Belgian Pale Ale Recipe

Belgian Pale Ale

Brewed on 9/9/2012

Anticipated SG: 1.051-1.053                                    Anticipated FG: 1.011-1.013

Actual SG:1.055                                                         Actual FG: 1.008

ABV: 6.1%                                                                 

Preboil Volume: 6.2 Gallons

Postboil: 5.25 Gallons

Yield: 5 Gallons

Grains/ Adjuncts

7 LBs Light Dry Malt Extract

½ LB Caramunich 60° L

3 oz Belgian Biscuit

2 oz Aromatic Malt

.3 oz Sweet Orange Peel @ 0 min (Flameout)

Hops:

1.25 ounces East Kent Golding @ 60 min  5.9% AAU

.25 ounces East Kent Goldings @ 0 min  5.9% AAU

Yeast: White Labs Belgian Ale Yeast 1.5 L starter with a higher gravity around 1.042

Fermentation: 6 days Primary, 2 weeks secondary  Started @ 68°F. Raised to 74°F

Bottled with 2.7 Vol. of Priming Sugar

Steeped Grains at starting at 155°F for 30 minutes. Let the temperature fall to 150 for a little bit thinner “mash”.  If you are brewing this recipe All Grain, mashing between 149-152°F would be preferred for a more fermentable wort.  After 30 minutes, raised heat to 168°F. Removed grain bag, rinsed with 1 Gallon of warm filtered water.  Raised heat to achieve a boil. Turned off flame and added Extract and East Kent Golding Hops.  Similar to making most Belgian styles i.e. Saisons and Trippels, a lighter boil should be used.  Sweet Orange Peel and the remainder of the hops were added at flameout.  Poured wort into sanitized bucket and chilled it down in under 8 minutes!

I bought an awesome little rod aerator from homebrewstuff.com.  It was under $20.  Easily the best $20 I have spent in awhile.  The difference between my last batch and this one was remarkable.  Before I bought this item, I was a firm believer that 15 minutes of shaking the fermenter would do the trick.  Here’s a video of the rod aerator in action.  (Your back will thank you later)

The best way to make a good Belgian beer is to really utilize your yeast.  When making most trappist style beers that require big flavor from the fruity esters and  phenolics of the yeast, you need to overpitch your yeast.  This is achieved by pitching a large amount not only on the front end of the primary fermentation, but pitching more yeast once you have transferred to the secondary.  Since we’re not doing a high gravity beer, there isn’t really a need to add more yeast during secondary fermentation.  The recommended amount of yeast cells for the starting gravity was 197 million cells.  If you pitch a starter that is not only larger (in cells), but higher in gravity, you are going to get a fierce and vigorous fermentation.  This would be similar to making a trippel and adding more wort during secondary.  Primary finished in literally 3-4 days. I could hear the blowoff of CO2 from a room the next room!  For this beer driving the temperature up after a few days wasn’t necessary to achieve the profile from the yeast. 

Conclusions:  The experiment worked out incredibly well and was a crowd pleaser.  Very little aroma from the East Kent Goldings, but was slightly perceivable with a nice balance of spiciness from the yeast.  Fuggles would be an adequate substitution.  I sampled this about a week after bottling, the orange peel was a little overpowering but it balanced really nicely.  A little breadiness from the malt, but citrus, fruit and spice notes were most perceivable in this beer. Thus proving that  coriander or spices aren’t needed to achieve that flavor profile.  I sampled with some friends, one of which gave it that, “MMhmmmm” type of mouthgasm.  Best served around 50°F in a Belgian Snifter or Tulip glass.