Please ciritique my Belgian Specialty Ale

[credible2]

It's going to be something close to a wit.
Here's my recipe:

5 lb Pilsner malt
3lb Vienna malt
1.5lb Dark Wheat Malt

1 ounce of noble hops - 60 minutes
.25 noble hops - 15 mniutes
.25 noble hops - 1 minute
(I'm undecided which hops I will use)

Zest of half an orange (I don't know what kind yet)
Zest of half a lemon
Zest of a key lime
Grated Ginger (Fresh) - But I don't know how much I need to give my beer a subtle flavor. Maybe half an ounce? Maybe less?

I'm going to put the zest 5 minutes before flame out. I'm not to sure about the ginger.

I want to do a double decoction for this too.
The saccharification rest will probably be on the low side. 150-152 degrees F.

Primary will be two weeks. Secondary will be a week. And bottle conditioning will take place for a couple of more weeks.

 

[onipar]

That sounds delicious (I'm too new to give a real critique though). But one thing that did pop into my mind when I was reading your ingredient list is a spice I was reading about in Papazian's book: Kaffir lime leaves. He says they give a nice zest/lime like flavor and can be added at the end of the boil.

I'm not sure how it may differ from the lime zest, if it should be used in conjunction or in place of it, but I just thought I'd mention.

 

[KellyK]

I'll offer a tip on the ginger, peel it and then cut it into small slices and freeze it. Freezing it breaks down the cell walls and really helps impart the flavor. On brew day, take it out and let it thaw, put it in a hop bag and drop it in with 5 minutes left in the boil. Perfect ginger. For my ginger beer - and it's quite gingery - I used 2oz in 10 gallons.

 

[credible2]

But one thing that did pop into my mind when I was reading your ingredient list is a spice I was reading about in Papazian's book: Kaffir lime leaves. He says they give a nice zest/lime like flavor and can be added at the end of the boil.

I'm not sure how it may differ from the lime zest, if it should be used in conjunction or in place of it, but I just thought I'd mention.

Interesting. Thanks! Looks like I'm going to have to research about kaffir leaves.

 

[credible2]

I'll offer a tip on the ginger, peel it and then cut it into small slices and freeze it. Freezing it breaks down the cell walls and really helps impart the flavor. On brew day, take it out and let it thaw, put it in a hop bag and drop it in with 5 minutes left in the boil. Perfect ginger. For my ginger beer - and it's quite gingery - I used 2oz in 10 gallons.

Looks like a great idea. (but I am going to tone down the ginger quite a bit) What kind of ginger do you use? It seems like a pretty stupid question, but I'm not too familiar with ginger. I believe that there are different types.

 

[BA_from_GA]

Imaybe some Saab hops? One of my favorites for use in Belgians.

 

[onipar]

No problem, credible2. If it helps, he says they can be found in Asian food markets and are used in Thai cuisine. Personally, I've never noticed them a my normal supermarket, so it may be sort of hard to find.

Let us know how this turns out when you get to brew time.

 

[credible2]

Imaybe some Saab hops? One of my favorites for use in Belgians.

I think that is a good idea. I'm going to do a combination of Saaz with Liberty hops, hopefully getting my IBUs to around 20

 

[credible2]

Let us know how this turns out when you get to brew time.

Yeah definitely. I'm going to post my recipe before I brew, which will be within the next few weeks. I'm hoping this will be a nice refreshing summer ale

 

[KellyK]

Looks like a great idea. (but I am going to tone down the ginger quite a bit) What kind of ginger do you use? It seems like a pretty stupid question, but I'm not too familiar with ginger. I believe that there are different types.

I use the plain ginger root you find in your local grocery store in the produce section, nothing fancy required. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

 

[credible2]

I brewed my beer a week ago. I've been too lazy to post anything, but here is the recipe I used:

5 gallon recipe:
4.75 LB pilsner malt
3 lb vienna malt
1.5 lb Dark wheat malt
.25 lb Acidulated malt

I did a mixture of 50% liberty hops and 50% saaz hops
.75 ou @ 60 minutes
.35 ou @ 12 minutes
.35 ou @ 1 minutes

.5 ounce of fresh ginger (chopped up, and then frozen and thawed) last 5 minutes of the boil
Zest of 2 valencia oranges
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1.5 small limes
The zest of these fruits was thrown in at the end of the boil.
____________________________________________

On Wednesday, I failed at the decoction mash. (I burned the grains at the bottom of the pot after a couple of hours)

So I chucked the grain, and bought some more. I did the mash on Saturday without doing the decoction mash. I mashed at 149 degrees F. Mashed out @ 163 degrees. I also did a batch sparge.

The beer, as I was transferring it to the fermenter smelled delicious. I kept the fermentation temperatures to 68 degrees and I raised it to 70 degrees after 2 days.

I expect the ABV to be around 5.2%. The beer has around 12 IBUs.