Brewing Better Belgians
Belgian ales are complex and elegant. They’re my favorites to homebrew and drink. One issue I’ve had, however, is finding a Belgian beer that’s less than six months old in the United States. My Belgian-style homebrewing is therefore based on the aged examples I could get. What’s a workaround for this dilemma? A Belgian beer-cation! I am a Grand Master III beer judge and a Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) Exam Director, so when I traveled with a group to Belgium earlier this year, I used the BJCP structured evaluation process to experience the taste of 130 fresh, classic Belgian ales at breweries, small and large beer cafés, and the Zythos Beer Festival (in Leuven). My mission: To bring that tasting information back to the States so that I could homebrew better Belgian-style beers.
Taking Notes
Throughout my trip, I made sure to follow the BJCP beer scoresheet (http://www.bjcp.org/docs/SCP_Beer
ScoreSheet.pdf) whenever I tasted a beer. After tasting, I recorded a complete, thorough and accurate description of the intensity and character of the aroma and flavor of each ale’s malt, hops, esters, phenols, higher alcohols, balance, and finish.
When I returned home, I got my notes out and used them to compare my perceptions of the ales I tasted in Belgium with my notes based on ales I have tasted that were imported to the US. I found that nearly all of the fresh examples I tasted in Belgium fell within their respective 2015 BJCP descriptions (http://www.bjcp.org/
stylecenter.php). About a third of them, mostly those dominated by malt flavors, tasted very near to the not-so-fresh examples we can get in the US. Others had one or more characteristics that differed from aged samples.
The most common were:
• Lower malt intensity coupled with a dry finish. Examples: Westmalle Dubbel, Affligem Blonde, Westvleteren 12.
• Higher hop character. This was most evident in some of the lighter colored ales: Pale, saison, blond, tripel, and golden strong. Examples: Chimay White, Orval, Duvel Tripel Hop.
• Supporting rather than predominant ethanol and higher alcohol flavors. Examples: Smiske Blond, de Dolle Oerbier, Piraat. I’m not picking on these nine ales, by the way — they just tasted noticeably different than aged samples I had come to expect in the US. There were many more that could have been used as examples.
After tasting fresh Belgian ales, I realized that my homebrew recipes based on the examples I could get in the States were formulated to be underhopped and taste maltier than those fresh ales. I needed to revise my approach in the homebrewery!
What to Do
With my comparisons in hand, I then set out to tweak some of my homebrew recipes to better reflect the fresh examples I tasted on my trip.
First up, and most importantly for Belgian-style beers, I had to think about yeast and fermentation. Beer contains hundreds of aromatic compounds created by yeast. Good fermentation practice can produce a dry finish with reduced malt flavors, which makes for a very drinkable beer. This includes pitching enough healthy yeast, making sufficient nutrients available, and controlling fermentation temperature. Belgian brewers are creative, however, and have been known to stretch the good practice thing on occasion. This is the birthplace of artist Rene Magritte after all. In fact, Belgian brewers manage yeast performance by manipulating all kinds of variables to produce a wide variety of flavors. These include good fermentation practices but also under or over pitching, under aerating, and encouraging high fermentation temperatures. It’s not always an attractive taste they’re after, sometimes just interesting will do fine.
The next step was figuring out the difference in bitterness between the fresh and aged examples. To my palate, the bitterness difference between the fresh ales and their aged cousins was a difference of maybe 10-15 IBUs. Hop aroma and flavor, many times below threshold in aged ales were low to moderate in the most of the fresh ones. Belgian brewers don’t walk in lockstep on hop character. Some favor more and others still bitter to traditional levels and omit flavor and aroma additions altogether. Either way, classic Belgian-style ales should be easy to drink and compatible with food. Leave the absurdly high hopping levels to your non-Belgian brewing efforts.
At this point I decided that the most likely reasons why these ales change balance with time is because of the combination of reduced hop character and/or higher alcohols reacting to compounds that drinkers perceive
as sweet.
With information in hand, I chose two of my favorite styles, Belgian blond and dubbel, as test subjects for my new recipe formulations. Before my pilgrimage to Belgium, I brewed a Belgian blond, BJCP Category 25A, that was easy to drink, had low bitterness, grainy-sweet malt, no hop aroma or flavor, low citrus esters, and a finish that could vary between neutral to sweet from batch to batch. It tasted similar to the aged ales I could buy at home.
Before the Belgium trip I also brewed a dubbel, BJCP Category 26B, that had rich toasty malt flavors, intense raisin and dried cherry esters, and sometimes a sweetish finish. Alcohol was a bit more prominent in my homebrews (that were based on the imported examples) when compared to the fresh examples. See the before and after recipes below.
Making Changes
What I came up with for the ingredients in the two recipes were small changes, but they added more bitterness, hop aroma and flavor. For example, in my blond I bumped the Magnum hops up from 0.5 oz. (14 g) to 0.75 oz. (21 g). In the dubbel, I bumped up the base malt and pared back on the aromatic, Caramunich®, and Special B® malts.
Bigger changes, however, were made to the process to give yeast the conditions they could thrive in to complete the fermentation.
Belgian brewers commonly use a step mash, but any process can work. I use a single infusion mash, which works fine with today’s well-modified malts. I can do step mash and decoctions but prefer to keep the brewing process simple and change the grist recipe to change malt flavor. My recipes may need to be tweaked for your brewery to deliver the flavors that please you, but I add 88% lactic acid to both the mash and sparge water to lower their pH to 5.8. I also add 200 mg of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) to each to neutralize chlorine or chloramine. This replaces filtering the water through activated carbon or using a Campden treatment. I then perform a single infusion mash at 150 °F (66 °C) for one hour. Water calculations will depend on a your water source, but I used local tap water blended 50/50 with distilled water to lower the sulfates.
Since I wasn’t changing my mashing method, I focused on yeast and fermentation to get my revised ales to come out closer to their fresh Belgian counterparts. To start, I bumped up getting the yeast starter going from one day ahead to two days ahead before pitching. Yeast ranching is more trouble than it’s worth to me. For each brew, I grow a fresh tube or packet of yeast up in a 1 qt. (1 L) starter whose OG is 1.040. Add 10 mg zinc, the tiniest drop of olive oil possible and aerate the starter for 1 minute. I then keep it moving on a magnetic stir plate at room temperature. For the revised batches of test brews, I made my starters two days before pitching.
Wort aeration was more rigorous and consistent in the revised ale test batches. Last year a friend and I used his dissolved oxygen meter to compare aeration methods. I used the results to improve my process. For example, in the post-trip blond, I ran a 2-L/minute aquarium air pump through a 0.5 micron stainless steel diffusion stone for 5 minutes with vigorous, continuous mixing in the fermenter using a cordless drill driving a stainless steel paint mixer at high speed. This dissolved 8 ppm O2 as measured with the dissolved oxygen (DO) meter. After pitching, the wort was mixed again to thoroughly distribute the yeast. The same aeration step was repeated a second time, 12 hours later, following Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff’s suggestion in their book Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation (Brewers Publications, 2010). This produced a drier finish and a consistent FG of 1.011.
Last Thoughts
The prime variable to manage flavors for Belgian-style ales is fermentation temperature. Generally esters, phenols, and higher alcohol production go up with increasing temperature. For any given yeast strain, their concentrations don’t change at the same rate as temperature varies and each yeast strain behaves differently with temperature. I see this as a chance to experiment a lot.
What can you do with this information? 1. Try my improved recipes and process and compare the flavors to your homebrewed examples. 2. Use my perceptions to try variations of your recipes and process. 3. Plan a Belgian beer-cation of your own! Nothing beats direct experience to fine-tune your brewing results. And really, do you need another excuse to take a trip to Belgium? Go for it!
BELGIAN RECIPES BEFORE AND AFTER
Original Belgian Blond
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.062 FG = 1.011–1.104
IBU = 20 SRM = 5 ABV = 7–6.6%
Before my trip to Belgium, this was my go-to recipe for Belgian blond.
Ingredients
11 lbs. (5 kg) North American 2-row pale malt
0.5 lb. (0.23 kg) aromatic malt
1.5 lbs. (0.7 kg) cane sugar
7 AAU Magnum pellet hops (60 min.)
(0.5 oz./14 g at 14% alpha acid)
White Labs WLP530 (Abbey Ale) or Wyeast 3787 (Trappist High Gravity) yeast as a 1-qt. (1-L) starter
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Grow the yeast starter a day before pitching. Perform a single-step infusion mash for one hour at 150 °F (66 °C), adding the hops at times indicated in the ingredients list. Chill the wort rapidly following the boil and ferment at 68 °F (20 °C) until final gravity is reached. I used a small aquarium air pump of unknown output to aerate the wort. Air was pumped through a 0.5 micron stainless steel diffusion stone until the fermenter was full of bubbles. I did not perform any mechanical mixing of air and wort.
Revised Belgian Blond
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.062 FG = 1.011
IBU = 30 SRM = 5 ABV = 7%
After the trip and some test brews, the recipe and brewing process changed. Here is what I came up with:
Ingredients
11 lbs. (5 kg) North American 2-row pale malt
0.5 lb. (0.23 kg) aromatic malt
1.5 lbs. (0.7 kg) cane sugar
10.5 AAU Magnum pellet hops (60 min.)
(0.75 oz./21 g at 14% alpha acid)
1 oz. (28 g) Styrian Golding pellets (0 min.)
1 tsp. Irish moss (15 min.)
1⁄2 tsp. yeast nutrient or 10 mg zinc (15 min.)
White Labs WLP530 (Abbey Ale) or Wyeast 3787 (Trappist High Gravity) yeast as a 1-qt. (1-L) starter
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Grow the yeast starter two days before pitching. Perform a single-step infusion mash for one hour at 150 °F (66 °C). Add one drop Fermcap-S antifoam per 1 gallon (3.8 L) of wort as the kettle is filling. This step doesn’t change flavor but bullet proofs the kettle from boiling over which steals valuable tasting time. Boil time is
70 minutes. Add 1 tsp. Irish moss and 10 mg zinc with 15 minutes to go. Force cool to 2 °F (1 °C) below your desired pitching temperature. After cooling, reserve 1⁄2 pint of wort for a forced fermentation test to identify the lowest attainable FG for that particular wort and yeast.
Pitch the entire yeast starter at the temperature you want to hold while the yeast is in its growth phase. This is when most of the yeast contributed flavor compounds are created. For blond, I pitch at 68 °F (20 °C) and allow the fermentation to rise to 72 °F (22 °C). Then, be patient. Let the yeast do its job to completion. Use a refractometer to monitor gravity without using large samples that have to be tossed. It’s OK to raise the fermentation temperature after the growth phase is complete but many Belgian yeasts will take a nap if the temperature is lowered. If attenuation stalls be prepared to warm, mix and/or add a neutral yeast like Safale US-05 to get back in gear. I’m partial to the flavors produced by liquid yeast but it’s handy to keep dry yeast for just these times.
Extract with grains option:
Substitute 5.75 lbs. (2.6 kg) pale dried malt extract and steep the specialty grain for 30 minutes at 150 °F (65 °C).
Original Belgian Dubbel
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.070 FG = 1.012–16
IBU = 25 SRM = 17 ABV = 7.5–8%
Before my trip to Belgium, this was my dubbel recipe. It has rich toasty malt flavors, intense raisin and dried cherry esters, and sometimes a sweetish finish.
Ingredients
10 lbs. (4.5 kg) North American 2-row pale malt
12 oz. (0.34 kg) aromatic malt
12 oz. (0.34 kg) Caramunich® III malt (60 °L)
12 oz. (0.34 kg) Special B® malt
12 oz. (0.34 kg) dark candy syrup (80 °L)
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) cane sugar
10.5 AAU Magnum pellet hops (60 min.)
(0.75 oz./21g at 14% alpha acid)
White Labs WLP540 (Abbey IV Ale) or Wyeast 1762 (Belgian Abbey II) yeast as a 1-qt. (1-L) starter
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Grow the yeast starter one day before pitching. Use a single step infusion mash. Add one drop Fermcap-S antifoam per 1 gallon (3.8 L) of wort as kettle is filling. Boil time is 70 minutes. Force cool to 2 °F (1 °C) below your desired pitching temperature. After cooling, reserve 1⁄2 pint of wort for a forced fermentation test to identify the lowest attainable FG for that particular wort and yeast.
Pitch the entire yeast starter at the temperature you want to hold while the yeast is in its growth phase. Pitch the yeast at 70 °F (21 °C). After the growth phase, allow the fermentation temperature to go up to wherever it wants, which is usually about 76 °F (24 °C).
Extract with grains option:
Substitute 5 lbs. (2.3 kg) pale dried malt extract and steep the specialty grains for 30 minutes at 150 °F (65 °C).
Revised Belgian Dubbel
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.070 FG = 1.012
IBU = 25 SRM = 17 ABV = 8%
After the trip, and more test brews, my dubbel recipe looked like this. The amount of specialty grains was reduced and again more attention was paid to the yeast. This produced a beer with subdued malt flavors and a dryer finish that was closer to the fresh ales on the trip. A nice plus is that it’s more drinkable than its predecessor and I can enjoy more than one in a session.
Ingredients
10.75 lbs. (4.5 kg) North American 2-row pale malt
8 oz. (0.23 kg) aromatic malt
8 oz. (0.23 kg) Caramunich® III malt (60 °L)
8 oz. (0.23 kg) Special B® malt
12 oz. (0.34 kg) dark candy syrup (80 °L)
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) cane sugar
10.5 AAU Magnum pellet hops (60 min.)
(0.75 oz./21 g at 14% alpha acid)
1⁄2 tsp. yeast nutrient or 10 mg zinc (15 min.)
White Labs WLP540 (Abbey IV Ale) or Wyeast 1762 (Belgian Abbey II) yeast as a 1-qt. (1-L) starter
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Grow the yeast starter two days before pitching. Use a single step infusion mash. Add one drop Fermcap-S antifoam per 1 gallon (3.8 L) of wort as the kettle is filling. This step doesn’t change flavor but bullet proofs the kettle from boiling over which steals valuable tasting time. Boil time is 70 minutes. Add 1 tsp. Irish moss and 10 mg zinc with 15 minutes to go. Force cool to 2 °F (1 °C) below your desired pitching temperature. After cooling, reserve 1⁄2 pint of wort for a forced fermentation test to identify the lowest attainable FG for that particular wort and yeast.
Pitch the entire yeast starter at the temperature you want to hold while the yeast is in its growth phase. Pitch the yeast at 70 °F (21 °C). After the growth phase, allow the fermentation temperature to go up to wherever it wants, which is usually about 76 °F (24 °C).
Extract with grains option:
Substitute 5.5 lbs. (2.5 kg) pale dried malt extract and steep the specialty grains for 30 minutes at 150 °F (65 °C).
