Belgian Specialy Ale - little girly beer

[Mermaid]

So I would like to brew something yummy, somewhat girly, and easy to drink while sitting in front of the computer playing WoW on the weekends.

I'm going to try my hand at all grain, but on a small scale (3 gallons). I've already done 2 partial mash brews, and the Dead Guy clone I did came out very nice.

Here's what I'm thinking, could use some feedback.

My equipment consists of 2 5-gallon brew kettles (fermenting vessels not a problem). Thinking of using the BIAB method.

6 lbs. Belgian Pale Ale malt (Castle malting)
1 lb. Belgian Caravienne
.25 lb. Biscuit malt

Mash at 152 for 60 minutes in kettle #1 (I am fairly sure I can fit the kettle in the oven to keep it warm)

Sparge in 3 gallons in kettle #2, top off with as much as I can safely fit in the pot (I've boiled almost to the top before without a problem)

Hops:

1 oz. Hallertau (60 minutes)
.5 oz. Saaz (15 minutes)
.5 oz. sweet orange peel (vs. bitter)

Use Wyeast 3864 from yeast bank in fridge

After fermentation slows down add 1 lb. honey and wait another (week?)

When I transfer to secondary I would like to add some amount of peach concentrate (I know Oregon makes some) but I'm not entirely sure on the quantity.

Was thinking of fermenting on the cool side for this yeast, between 68-72F

I'm not a big fan of overly "sweet" beer, and I don't want this to be an alcohol bomb either. Something on the dry side, very bubbly, with a fruity nose and gentle reminder that there's fruit and honey there without it clobbering me over the head.

 

[Oldsock]

Sounds tasty to me. Recipe and general technique sound fine. Should be ~1.050 pre-boil, are you planning on adding more water after boiling to get it back to 3 gallons? The honey will add ~.015, so you are looking at a beer ~6.5%-7% ABV. The honey will ferment out so it should be pretty dry.

Never used peach extract, but alcohol pasted extracts are best added at bottling to taste. If it is a sugar based extract add it along with the honey to give it time to ferment out before bottling (I’d give it 2 weeks to be safe and give time for the yeast to drop out).

Hope that helps, good luck brewing.

 

[Mermaid]

Here's what I ended up with for the recipe:

6 lbs. Belgian Pils
1 lb. Carabelg (Belgian Caravienne)
.5 lb. honey malt
1 lb. local artisan honey

1 oz. Hallertau Mittlefruh (60 min)
.5 oz. Hallertau Mittlefruh (30 min)
.5 oz. spalt hops (15 min)
.5 oz. dried sweet orange peel (15 min)
.5 oz. dried chammomile (15 min)

Yeast - Wyeast 3864 (Unibroue) from my fridge yeast bank

Decided against the fruit - need to get the base "beer" AG process down first,then I can muck around with fruit somewhere down the road.

This is a 3.5 gallon batch. Grains are mashing now. I'll check back in when it's drinkable (figuring 6-8 weeks)

 

[Mermaid]

As a follow up, this beer is very nice. Were I to brew it again I would omit the chammomile and maybe use fresh orange peel instead of dried and maybe omit the .5 oz. late addition Hallertau.

Has a lot of honey in the nose, nice head retention, and sparkly carbonation. The tap-a-draft brew did not clear but I'm not surprised as it did not get a lot of aging time / time in the fridge, but it turned out well.

The nose is honey/floral. Taste is a bit citruisy, bright, refreshing, a tad on the "sour" side but very drinkable. Something I would share with friends. (I'm chilling some of the bottles now, to share them at Christmas Eve dinner).