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.
