Belgian yeasts with non-traditional hops

Haven't made any Belgian IPAs in a while, but estery yeast strains that are either POF- or produce low levels of phenols work GREAT with tropical fruity hops like Amarillo and Citra and even more so in a beer with low levels of perceived bitterness.

 

Duval Tripel Hop is a classic, typically it changes hops every year or so. Currently they are using Citra, but Mosaic and El Dorado in recent past:



My favorite, Houblon Chouffe:
.....

I've cloned both of these. The goal is to balance overall bitterness (usually slightly lower than American IPA) & alcohol level with yeast esters & hop aroma. It can be tricky . . .but in my experience it usually isn't the hops that let you down.

 

I brewed up a saison using wyeast Belgian saison, all pils lme, some saaz for bothering and Nelson sauvin in the dry hop. 4% abv and 3 oz Nelson for a dry hop addition. Phenomenal. I think dryhopping makes it less bitter while retaining more oils. (Ok, it' been proven, not just my thoughts)

 

Alchemist does a few beers with the Bastogne yeast that they dry hop. Their YouTube videos are a treet, highly recommend them.

 

The Belgian Ardennes yeast (WYeast 3522) worked well for me in a Belgian IPA a few years back. I used Columbus, Centennial and Amarillo, with some sweet orange peel added at flameout. If you'd like, I can dig up the recipe when I get home later if you want more specifics.

I like to do a lot of American-style saisons as well, hopped anywhere between 30-40 IBU. For one of my favorite rye saisons, I use Columbus for bittering, and a blend of Amarillo/Galaxy at flameout. Saison Blend I from the Yeast Bay is my 'go to' house strain for that one.

Another one that I've been very interested in trying a clone of is Funkwerks Tropic King, which uses Rakau almost exclusively, fermented with 3711: https://beerandbrewing.com/funkwerks-tropic-king-recipe/

 

I brewed a saison with WLP585 and Belma hops. Worked out great. Also said in another thread that I'm planning a NEIPA with the same (now retired) yeast. I think it would work well as long as the yeast isn't really clovey.

 

I think Down Under hops (or whatever folks call Australian and New Zealand varieties) work great with Belgian yeasts when using restraint. I prefer using them in saisons to IPAs.

 

Tank 7, by Boulevard in Kansas (and I think owned by Duvel) uses a propriety strain that is saison-like with a fair amount of Amarillo. Brewing something like this is on my bucket list, even though the beer is seeing wider distribution these days.

 

More personal preference than anything else, really. I think that tropical fruit and the clove/spice of 4VG clash something horrible. That could be just me, though.

 

The saison strain (blend, really) I suggested, WLP585, produces low levels of clove phenolics, according to White Labs. I found its overall contribution to compliment fruity hops well.

 

Any discussion of brewing using WLP585 is academic except for those that have a 'private stock'. This product has been discontinued by White Labs.

Cheers!

 

Write white labs and tell them you live this strain! My recollection is that this is not a blend

 

Very true, but I was only bringing it up as evidence of the fact that saison strains can work well in this context.

After some quick "Binging" (yes, not Googling), I suppose you are correct. I was sure that I recently (after finding out it was discontinued) read it was a blend of 3 yeasts. Glad to hear that my fear of the blend becoming dominated by one strain in successive generations was unfounded.

I really should get around to writing them. I've never seen a bad review/experience on this yeast, and I personally love it. I can't say that about a lot of yeasts that are still widely produced!

 

Please do!

The more they hear from customers that they love this yeast the better are our chances of getting White Labs to reconsider their decision here.

Cheers!

 

If interested in dry yeast- I brewed what I called a “tropical tripel “ with SafAle T-58 and a bunch of Citra at flame out that turned out nicely.

 

Agree 100%, this was my initial thought upon reading the OP.

 

I made a Tripel with Chimay yeast, Galaxy and Amarillo that was amazing! 6oz ea at whirlpool, 3ea dry hop. Crazy delicious!

 

I once made a kind of light Belgian beer along the following lines:

Mostly pilsner malt, a very small amount of wheat malt
1.055 OG
Fermented with Wyeast 1214 (allegedly the Chimay yeast)

Now the crazy part is that for reasons I don't remember, I decided Centennial would be a good hop for this beer. It kind of worked... it was a bizarre beer, like nothing I had tasted before. I found it a bit jarring. Maybe today I wouldn't find it so odd. Anyway I don't think it was actually the best combination of flavors, but I certainly enjoyed it.