Today I will make a Belgian Blond Ale. This is a significant style for me because it was really the first non-German beer style I drank and without that experience I probably would not brew so many Belgian styles today. It is often overshadowed by Tripel and Duvel but a perfect "gateway beer": Close enough to pale lagers to be approachable, yet "Belgian" enough to be interesting. The most common example would be Leffe Blond.
I brewed a Saison from some leftover ingredients in May and my mind was blown by the fact that the extremely simple recipe that I used could make such a lovely beer. After some aging it became my absolute favorite for this year. I want to continue this path of "Beauty in Simplicity" and use a grain bill of
@brudibrau for years, my approach to formulating homebrew recipes has been that of simplicity - every single ingredient needs to contribute something very specific, and I think I've been rather successful with it. Lots of beer styles can be brewed as SMaSH beers, while others would fall into "brewing on the ones" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sSKHzmhrzY). My only exception to that has been Czech Dark Lager, because Czech brewers say that it typically needs 4 malts (and they all contribute to the complexity).
@akrennmair Yeah, I always get a bit annoyed when I see american Dubbel recipes with seven different specialty malts and I'm like: "Folks! Pilsener Malt, Special B, whatever dark sugar syrup you can find for cheap, Noble hops, open fermentation and let BE-256 or Lallemand Abbayé work its magic! That's really all you need!". I am kind of applying that simplicity approach to more of my brews now.
Thanks for the presentation, now I have something to watch during the stirring 🙂
@brudibrau I found that presentation to be incredibly formative for my recipe formulation. It really taught me to focus on what I wanted to achieve without being as limited as SMaSH. And generally, I got really good results from it.
@akrennmair I guess for me the eye-opener was to see the recipe for Westmalle Tripel a couple of years ago. Took me until that Saison in May to fully understand it though 😂
@sumisu3@brudibrau IMHO, Kellerbier is a very free-style "style". Basically brew a good lager beer that you like, serve it unfiltered, that's it. The 50/50 Pilsner/Munich is just an example going back to my attempt cloning Mahrs aU (https://dafteejit.com/2020/01/mahrs-au-clone-iteration-1/). You might as well go 100% Pilsner, or add some specialty malt, or even brew it as a dark lager. It can be either on the sweet side or quite bitter, that's up to you.
For the step mash I have decided to try something more elaborate this time. I combine the mash schedule of The Apartment Brewer/Steve with my usual mash schedule and do the following rests:
10 minutes at 50°C
45 minutes at 64°C
30 minutes at 70°C
Mashout at 78°C
That should give the dryness and body that are typical for Belgian Blond Ales.
Also check out Steve's channel, I think it is one of the best-researched homebrewing channels on Youtube.
For the hops I want to tip my hat both to modern craft beer trends and local ingredients. Therefore I use homegrown Hüll Melon hops. 30g at the beginning and 20 at the end of a 30 minute boil. The idea is that the honey melon notes from the hops should work well with the banana character from the Belgian yeast. Let's find out if this is a great idea or a silly one. The smell of melon is amazing anyway.
Take this you zealots of the Reinheitsgebot, I am using table sugar in my beer! 😛
Take this you zealots of "Belgian" brewing who think that a beer isn't "Belgian" unless it is made with expensive candi sugar syrup. I am using table sugar in my beer 😛
But seriously, some kind of sugar is the secret ingredient for many Belgian style beers. It makes them light and easy-drinking as well as dangerously high-ABV 😏
The wort is in the fermenter now and I sprinkled a package of SafAle T-58 over it. That seems to be the go to dry yeast for Belgian Ales that are not Saisons, Abbey Ales or Lambics. I have never worked with it before but I gave it some nutrient so it can work its magic quicker. I hope for some nice banana and clove character, especially when used in open fermentation. The ambient temperature in my basement is 21°C which should be the comfort zone for this yeast.
Looks like a solid OG of 15°P. If the fermentation goes as planned that should lead to a nice 6.7% ABV. Blond Ale. Almost pintable for Belgian beers... 😏
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