Hi! I'm looking at brewing a Belgian Pale Ale - lightish, moderately bitter, slightly fruity-spicy, generally drinkable. The basic recipe at the moment is something like 70% Weyermans Premier Pilsner Malt (would use Dingemans but it's temporarily sold out...) 25% Dingemans Pale Ale Malt 5% Dingemans Special B Shooting for 1.050, 30-ish IBU, reasonably restrained late hops (maybe Huell Melon?), ferment with WLP-510. My big question mark is over mash schedules. I know a lot of people talk about the importance of multi-step mashing for Belgian beers, but that's often in the context of big tripels and quads where you need maximum fermentability to avoid it ending up totally cloying - for a relatively low-gravity / high IBU / attenuative yeast I'd worry about ending up too thin if I just copied a tripel schedule. But should I think about a protein rest? Or just a regular single-step? Or what? I'm going to be mashing in a picnic cooler and adding boiling water to adjust the temperature, so I'm probably limited to two steps anyway... Thanks!
Call it a "session amber" if you like - I try to avoid getting too hung up on styles with Belgian beers! I might get nervous and decide to dial it back a bit on the day, though... FWIW I've just ordered the bits and made a last-minute switch from WLP-510 to WLP-500. Otherwise as described above.
Didn't mean to criticize, it just surprised me. Could be really tasty. I've brewed something similar a few times (without any crystal malt), and I always did an infusion mash in the high 140s Fahrenheit. It worked well for me. But I don't have much to compare it to, because I almost never do step mashes.
Contemporary malts are well modified and will convert properly with a single temperature infusion mash. You should select a temperature that is consistent with your fermentability (attenuation) goals. Cheers!
Yeah, a little Special B goes a long way. Personally I like Continental Pilsner malt just as is and don't like to get too far away if that is what I'm using. A 5% addition of Special B, you may as well be using any domestic 2 row for your base malt. A 2% addition might be enough to "suggest" the addition without being obvious. It will also wreck your color if you aren't careful. But that's just me... A single infusion seems fine to me. You are going to have a difficult time with boiling water additions anyway. I know I do. Have you considered German Northern Brewer, German Tettnang or Saaz? These classics would seem to well at 30 IBUs for refined bittering. Justified classics and you can't go wrong. Cheers.
Nah, it's a good point - looking back, the last time I used 5% in a lightish grain bill it definitely took over a bit. I might knock it down to a percent or two. Interesting thoughts on mashing. Thanks!
Mash at 152 single infusion. Definitely go down to 2 percent on the special B if at all. The pilsner and pale malt would prolly be enough to just let the hops and yeast shine. That's the Belgian aspect imho.
I used to do a multi-step mash for my Belgian brews because . . . well, that's the way the Belgians used to do it. Then I realized what was necessary 200 years ago just might not be needed these days. So I've gone to a single step mash for just about everything now. Here's a pretty good discussion on when a "multi" might be needed these days: http://howtobrew.com/book/section-3/how-the-mash-works/the-protein-rest-and-modification Another old Belgian technique of bittering with a low aa hop like Saaz or EKG sounds quaint, but I've gotten away from that also. Just because availability used to drive some brewing decisions doesn't mean it's always a good idea. My initial bittering charge is something high & bland (usually hop extract) and save the good hops for the last 10 minutes. IMO a 70/25 of pils/pale will be indistinguishable from all pils. Although not generally done, you aren't breaking any brew-laws if you add some spices . . . candidates include coriander, orange peel, grains of paradise, or anise. I mean it's not like you're brewing in Germany . . .
You can get interesting results if you're bittering with Noble hops. The pleasant humulone is not as bitter as the harsh cohumulone but it does require a lot of hops to get decent bitterness. This has been debated though. I am partial to high IBU beers that get there with Noble hops. But again, it is expensive and a lot of wort is wasted. I love Magnum for the reasons you state. It get's the bittering job done without any fingerprints. Chimay reportedly uses hop jello from a tin. Other Trappists use pretty much what they can among a few varieties, so we should consider that if it is not such a big deal for the brothers it probably shouldn't be for us either. Most Belgian styles do not present the hops center stage anyway and Belgium is not a particular hop resource, so it goes hand in hand. Cheers.
FWIW, the two hops that I use for bittering Continental beers are German Magnum and Sterling (which reminds me of Saaz). I find these two hops to provide a very clean (noble like) bittering. Cheers!
Ditto for me on the sterlings. They get used throughout the boil on a lot of my lagers. My schwarzbier was made with 100 percent sterlings and while I wasn't going for any hop aroma for the style they provided a very clean bitterness.
Yeah, I generally use Magnum by default for most things. True, although I think the trend over the last few decades has been towards more variety, and plenty of Belgian breweries are doing good things with more upfront hopping these days.
Yes indeed. Maybe more like decade singular, to me, if I can nit pick. The lesson is that Belgian brewers are not nearly as hung up with tradition as we sometimes think they are. Never really have been either. It's good beer made from circumstances (see sugar, dextrose addition). A while back Ommegang was having parent Moortgaat supply beer for the States. Which is when America officially took the mantle of the future of brewing. The teacher looking to the student. Cheers.
While I agree with you there is something special about traditional styles made in traditional ways. It is your beer and you should do what you want.
No need to step mash any of these styles. For the Trappists, use sugars to achieve high degree of fermentation. For bpa just use a low to medium body mash temp, depending on what your recipe looks like
Did you end up brewing this beer? Thats seems like a lot os special b for the style. Personally I like caramunich for this style - but hey if you want rich dark fruit flavors the belgians would just for it!
I rolled back the Special B in the end - I haven't got the recipe to hand but it ended up somewhere around 2%. I bottled less than a week ago so I'm not sure how the finished article will come out, but the hydrometer sample tasted promising...
