Belgian Blond Recipe Review

[petep1980]

I made this recipe in 2011 and mashed @ 151 and I think it came out a bit sweet. This year I plan to mash @ 148, and there only other difference is I am not cold crashing in secondary to avoid the necessity of a bottling yeast. I also no longer have a fridge for cold crashing.

For a 2.5 gallon batch

Grains:
6lb 12oz Pilsner
8 oz Aromatic
8 oz Cara-pils
12 oz sucrose

Hops:
1/2 oz Perle 60 min
1/2 oz Saaz 20 min
1/2 oz Saaz 5 min

Yeast: White Labs 550

I added Irish Moss as well.

Last time I fermented 5 days @ 70F, then over the course of 31 days it went from 77 F to 35 F. I plan on just doing a two week primary and not messing around with secondaries.

Any Belgian Blonde experts please critique.

 

[Quaker]

I'd credit the Cara-pils quantity for your sweetness and recommend you cut that in half or even less. Unless you really want it drier, I would do a batch only adjusting it and leaving your mash temp alone. I think that should correct your sweetness.

 

[petep1980]

I'd credit the Cara-pils quantity for your sweetness and recommend you cut that in half or even less. Unless you really want it drier, I would do a batch only adjusting it and leaving your mash temp alone. I think that should correct your sweetness.

Interesting. I did get an FG of 1.010 which seemed appropriate. Do you know of an alternate I should be using in place of the cara-pils.

Also, my LHBS generally carries a much better selection of Wyeast than White Labs. Do you know what would be an appropriate yeast if I had to go the Wyeast route?

 

[Quaker]

Depends what you want flavor and body wise. You could omit all of the Cara-pils and replace with wheat malt or flaked wheat or flaked barley to have some body without the sweetness. In case you use unmelted flakes, I still might cut it to 4oz. If malted wheat, no problem with 8oz or even more. If you want it drier, just replace it with more base malt.

I've used 3787 in a Patersbier, 3711 in a Saison and Wyeast's limited edition Biere de Garde strain. I'll be brewing again with the first two. I wasn't a fan of the third. The Patersbier was Northern Brewer's recipe. I loved it. That is pure Pilsner malt and showcases the yeast flavors.

BTW, currently I'm enjoying a keg of Saison with WLP550. That grain bill was pilsner base with 6% each of sugar, rye, wheat, and Simpson's Golden Naked Oats. I like the mouthfeel, but can't pick out the rye or oats flavor. So I'll rebrew again with 10% in place of all the 6% additions.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

There's nothing wrong with the carapils. It won't add a lot of noticeable sweetness.

 

[petep1980]

I'll take it out and bump up the base to 7#. 6lb 12 oz is a silly amount of base malt anyways.

 

[Quaker]

I always thought of Aromatic malt in the realm of Victory as a roasted/toasted malt which I've used a few times. But RevApache's comment prodded me to look it up. The NB catalog description describes it as exaggerating maltiness. I still think the Carapils could give a perception of sweetness in such a simple beer, but that Aromatic could be worse. I haven't used it before. I'd say try it as planned without the Carapils. It definitely won't be bad. And if you still get the sweetness there's always future batches to keep playing.

 

[petep1980]

Do you think I'm missing anything that may add a little complexity? My beers have all been pretty simple, and I'd like to try to make them a smidge more complex.

I made a beer last year which I fermented with 3944 Belgian Witbier and added French Saison and it has definitely some intrigue. I almost feel as if that combo would work well together again. It'll make it a costly a batch, but whatever.

 

[petep1980]

After a little research it looks like the aromatic is what I should probably remove.

Well guys, I'll keep as is and swap out aromatic for the 4 additional ounces of base malt.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Aromatic makes the malt flavor more pronounced, it doesn't necessarily add or intensify sweetness (although it can if you have a ton of crystal malt in your recipe, which you don't).

You could add some biscuit malt or victory malt to get some complexity in the malt flavor without adding sweetness, although a touch of sweetness is common to this style. If you don't have biscuit or victory you can toast some of your base malt in the oven to the same effect. That toasty, biscuity flavor is common to the style as well.

If you're ditching the carapils I'd say add something for body. You could add caravienne, which will add a touch of sweetness and some malt complexity, or if you are deadset on avoiding any sweetness then add some flaked wheat or wheat malt.

A little munich malt could also add some caramel flavor without a lot of sweetness.

Take a look at these two very popular Belgian blonde recipes if you haven't already:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f71/revvys-belgian-blonde-leffe-clone-202852/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f71/swmbo-slayer-belgian-blonde-26599/