Homebrew Beer Blog

I've never been all that big on Belgians, but over time I've found it's more that I just don't like some of the Belgians, and it just happens that those are some of the most commercially popular. I'm not real big on the wit/white styles, but I've come to appreciate most others. This, by the way, makes for ordering beer annoying in most bars around here during the winter. Most typical bars around here only carry one micro, and that's seasonal Bells. That means they swap between Oberon and Winter White. Diet Coke please!

I wanted to do some kind of light ale to produce some test wort for my ongoing lager experiments. I thought might as well try a Belgian pale. As a bonus here, I used the WLP515 special Antwerp Ale yeast.

515 is listed as an "almost lager like" Belgian, and I assume it's traditional to the Antwerp region. My alternative was 550. This was in stock and lager-like sounded like a good easy drinking beer. WL also says it may put off some sulfur. That was an understatement. This was a stinky one. The sulfur stuck around in the beer for a little while too, so I let it age a little longer at room temp. It did clear up though.

I'm still lagering this a little to let it clean up. Last time I tried it was very nice, but still had a little graininess to it. Probably another week and it will be good. I'm glad I saved this yeast, because I could probably do another of these. Not sure how it will do in a competition though because it's pretty clean, and judges may be insisting on more esters and phenolics.

Anyway, here's the recipe. I pretty much just used Jamil's recipe since I'm not at all familiar with this style. I think it's pretty much it, except I might have changed the hops used my own mash schedule. I used up the last of my Durst Pils, so that's why there's a split.

01/06/08

9 Gal Batch
OG = 1.051
80% Efficiency
20 IBUs

7# Belgian Pils
7# German Pils
1# CaraMunich
.33 # Victory Malt

134 rest for 15 minutes
152 rest for 60 minutes
168 mashout
168 sparge for 30 minutes

0.65 Magnum 12.9AA) @ 60 min
0.75 EKG (6.7AA) @ 1 min

WLP515 at 67 degrees
Whirlfloc