Searching for the line between "hobby" and "obsession"

Malinois Pale Ale

I threw together a brew day at the behest of the wife this past weekend as she was going to be busy with other stuff. Not a problem! I just moved up my plans to brew a Belgian pale ale by a few weeks (named after a popular Belgian sheep dog, the Malinois). This will be one of the two beers I’m going to choose from to compete in my homebrew club’s summer competition (the other being the California Common I brewed last month).

In my recipe research, I bought a bomber of Belgian Pale Ale produced by local brewery Flat Earth and sent them an email to see if they’d be open to sharing the recipe. No response! :) That’s ok, I get it. Just thought I’d try. I took another avenue and listened to a podcast by Jamil Zainasheff from 2006 where he walks through his own BPA recipe (listen here). Mine is largely based off of his. Given that the caramunich I could get was only 57*L instead of 75*L like Jamil suggested. To help compensate, I used 0.5 lbs of it instead of .75 lbs and then changed the normal 8*L munich he suggested for dark 15.5*L munich malt and then added 6 oz. of 1.8*L carafoam so I could make sure this brew has a nice sustainable head. Also, I threw in a tbsp of bitter orange in at the end of the boil to see if I could help bring out that flavor in this BPA.

Other than that, this brew day was pretty much by-the-book. 151*-149* 75 min. mash, 90 min. boil to eliminate DMS from the pilsner malt and I’m using the WLP-510 Bastogne yeast I collected and washed from the sour beer’s primary ferment. It’s rockin’ and rollin’ as I type this! Here’s the recipe:

Belgian Pale Ale


Batch size 5.5 gallons
Boil size 8.5 gallons
Boil time 90 minutes
Grain weight 12.38 pounds
Efficiency 78%
Original gravity 1.049
Final gravity 1.012 (expected)
Alcohol (by volume) 5.5%
Bitterness (IBU) 29
Color (SRM) 7.2°L
Yeast
1 liquid pack equivalent
White Labs
    WLP510
Bastogne ale yeast
Grains/Extracts/Sugars
12.38 pounds
Pilsen
    36ppg, 1.5°L
11 pounds
    88.9%
CaraMunich
    34ppg, 55°L
0.5 pounds
    4.0%
Munich (Dark)
    34ppg, 16°L
0.5 pounds
    4.0%
Carafoam
    33ppg, 2°L
0.38 pounds
    3.1%
Hops (totals)
2 ounces
Saaz hops
    4.4%, Pellet
1 ounce
Goldings (Kent) hops
    5.8%, Pellet
1 ounce
Additions
0.15 ounces
Orange peel (Bitter)
    Flavor
0.15 ounces
Mash
75 minutes, 9.0 gallons
Strike
    Target 151°F
4.8 gallons
162°F
75 minutes (+0)
2nd mash
    Target 178°F
5 gallons
180°F
Boil
90 minutes, 6.9 gallons
Goldings (Kent) hops
    5.8%, Pellet
1 ounce
60 minutes (+30)
Saaz hops
    4.4%, Pellet
0.5 ounces
30 minutes (+60)
Saaz hops
    4.4%, Pellet
0.5 ounces
30 minutes (+60)
Orange peel (Bitter)
    Flavor
0.15 ounces
2 minutes (+88)
Ferment
65°F for first three days, then 66, 67, 68° in consecutive days

Temp is dialed in! Strike water was 162* for this 12.38 lbs of grain.

Boil additions

Not going to have a blowoff two brews in a row, especially using the same yeast strain!

And it payed off. I awoke the next morning to find that the tubing was indeed necessary.

I love watching an active ferment. Work work work yeast!

One Response

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