My Belgain Pale Ale recipe:
I brewed an 11 gal. post boil batch anticipating 2 full 5 gallon kegs after fermentation. I referenced Bru'n water Brussels water profile and used 50% reverse osmosis water.
Mash efficiency in this case was pretty low at 73%, Attenuation 92%, ABV 6%, SRM 8-10, IBU 25, OG 1.050, FG 1.004
Belgian Pale Ale is a more approachable Belgian style as the alcohol content is lower and the phenol and ester flavor character subdued from a combination of Safale US-05 and Whitelabs WLP545 yeast. Most of the commercial Belgian beers I'm familiar with start at 8.5% and go up from there. This 6% beer is sessionable comparatively speaking. Once the beer has aged for a couple weeks in the fridge, it's clarity and copper color are a thing of beauty. Drawing you in for that first satisfying taste of caramel, toast and bicuit flavors. It still has that distinct phenolic spiciness but less so allowing the subtle pear flavor to shine through.
I'm adding this recipe to my regular line-up as it satisfies my need for the Belgian flavors and at the same time allows for more than one glass in a sitting. If you brew this, make sure you use the combination of equal amounts of Belgian yeast along with another neutral yeast like US-05, WLP001 or any Chico strain.
I'm brewing at 7,000 feet elevation so my hop utilization percentages are lower than at Sea level so take this into consideration. Rather than giving you the quantities of hops, I will simply tell you when I add to the kettle the type of hops and the estimated IBU's targeted.
16 lbs. Pilsner malt (Weyermann)
2 lbs. Munich #10
1 lbs. Crystal #60
1 lbs. Aromatic
1 lbs. Carapils
1 lbs. refined sugar at start of boil
Mash in at 152f. in 6 gal. h2o for 60 minutes. (50% Reverse Osmosis)
Sparge for 45 minutes with 170f. h2o
Boil 90 minutes with:
60 min. add: Warrior Hops for a calculated 24 ibu's
5 min. add: Tettnang Hops for a calculated 1 ibu's
Chilled down to 64f. and transfer to fermenter with O2 and pitch 11.5 grams US-05 ale yeast and one vial of WLP545 ale yeast. After 2 days raised temperature to 68f., and then after 5 more days raised temp. to 72f. until fermentation is complete. Crash cool to 60f. for an additional 5 days before transfer to kegs. (Consider that the wlp545 is STA1 positive and may effect a very low final gravity.)
Transfer to kegs and place in refer at 45f.
Cheers!
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