Is 13.7% / 1.25# too much for a 5 gallon batch in a Belgian pale ale?
Not if the other ingredients balance it.
And the beer finishes appropriately dry for the style. Be sure to mash a bit lower for proper atttenuation especially if you have other cara malts or character malts included.
Trouble shooting a Belgian pale I made last month.
1.052OG
1.013FG
26.8IBUs
9.5ish SRM
5.1% ABV
55.8% Pils
30.6% Vienna
13.7% CaraMunich II
Styrian / 35min
Saaz / 10min
Willamette / 5 min
WLP570 BGA @ 65F for 3 days
ramped to 68f for 5 days
then crashed to 52f for 5 days
I cracked one last night and it was less than exciting…
I find it somewhat difficult to nail the proper yeast profile for this style. You really have to play around with pitch rate, oxygenation, and ferment temp to hit it for the right balance.
As for the grains, I would personally split that caramunich II addition in half and use a character malt for the other half (biscuit or something along those lines). Just my 2 cents though.
Though I am sure there are numerous Belgian Pale recipes out there, My recipe for Belgian Pale calls for Pils, CaraMunich, and Biscuit. Not sure but maybe the Vienna vs the Biscuit is the issue?
Agreed, I want to try 530 abbey for a spicier pale ale. This one is missing a step in body and in yeast character for sure.
I have brewed many belgian styles of beer, and I still rarely “nail” my desired yeast profile in all of them. I find those yeast strains finicky to work with sometimes, as well as somewhat unpredictable even though I have brewed with some of them very often. Guess I’m just a crappy brewer.
Well then we will be crappy brewers together then I suppose. I am wondering if the Vienna is just what ruined this beer. This brew (because I wanted to try it again) is doughy, in a bad way.
Was this a low oxygen beer? Curious, I hear Vienna is like fresh dough when brewed low oxygen.
No. but this is like flat biscuit dough and not as estery as I would like.
Estery is gonna be from your yeast selection. I don’t know how 570 relates, but I like WY3787 (Westmalle) for mine. How many IBU does it calc to?
I lied, 25.7 was the new recipe, this one is 26.8IBUs with 1.052OG
*Edit - I need to swap out my saaz for kazbek. I want this to have an extra spice character, and I need to get the right strain.
Maybe I should kick in 3522. I can build up a big starter of it and try it on the BGSA and the pale…
WLP530 is my favourite yeast for Belgian styles (non-saison).
I don’t think the grain bill is terrible but that much vienna plus that much caramunich would not be my choice for that style. That’s a lot of sweeter flavors and needs bitterness and/or countervailing flavors.
The trick to a good BPA IMO is to think about the interplay of yeast and hop selection. For those hops I would opt for a spicier yeast and ferment cooler to accentuate the earthy/spicy flavors. It really doesn’t make as much sense to pair a fruitier Belgian yeast with that hop combination. Chouffe would be a good choice for that. I like fruitier yeasts/warmer fermentations with more floral and fruity hops. Of course, most Belgian yeasts will change with fermentation temperature so consider that variable as well.
I love 3522 for my Belgian Pale Ale.
Yeah, great strain.
It might not be totally to style (and it’s been a while since I’ve had one of the commercial examples), but I like to use 50/50 pilsner and pale with a bit of cane sugar (or sometimes the golden candi sryup); bitter with EKG and finish with SG and Saaz. I used to use a lot of 3522 but recently have been using 3787 instead.
IMO it comes down to your yeast. I now have a Golden Strong that I split with different yeasts. My 570 batch is, well just flat. Not bad, not good, just run of the mill flavor with nothing standing out. I pitched at 65, slowly raised to 70, and then to 75 as it slowed. The other yeast I used was 3864. That beer is really fantastic. There is a complexity to it.