Belgian pale ale

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Yooper

Ale's What Cures You!
Staff member
Admin
Mod
HBT Supporter
Joined
Jun 4, 2006
Messages
75,110
Reaction score
13,259
Location
UP/Snowbird in Florida
I want to make a light Belgian pale ale, like a blonde with hops. I have WLP 500, and I am going to make a tripel. But instead of a huge, huge starter, I thought I'd make a lighter Belgian and use that yeast for the tripel.

I have some Castle pilsner malt for both, but I wanted to know if anybody had any ideas on a light slightly hoppy Belgian easy drinking ale. I need a relatively low OG so it's drinkable. I'm NOT a Belgian expert at all, and would be open to any ideas!
 
I haven't done THAR many Belgians, but I'd just approach it very simply. Wouldn't do anything with the malt bill other that what... maybe a touch of aromatic malt? Maybe a tiny bit of Vienna? Maybe a little wheat? I wouldn't do anything complicated.

What do you have for hops? Maybe just a little Tett or Saaz for aroma/flavor, but let the yeast be the star.

What about maybe a little Grain of Paradise in there? I love those, just adds a real nice, citrusy, peppery note. That might work well, if you don't go overboard with the hops.
 
Having tasted only De Koninck and Pale Moon (virtually a clone of DK), I'm guessing that the signature ingredient of BPA is Biscuit malt. The yeast profile is pretty low in those beers from my recollection.
 
Ok, then, what about something like this:

7 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 77.78 %
8.0 oz Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 5.56 %
8.0 oz Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 5.56 %
1.00 oz Saaz (US) [5.80 %] (60 min) Hops 20.5 IBU
1 lbs Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 11.11 %
1 Pkgs Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500) Yeast-Ale


I do have some biscuit malt downstairs also. But in addition to? In lieu of?

I have more Saaz, some hallertauer, styrian goldings, so hops may be ok if I need a few more.

I'm completely married to the Trappist ale yeast, as that is the whole point for this brew- to propagate enough for a tripel! But otherwise, I'm wide open here!
 
I use a grist very closer to that for my saison...it turned out great...do you've got my vote.

I'm not a huge saaz fan, but thats just preference.

I have some wlp510 which I hear is cleaner, probably would be perfect for this.

Keep us posted!
 
I'm making this right now. I didn't seem to have any wheat malt when I went down to measure/crush, so I subbed carapils for head retention. Otherwise, it's the same. I'm sparging at the moment.
 
...sweet, wish I was brewing, gotta fix the mash tun first ...gotta leak...let us know...pics maybe?
 
I know you're already brewing but in the future: If you dig in the CYBI crates, I know they have a show on BPA. I listened to it the other day and it wasn't bad, but I wasn't planning a BPA so I didn't pay close attention to the recipe. In general I feel like Jamil always gives pretty solid advice as far as what specialty grains you can play around with and at what percentages.
 
Back
Top