Favorite Belgian Ale Recipe

[jswillbrewforbeer]

Nearly 2 years ago, I fell in love with Belgian and Belgian inspired ales and started a quest to brew a beer I felt tasted and smelled like the beers which I loved. I've had some limited relative success. Please share your favorite Belgian ale recipe or that which you feel best exemplifies this realm of beers, any recipe is fair game as long as it's Belgian inspired in some way and you're passionate about it! Bonus points for including info on your favorite Belgian yeast strain and why...

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Trappist/Abbey style, farmhouse, wild... Belgian covers a lot of territory. You need to be much more specific!

 

[Carolina_Matt]

I haven't brewed many Belgian beers, but I got a good deal on a Belgian Pale Ale kits and it turned out great. I brewed the first one around November, and tapped the second one last week. I used T-58 dry yeast.

It's more of a winter than a summer beer for me, so I plan on buying the ingredients to make it again in about 6 months.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/belgian-pale-ale-grain-beer-brewing-kit-5-gallons.html

 

[jswillbrewforbeer]

Trappist/Abbey style, farmhouse, wild... Belgian covers a lot of territory. You need to be much more specific!

I intentionally did not specify a specific category/subcategory. Like I said, any recipe is fair game as long as it's Belgian inspired.

 

[Dog House Brew]

I really like several styles. A friend wouldn’t use anything other than 530. My favorite Belgian style is Triple. My favorite yeast that I keep going is 3864. I love LaFin du Monde. Recipe is usually simple and is so yeast dependent. I start 65ish and let it slowly rise to near 80.

 

[jswillbrewforbeer]

I really like several styles. A friend wouldn’t use anything other than 530. My favorite Belgian style is Triple. My favorite yeast that I keep going is 3864. I love LaFin du Monde. Recipe is usually simple and is so yeast dependent. I start 65ish and let it slowly rise to near 80.

Unibroue is my favorite brewery. Never used 3864 but have been waiting around for Wyeast to release it again, to no avail. Mail me some? Would pay!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

3864 is one they release fairly frequently as it was one of their original annual seasonal releases. It was last released in 2016Q2 and 2018Q3 so I'd guess it will probably get a release later this year, virus permitting.

I suggest you read "Brew Like a Monk" by Stan Hieronymus, and honestly - you will get better answers if you focus the question a bit more, the scattergun approach tends not to work too well.

 

[jswillbrewforbeer]

3864 is one they release fairly frequently as it was one of their original annual seasonal releases. It was last released in 2016Q2 and 2018Q3 so I'd guess it will probably get a release later this year, virus permitting.

I suggest you read "Brew Like a Monk" by Stan Hieronymus, and honestly - you will get better answers if you focus the question a bit more, the scattergun approach tends not to work too well.

Read BLAM and refer to it often. The purpose of this thread was not to ask for advice, I know how to brew the recipes I enjoy. Just curious about which recipes other people enjoy within a group of similar beer styles.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

...within a group of similar beer styles.

That is the problem I think both @Northern_Brewer and myself were trying to address, i.e. a an Abbey vs a Geuze are wildly different beasts, so you might have greater luck being more specific.

Asking for favorite "Belgian" recipes is like asking for favorite "American" recipes.

 

[jswillbrewforbeer]

I understand what you're both getting at, trust me, I really do. I've been studying for my BJCP tasting exam for 8 months and have become really familiar with style guide lines, I've entered countless competitions and even judged at my first recently. I think the style guidelines are really important especially for situations like this where people get the idea that "Belgian Ales," as I perhaps mistakenly referred to them as, are all the same. They're obviously not. Qualitatively, a Gueuze is wildly (pardon the pun,) different than a Tripel, as you pointed out. It's likely quite frustrating for you to try to explain this, so I'm sorry for the contention and all I can say is, i know exactly what you mean. I've just lately felt like taking a step back and not thinking quite so hard about styles and what differentiates them and "does this Festbier have slightly too much hop flavor for style?" I suppose it's a bit discouraging for me to see beers I and others have worked so hard to create reduced to numerical score relevant to how well it matches a paragraph description about a beer style which has been around for hundreds of years. This is me just putting the romance back into beer like I had when I first started drinking beer and trying "Belgian Ales" and thinking, "Whoa, that tastes f***ing weird and great!" I think for me the term Belgian Ale is really evocative and romantic. Also, all Belgian ales in the style guidelines are lumped into 4 categories, (23 Euro Sour Beers, 24 Belgian Ales, 25 Strong Belgian Ales and 26 Trappist Ales,) so I don't think it's that far fetched to, for funsies only, lump them into one category. I understand though if you don't feel comfortable lumping vastly different style into such a broad category. Thanks for the input, Cheers!

 

[Dave Sarber]

Westmalle tripel.

 

[PberBob]

I really like the variety of flavors your can get with the Belgian yeasts. Some US Belgian-style craft brews that I really like are North Coast (CA) Pranqster and Bruery (CA) Mischief, and Flying Dog (MD) Raging *****.

I make Belgian Pales with American hops that have turned out very nicely. The first one was a lark using Wyeast 3522 Ardennes in MoreBeer’s Cali Mountain Sierra Nevada clone kit. That uses Magnum 60/Perle 30/Cascade 10 min & dry.

My latest used 10% Vienna, 10% Crystal 40 with Columbus and Amarillo hops, and Wyeast 1762 Abbey II. I’m going to rerun that one with 3522 to compare.

 

[bkboiler]

honestly unless theres a specific beer you wanna make your white whale just go for "saison"...
Its the most forgiving of belgian styles imho...not so much background research to make a good one...although the great ones can be as difficult as youd like to make it...
My favorite saison recipe (so far) is Saison - Shipwrecked Saison

 

[jswillbrewforbeer]

I really like the variety of flavors your can get with the Belgian yeasts. Some US Belgian-style craft brews that I really like are North Coast (CA) Pranqster and Bruery (CA) Mischief, and Flying Dog (MD) Raging *****.

I make Belgian Pales with American hops that have turned out very nicely. The first one was a lark using Wyeast 3522 Ardennes in MoreBeer’s Cali Mountain Sierra Nevada clone kit. That uses Magnum 60/Perle 30/Cascade 10 min & dry.

My latest used 10% Vienna, 10% Crystal 40 with Columbus and Amarillo hops, and Wyeast 1762 Abbey II. I’m going to rerun that one with 3522 to compare.

Awesome, thanks! I've been considering using a small late addition of Centennial in my house Belgian Pale Ale. Still tweaking that recipe and I think the American hop presence could work well.

 

[jswillbrewforbeer]

honestly unless theres a specific beer you wanna make your white whale just go for "saison"...
Its the most forgiving of belgian styles imho...not so much background research to make a good one...although the great ones can be as difficult as youd like to make it...
My favorite saison recipe (so far) is Saison - Shipwrecked Saison

Saison is definitely a favorite. My house Saison, (which I am also still tweaking,) is similar to the Shipwrecked recipe. Thanks!

 

[TheMadKing]

3864 is one they release fairly frequently as it was one of their original annual seasonal releases. It was last released in 2016Q2 and 2018Q3 so I'd guess it will probably get a release later this year, virus permitting.

I suggest you read "Brew Like a Monk" by Stan Hieronymus, and honestly - you will get better answers if you focus the question a bit more, the scattergun approach tends not to work too well.

I got to judge a local competition with Stan earlier this year, really nice guy