3.25 Gallon batch with efficiency of ~73%. 1.053 Target OG 1.011 Target FG 5.8 SRM 35-40 IBU 5.5% ABV MALT 34.6% 2.25lbs Belgian Pils Malt 23.1% 1.5lbs Vienna Malt 23.1% 1.5lbs Wheat Malt 11.5% 12oz Munich Malt (8 L) 7.7% 8oz Weyermann CaraHell Malt Single infusion mash at 152 for 75 min (1.55 quarts water:lbs grain). Batch sparge at 169 for 60 min. HOPS (90 min total boil) 60min 0.25 oz Amarillo 20min 0.25 oz Amarillo 20min 0.25 oz Citra 5min 0.25 oz Amarillo 5min 0.25 oz Citra YEAST White Labs WLP550 Belgian Ale with a 1 L starter. I will decant/pitch at 65, and let it rise to 68 and ferment - then I will let it rise to 75 once the krausen has fallen. 3 weeks total - no secondary here (no dry-hopping either). Whatchy'all think? My biggest question is how everyone thinks the malts will play with one another. I'm wondering if I shouldn't drop one malt (say the Vienna and adjust the wheat and pils accordingly...or drop the pils down even and do the opposite). I know that I'm not making a Belgian Pale, but I want to experiment with this strain on an easy drinking summer beer - and this sounded tasty to my palate.
It looks tasty. It's a busy malt-bill. It's hard for me to imagine what effect changing the malt-bill would have. I suspect that the effect would be minor. If you already have the ingredients measured out, go for it as-written.
You do have a busy malt bill. I'm going out on a limb a little bit, creating recipes are my strong point . . . but I would toss at least one malt. My first choice would be to drop the Munich, it seems most out of place for a summer time brew. I would also consider reducing/dropping the Vienna . . . make up any differences with the Pils Malt. For a true Belgian Pale Ale the US hops are out of place. The spicy flavors from the yeast will be competing with the hops, but you already know this. I am doing similar in my next brew. Like you, experimenting a little with what I like. Your 60 min for batch sparge seems excessive to me. I don't batch sparge, but isn't it normal to drain the mash tun as quickly as possible after you've reached your mashout temp and cleared your runnings? If there are any batch sparge experts reading I will defer to their experience.
EDIT: Meant to say "creating recipes IS NOT my strong point" . . . so my position on the limb remains!
I like this yeast. I sometimes but not always like the combo of Belgian yeast and American hops. It's easy to overplay the hops, IMO. Your schedule does not look excessive to me, but I have not tried brewing one of these; my opinions were formed based on commercial examples. Try it out?
Personally, I LIKE the malt bill. If I were to change anything in it, it would be to get rid of the wheat or switch it to the weyermann dark wheat. I like that yeast with American hops. I like that yeast in malty beers. I'm on the fence when it comes to malty beers with fruity hops. Only one way to find out though.
Thanks for all of the feedback, everyone (long time, no post here). The more I think about it, the more I dig this malt bill - not really trying to justify anything, but I'm starting to really like it. Now I'm thinking that if I swap anything it would be the Carahell - maybe for something along the lines of CaraMunich (possibly at a smaller %, though). I like the amount that the Munich is at, and I love the character that it adds. I do a modified BIAB setup (read: "Lazyman's setup"), and I've found that I've gotten much better efficiencies with the longer batch sparge. Just my experience that I'm going on - nothing more.
I would go for it as is. I got advice once about a "muddy" grain bill, but that one had multiple grains that weren't base malts, they were various other stuff*. Yours is mostly base malts, so it should be fine (at least if you define base malts as self-converting, hopefully there's room on PortLargo's branch for me). *turns out the advice was good, too many different specialty malts in another beer I made did make it come out somewhat muddy, although it was still drinkable
Just did something similar. Hoping to get something like Revolutions A Little Crazy which is such a tasty beer. Here was my malt bill, pretty classic. Malt 4 lbs Belgian Pils .75 lbs Wheat Malt .5 lbs Vienna .5 lbs Cane Sugar Edit: Went with Liberty and Amarillo, some hopefully it turns out both fruity and spicy. Dry hopped with Amarillo as well.
Yeah, I had a similar result when I made a HybrIdPA - British and Belgian base malts with (probably too many) German specialty malts and American hops...it was pretty drinkable but under-attenuated
I really dig your profile avatar. I started with something like a Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel in mind, and then I began to preen back into something much more drinkable (lighter - "easy-drinking"). I began to look into the recipe and then decided to make it a free-for-all in what sounded good to me. But that's where the original inspiration came from.
