Pages: 1
Belgian Blonde - Feedback
I put together this recipe and was looking for feedback:
0.35 lbs. Belgian Wheat Malt
0.65 lbs. Belgian Pale
3 lbs. Liquid Light Extract
5 lbs. Dry Extra Light Extract
2 oz. Cascade (Pellets, 5.50 %AA) boiled 60 min.
1 oz. Saaz (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) boiled 15 min.
0.5 tsp Irish Moss boiled 15 min.
1 oz. Cascade (Pellets, 5.50 %AA) boiled 1 min. info
Yeast : WYeast 3944 Belgian Witbier
OG: 1.074
FG: 1012
ABV: 8.2%
anything look odd here, or does this look like something to run with?
Looks ok to me, except you have a bunch of cascade in there. I punched this into ProMash and came up with 53 IBU. From what I found elsewhere, typical IBU is 20-30. Are you sure you want it this high? That is up there with an IPA.
If you use between .50 and 1.25 oz of cascade @ 60, you will be closer to the style. That will give you between 20-36 IBU. But it's your beer, add 4 pounds if you want.
Hmmm...I was using BeerTools.com and came up with only 25 IBU's - I definitely don't want it to be an IPA style beer.
I'm thinking about adding some flaked oats to it as well and an orange peel, but I want to avoid the temptation of adding everything into the beer just for the sake of adding ingredients...
Would it make a difference if I am using pellets instead of whole hops?
Hmmm I typed it into ProMash again to make sure I wasn't on crack the first time. I set it up for a partial mash, 2 types of Belgian grain, and 2 generic malts, DME and LME. Using the same hop quantities and AA, I came up with 53.3 IBU.
Your saaz are 5%? That is in the high range. Mine were usually 3%.
I am pretty familiar with cascade, since that is the primary (possibly only) hop used in Deschutes Mirror Pond pale ale, average being about 5% AA, but 2 oz in 5 gallons is going to make that fairly bitter. I would back off to just 1 oz personally. It won't be death bitter at 2, but you will notice it.
Again, since the page I was reading mentioned Belgian Blondes being around 20-30 IBU, backing off that extra ounce will put you at the top of the limit, but that's fine. 30-36 IBU is pretty good!
As for the orange peel, those are typically used in Belgian Wit (white) beers, but that doesn't mean you can't be different. Give it a shot! I have only had one beer with orange peel and I loved it.
To your question about whole flowers vice pellets, I have never used pellets, so I am no expert there. I have heard that generally speaking, they are pretty equal. I prefer whole flowers as I feel I am getting more. The first paragraph explains some differences. For one, pellet hops have been smashed into their form using a mechanical hammer, and I believe it explodes the lupid glands which carry the alpha acids, so I believe you might get less bittering performance out of those. Again, I'm not the world expert here. Here is a page I found that gives a basic overview with pros and cons.
http://www.hoptech.com/cart/cart.php?pa … hilosphies
Well, the recipe has been modified quite a bit. Rather than use 5 lbs of extra light DME, I bumped it down to 3 lbs and added 6 lbs of pale liquid extract. Unfortunately they were all out of the extra light liquid extract.
I am also adding 1/4 lb of flaked oats to make sure there is a bit more body to this - using all this light extract gets me nervous.
I'm taking cubx's advice and stepping down to just 1 oz of cascade which are at 5.8% AA and 1 oz of saaz at 3.7% AA.
We'll see how this turns out! I'm a bit nervous, but excited to see whether or not this turns out to be anything like I am imagining it to be. 
I think you are making a good move limiting the amount of cascade hops. you should turn out a pretty good beer. The oats will tend to cloud you beer a bit, but should provide a nice flavor and body. Pretty good ABV too!
I am adding a bit of Irish Moss to help the overall clarity. I figured the oats would cloud the beer a bit, but with all the light and extra light dme, I was worried about making...well...an ale version of Budweiser. 
this sounds like a mistake i've when trialing some of the software out there, the issue was that i forgot to indicate the size of my boil which will change the your IBU strength and the amount of hops that may be required
Pages: 1
Search Home Brewing Knowledge Base
Custom Search
|