2nd Ag - A Belgian Pale Ale

[petesbrew]

Nice one bro - looks awesome! I brew in the garage, so the mrs can't see or hear the carnage. Busted stuff, burns, spills, more busted stuff and leaking taps.

Cheers - Mike

Yeah I boiled up in the garage only once one night. The steam wafted thru the doorway everytime I went thru it, and up the stairwell into our bedroom. SHMBO was snapping at me, "The F..king bedroom smells like a f..king brewery!!!"
"Yeah it's great hey?" is not the right answer. B)

 

[Jazzafish]

Pete, all I can say is AWESOME!

:icon_offtopic: Linz, if you can read this, do you recognise that mash tun?

 

[petesbrew]

Cheers Jazza! That zapap mash tun works a treat. (cheers Linz too!)

Temps in the garage this morning was 13c... proooobably not the best temp for brewing a Belgian, but sitting on the barfridge it's getting a bit of warmth from that, and is starting to form a krausen and some airlock action. The stout is bubbling away nicely too.

By the way, the stout recipe was pretty simple:
Coopers Stout
Morgans Dark Malt Extract
110g Roasted Barley (steeped in cold water overnight)
15g Styrian Goldings @ 60min
15g Styrian Goldings @ 10min
Danstar? Windsor Yeast

 

[petesbrew]

For the record here's the final recipe used (choc malt replaced with roast barley)

Brugge Belgian Pale Ale - petesbrew
June 22, 2008

Category Belgian and French Ale
Subcategory Belgian Pale Ale
Recipe Type All Grain
Batch Size 23 liters
Volume Boiled 33 liters
Mash Efficiency 72 %
Total Grain/Extract 5.73 kg.
Total Hops 50.0 g.


3.5 kg. Australian Pale Malt info
.200 kg. Melanoidin Malt info
.2 kg. Belgian Cara-Pils info
1.8 kg. German 2-row Pils info
.03 kg. Roasted Barley info
40 g. Styrian Goldings (Pellets, 4.6 %AA) boiled 60 min. info
10 g. Styrian Goldings (Pellets, 4.6 %AA) boiled 0 min. info
Yeast : White Labs WLP500 Trappist Ale info

90 min boil

Predicted Belgian Pale Ale Compliance
Original Gravity 1.053 1.048 - 1.054
100 %

Terminal Gravity 1.012 1.010 - 1.014
100 %

Color 9.08 SRM 8.00 - 14.00 SRM
100 %

Bitterness 25.1 IBU 20.00 - 30.00 IBU
100 %

Alcohol (%volume) 5.3 % 4.80 - 5.50 %
100 %

100 % overall

 

[petesbrew]

bubbling away slowly at about 16'C.
I took a hydrometer sample last night... didn't even bother looking at the reading, I just wanted to taste it!!!

Verdict?

 

[petesbrew]

Tasted some tonight. The yeast is slowly doing it's work. It's only dropped to 1030 so far from 1053, but the flavour is very good.

 

[petesbrew]

Sample taken last night. Had dropped to around 1012.
Quite murky & cloudy, but another week will fix that.
Taste is divine.
I know I'm partially taking part in the July beer free challenge, but as the Japanese say, "for scientific research purposes".

 

[petesbrew]

FG = 1010. Bottling it tonight, so it should be nicely carbed for the July HBG pizza night. :beer:

 

[petesbrew]

Okay, I cracked open a stubbie tonight. Here's a little pic of the creation.



THE BEST BEER I'VE EVER BREWED! :icon_drool2: :icon_cheers:
I swear, the first sip, and I was back in a little touristy cafe in the town square in Brugges. (and I swear, I bought this glass from there too).
That's the best I can describe the flavour, just awesome.
Drank it while watching The IT Crowd and p1ssing myself laughing.
One was not enough - just finished no.2, and I'm comfortably happy.

Cheers for the input, lads, and the pressure to go liquid yeast. It made this beer.

Cheers
Pete

 

[Thommo]

Looks fantastic Pete. Bring on next Tuesday!!!!

(Hope there's still some left by then mate)

Thommo.

 

[petesbrew]

Looks fantastic Pete. Bring on next Tuesday!!!!

(Hope there's still some left by then mate)

Thommo.

Yeah I can see that being a problem, Thommo.
7 days is a very, very long time.

I think I'll have to bring 2 longnecks.

 

[goomboogo]

Good work. Looks great and it sounds as though you're happy with the flavour. As you said, the yeast choice in this style of beer is a major component.

 

[MVZOOM]

Looks fantastic Pete. Bring on next Tuesday!!!!

(Hope there's still some left by then mate)

Thommo.

Gaaaah!!! I'm at the snow next week and can't make the night but I REALLY want to taste this beer Pete. Maybe you can keep some and mature for another month or so? What do I have to do to convince you?!?!

Cheers - Mike

 

[petesbrew]

Gaaaah!!! I'm at the snow next week and can't make the night but I REALLY want to taste this beer Pete. Maybe you can keep some and mature for another month or so? What do I have to do to convince you?!?!

Cheers - Mike

I reckon I can make this last for another month, Mike.