'mild 'belgian Ale.

[Dave70]

I normally bottle and sip my Belgians over time, but I'd like to make a batch for kegging and a bit of quaffing. When I say 'mild' I mean around the 4 to 5% range.
Can someone suggest how best to retain the characteristics like the spicyness fruitiness and dryness and yet leave it pint friendly?

 

[tiprya]

Good question, I'm looking for something similar.

I guess a Belgian pale, or a single is close to this concept, but like you, I want to maintain the flavours of the bigger Belgians.

I was thinking about a Saison, or running something like 3522 at saison temperatures.

 

[drsmurto]

I normally bottle and sip my Belgians over time, but I'd like to make a batch for kegging and a bit of quaffing. When I say 'mild' I mean around the 4 to 5% range.
Can someone suggest how best to retain the characteristics like the spicyness fruitiness and dryness and yet leave it pint friendly?

Belgian Pale Ale

EDIT - beaten to it by tiprya. Best one i have tasted was brewed by The Drunk Arab - have a squiz at the flavour of the week threads for some good info on it.

 

[beerbrewer76543]

I've been reading the Oxford Companion to Beer and it says it was common practise for Belgian monks to brew strong beers for the public due to distilled alcohols being outlawed until the 1980s but for themselves they brewed lighter beers around the 4-5% mark

I guess you can't really delete the candi sugar addition as that is where a lot of colour and flavour comes from for the darker styles

Maybe you could wind back the base malt and mash slightly higher than normal to avoid it becoming too thin?

Sounds like an interesting project :icon_cheers:

 

[jlm]

As stated above, Belgian pale ale. The example in Brewing Classic Styles is not a bad start, ferment on the cool side with your favoured Belgian yeast (in my case wyeast Canadian/Belgian.....I hope that gets bought back soon.....) and hop late with your favourite hop. With late hopped belgians I always liked a moderate amount of styrians, but some inspiration from Murrays and 8 Wired has got me playing with NZ hops a bit. NS, Sticklebract and good 'ol B Saaz have worked well to my palette. Good style to play around with flavours that you don't come across regularly in commercial examples.

 

[3GumsBrewing]

You know what would be a good experiment. A 60/- with Belgian yeast.. Mmmm might have to try it..

Scottish 60/- // Belgian 0.55 Euro (Kenyan Shilling is the only one left....)

OG - 1034
FG - 1015

88% Maris Otter
5% Crystal 55
5% Crystal 120
2% Pale Choc
15 IBU East Kent Goldings @ 60
Mash Temp - 68

** insert Belgian yeast here **
Ferment @ 18 for 2 weeks

Cheers 3G

 

[Nick JD]

Belgian Smash ... 100% Pils to 1.040, Noble hop to 25 IBUs at 60min, and W1214 tastes fantastic.

Also, check out the Farmhouse Saisons for summer brewing. Supurb, fruity and light and oh so quaffable.

 

[black_labb]

I've just bottled a Belgian pale that seems very nice. It's not going to have as much yeast complexity as something with higher gravity, but that can be nice as well, especially as a session ale. The subtle esters that come through on a lower alcohol beer can be great.

I'm not sure exactly what you are after but dropping the base malt back on most recipes could work well. I did a dark strong at dubbel % and added the dark candy sugar as a priming solution, but that doesn't help you if you are kegging.

Give a Belgian pale a go. Can be just pils malt or you can treat it like a low hopped bitter with a Belgian yeast.

Remember that the yeast cake is a great starter for a bigger Belgian.

 

[brewtas]

Some good suggestions so far.

I bottled a session saison the other day that I'm excited about. 1.040 OG, 1.003 FG and 30 IBUs. I used Pils, rye and wheat malts and Aramis, Saaz and Styrian Golding hops. Fermented at 28'C. I used WY3725 but any of the saison yeasts would be worth a shot.

So far it tastes pretty great. It has surprisingly decent mouthfeel for a beer that finished so low. Fruity, some spice from the rye and hops but finishes clean, bitter and a little tart.

Also, from a blog I've followed a bit this Belgian table beer sounds good.

 

[Dave70]

Belgian Smash ... 100% Pils to 1.040, Noble hop to 25 IBUs at 60min, and W1214 tastes fantastic.

Also, check out the Farmhouse Saisons for summer brewing. Supurb, fruity and light and oh so quaffable.

Pretty much how I normally roll, but with sugaz. I like them simple. Like me.

Plenty of good ideas here.


On the subject of Farmhouse ale, is there anything special about this lot, or are Wyeast just trying to sound all exclusive and stuff?

http://www.wyeastlab.com/vssprogram.cfm

 

[manticle]

Farmhouse ale yeast is great.

Plenty of belgian table beers out there - they are not all super high grav beers. Not suggesting it's what you are after but have a look at the abv of lindeman's framboise for example.

Belgian pale or tarditional low alc saison would do it for me. Otherwise look at Belgian 'enkel' (single)

I have recipes for Belgian pale and a saison with PC farmhouse in the db. Will hunt up for you if you are interested.

 

[Dave70]

Farmhouse ale yeast is great.

Plenty of belgian table beers out there - they are not all super high grav beers. Not suggesting it's what you are after but have a look at the abv of lindeman's framboise for example.

Belgian pale or tarditional low alc saison would do it for me. Otherwise look at Belgian 'enkel' (single)

I have recipes for Belgian pale and a saison with PC farmhouse in the db. Will hunt up for you if you are interested.

As a bit of a fan of the style, I feel a little ashamed to admit I had to google 'enkel'.
So yes, if you'd be so kind.

 

[manticle]

Did 3 saisons - same yeast and hopping schedule but different yeasts. My favourite was the farmhouse. Finishes drier than the db suggests so alc will be a touch higher. Farmhouse can handle higher temps although I didn't try and push it as far as the Belgian saison.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...amp;recipe=1444

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...amp;recipe=1513

 

[Dave70]

Did 3 saisons - same yeast and hopping schedule but different yeasts. My favourite was the farmhouse. Finishes drier than the db suggests so alc will be a touch higher. Farmhouse can handle higher temps although I didn't try and push it as far as the Belgian saison.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...amp;recipe=1444

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...amp;recipe=1513

Cheers.
Option one looks great to me.

I think I'll soon have to bite the bullet and get my step mashing **** together. I use to think it was kind of redundant with today's malts, but a lot of recipes I'd like to try seem to involve it.

 

[humulus]

Mants how do you think the Pale ale recipe would go with Wyeast Schelde 3655?,got a smack in the fridge i wanna use,then pitch a higher gravity Gloden ale on top when the numbers have built
cheers :beer:

 

[manticle]

I've only used the schelde once - in a version of a grand cru thing I make which usually uses forbidden fruit.

I didn't enjoy the resulting beer but I have no idea what exactly was wrong. My first thought was dms - still unsure if it was that or something else. Still have a bottle left somewhere so I'll see what age has done to it.

Anyway, if you know and enjoy a particular belgian yeast in pale coloured ales, then I think the grist and hopping schedule should work well.

 

[humulus]

I've only used the schelde once - in a version of a grand cru thing I make which usually uses forbidden fruit.

I didn't enjoy the resulting beer but I have no idea what exactly was wrong. My first thought was dms - still unsure if it was that or something else. Still have a bottle left somewhere so I'll see what age has done to it.

Anyway, if you know and enjoy a particular belgian yeast in pale coloured ales, then I think the grist and hopping schedule should work well.

Cheers Mants ill give it a go and let you know the result ill follow your recipe