| Author |
Message |
    
Iain Scarlett (81.128.201.178)
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 06:15 pm: | 
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Newbie to this board and fairly inexperienced brewer.
I'll be brewing in a couple of weeks time and could do with a simple, tried and tested recipe for a Belgian blonde ale, something akin to Leffe or La Rochfortoise would be nice.
By simple, I mean fairly standard ingredients. My LHBS over here in the UK only stocks fairly common malts and hops, i.e. no Belgian malt. I don't mind getting some speciality grains mail order but would obviously like to keep the amount of these down.
If anyone has a good recipe I'd appreciate the help.
I'll probably be using Chimay yeast from the bottle and will be fermenting at cellar temp, which is currently 62 deg.F
Cheers |
Nic Templeton (208.249.92.135)
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 07:17 pm: |
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Hey Iain-
I've been thinking about making a Belgian Blonde Ale as well. Here's the recipe I came up with, keep in mind, I didn't research this style before comming up with the recipe, figured at 70% mash eff.
OG: 1.058
IBU: 25
SRM: 4.6
9lbs Belgian Pilsner Malt *
.5lb Wheat Malt
1.5lbs Clear Belgian Candi Sugar **
1.5 oz Hallertauer at 60 mins
0.5 oz Hallertauer at 10 mins
1.0 oz Saaz at 0 mins [flame out]
* Use a good 2-row base malt and you'll be fine.
** Many subsitute regular cooking sugar. I tend to use cane suger instead of candi suger.
Good luck. I love to see the recipe that you decide on.
Nic Templeton
Seattle - WA |
Russ Ward (65.100.213.171)
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 10:06 pm: |
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I just made a strong belgain blonde bottled it yesterday.
here it is :
9lbs Belgian Pils
2lbs Belgain Pale 2-row
2lbs Clear Candi Sugar
1lbs Belgain Wheat Malt
1lbs Cara-Pils
1.75oz Perle -60mins
.5oz Styrian Goldings -30mins
2oz Hallertauer -10mins
White Labs WLP550 Belgain Ale Yeast
This one spent 2 weeks in pri and 2 weeks in 2ndry.
OG was 1.089 and FG was 1.008
Hope it turns out |
Walt Fischer (24.221.196.114)
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 10:59 pm: |
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1.089 to 1.008
10.7%!
Russ has the right idea 
Brew that one..;>
Walt
---- |
Dave Witt (64.12.97.9)
| | Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 12:58 am: |
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I made one this summer.
10# Dingemanns pils
.5# wheat malt
Mash for 60 min @ 150F
.8 oz Horizon pellets 10% aa FWH
Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Grav.
Prim- 76F for 7 days.
Sec- 69F for 10 days.
I actually made the mistake of brewing this with 1.25 oz of above hops--came out a little bitter for a Belgian. Mellowing out nicely now, 2 1/2 mos. later. This beer has a nice light body, no need for candi sugar in the boil, IMHO.
OG 1.057
FG 1.008
I'll now be brewing Belgian beers much more often. This beer and another I brewed on the cake have piqued my interest. |
matt_dinges (65.58.123.75)
| | Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 01:41 am: |
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Nice seeing those horizon hops in there dave...I just brewed a big belgian ambree with them, including 0.3oz for dry hopping...should be interesting...nothing wrong with some bitterness in there either, unless you only like sweet beers...this is homebrew! |
Iain Scarlett (81.128.159.182)
| | Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 07:57 am: |
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Thanks for the suggestions chaps. I'll probably be back with questions in a couple of weeks as this'll be my first attempt at batch sparging.
Cheers
Iain |
Dave Witt (152.163.252.67)
| | Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 10:43 pm: |
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Matt,
With 1.25 oz as FWH, I thought it would take the edge off what otherwise would be a little on the high side, ibu wise. It may not be all that bitter, but it is very spicy, possibly from the FWH or even the warm ferment. |
matt_dinges (67.31.178.189)
| | Posted on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 05:21 am: |
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Dave-
That's often my approach too(messing with the FWH amount vs the final IBU amount)...as a hop head its hard to brew those "to style" belgian ales...but belgians use hops just like every other brewer...
I'll bet both FWH and high ferment are playing a role in the flavor, especially with 3787, I'd almost look to the yeast more than the hops there, but I've only used it twice...to me the fun of these belgian yeasts is they can really make an impact on your beer all over the place, in some really surprising ways...
But from the moment I tasted my test batch with 100% horizon & 1056, I said, these hops should be used in a belgian...now, what yeast would they work with? I used the WL Bastogne doing a sort-of-clone of Caracole's Ambree...dry hopping was just something I HAD to do!
Horizon's just seem so much, for lack of a better description, more subtle and rounded than other high alpha (or many low alpha) american hops...herbal I call them...but sometimes peachy as well... |
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