

from the base recipe I use WLP500 pitch at 66° let rise to 68° then bump to 70° day 2-3 I also use caramunich and not caravienne. I have a few other changes that I don't have access to right now but like i said the base is very good.

 

[ba-brewer]

With a fast ferment(no post ferment cleanup time) and not much time to cold condition it might have more yeast character than the style calls for. Your choice of yeast might have more impact then the head retention.

 

[murphyslaw]

Might think about rephrasing the statement.

He must be married.

 

[mrdauber64]

if I understand Belgian yeast at all, won't you lack yeast character with a large pitch? Isn't all the character developed during the growth phase of fermentation?

 

[bigbeergeek]

Go for the most flavorful yeast strain you can get if you're going to pitch big! Shoot for an OG on the lower end of the style, get some simple sugars in there, mash low and long to aid fermentablity. Ferment warm, say a prayer.

 

[ba-brewer]

if I understand Belgian yeast at all, won't you lack yeast character with a large pitch? Isn't all the character developed during the growth phase of fermentation?

Over pitching may reduce some of the yeast character but not all of it, I think it can also effect the attenuation which can throw off the balance. The yeast will clean up some of the ester and other conversion byproducts once the bulk of the fermentation is complete if given the time.

The main point is the style calls for a fairly clean beer, which normally takes more time.

 

[oceanic_brew]

How's your water?

Any last minute studying you could do to improve on that?

A few weeks ago I decided to pull all my accumulative knowledge from the last 6 years of brewing together to finally dabble into some salt additions. It took about 4-5 hrs of screwing with a program and reading. We have amazing base water here in Halifax and you can practically build any profile.

I still have years of practice ahead in that category but my results from that have shown increased efficiency and overall impact on flavor is night and day.

A lot to take on but I've been putting it off for about a year and decided to force myself to leap in.

 

[seabass07]

Pitch on the low end of the temp range. Once it's near fg, raise temp to 72 for a quicker cleanup. Cold crash to 31. As soon as it hits 31, give it gelatin in the keg.

For me, it tends to be day 1-5 primary temp, 6-8 at 72, cold crash and carb in the keg with gelatin for a few days.

I've had beer clear and ready to drink in 10-12 days using that method. If it's low gravity with a healthy pitch and good temp control, it doesn't need long.

 

[oceanic_brew]

You know, I don't know if it's just me imagining things but every since I started using FermCap S, I noticed that the head retention of my beers has improved a lot. I haven't done any side by side brews to compare and prove it, though.

From Yeast "antifoam products can actually aid in head retention by preventing foam positive proteins from denaturing in the foam (during fermentation)"

 

[oceanic_brew]

You know, I don't know if it's just me imagining things but every since I started using FermCap S, I noticed that the head retention of my beers has improved a lot. I haven't done any side by side brews to compare and prove it, though.

From Yeast "antifoam products can actually aid in head retention by preventing foam positive proteins from denaturing in the foam (during fermentation)"

 

[Homercidal]

Water shouldn't be a problem. And it's a lower gravity, easy drinking style, so hopefully it will ferment fast enough.

The yeast character should also be subdued compared to some of the other Belgian styles, according to the 2015 guidelines. I just don't want it to taste like "YEAST".

Hopefully I can brew tonight. Gotta get the recipe put together and the water figured out before work ends. Got home real late last night, so I'm pretty tired. LHBS didn't have any of the right kind of Belgian yeast in liquid form, so I'm taking a chance on Mangrove Jack's Dry packets. Never used them, and I only had a few minutes to spare at the store on the way downstate, so I just grabbed them. Hopefully they are the right kind for this beer.

It seems I am the only one who brewed for this club competition, so no matter how it turns out, I guess I'll get the points!

 

[Homercidal]

Dang. Didn't brew last night. Kid's sick so I made homemade chicken noodle soup and finished cooking down some tomatoes for sauce.

Tonight is the night, though. I don't have Munich Malt, so I'm not sure what to do. I really thought I had a couple of pounds of it, but I must have used it up at some point.

I guess the plan is to use Pale Malt and some Victory and maybe some 60L. I have Special B, but I'm not sure how to use it. I think I got it to color up some other beer. I'll need to research it's use in pale beers.

I think I'm going for a 2.5 gallon Full Boil BIAB on the stove. I might run a bit late and I want to be able to catch the Red Wings while I'm brewing. I think the biggest difficulty will be in figuring out how to get the Satellite feed into the kitchen!