Considering doing a Belgian IPA

[sven945]

My freezer compartment is full of hops (50g centennial, 70g columbus, 50g cascade, 50g simcoe, and I brew about 12l at a time) from a previous IPA brew and I need to use them up. I don't fancy making another straightforward IPA so I was thinking what else I could do with those hops that's a little bit more interesting than making another 25 bottles of the same as before. I was thinking about making a Belgian/American IPA, using a tried and tested IPA recipe with a Belgian yeast. Probably Mangrove Jacks Belgian Abbey Yeast.

Any obvious problems with that idea? I've seen other people suggest that yeast is more suitable than other Belgian yeasts for a hoppier beer.

 

[strange-steve]

Sounds good to me, a bit of Belgian spiciness works well with hoppy beers. Never used that particular yeast so can't comment on it, but I'd probably go for WLP570 or 550 if I were doing it.

 

[sven945]

Thanks for the advice. I'm tempted to have a go with liquid yeast, but maybe I'll save that for another one. Especially because I've not got a whole day to brew when I plan to do it, so I'd rather keep things simple at the moment.

I'm tempted to use 5% aromatic malt in it, with the remaining 95% just pale malt. I've never used aromatic malt before, but I've read it can do nice things to a Belgian style. I've not thought about exactly how to do the hops yet. I've heard Belgian IPAs should have lower IBUs than an American IPA, but other than that I might just use a similar schedule as a strong IPA I made a month or so ago.

 

[sven945]

Thanks for the advice. I'm tempted to have a go with liquid yeast, but maybe I'll save that for another one. Especially because I've not got a whole day to brew when I plan to do it, so I'd rather keep things simple at the moment.

I'm tempted to use 5% aromatic malt in it, with the remaining 95% just pale malt. I've never used aromatic malt before, but I've read it can do nice things to a Belgian style. I've not thought about exactly how to do the hops yet. I've heard Belgian IPAs should have lower IBUs than an American IPA, but other than that I might just use a similar schedule as a strong IPA I made a month or so ago.

 

[dad_of_jon]

My freezer compartment is full of hops (50g centennial, 70g columbus, 50g cascade, 50g simcoe, and I brew about 12l at a time) from a previous IPA brew and I need to use them up. I don't fancy making another straightforward IPA so I was thinking what else I could do with those hops that's a little bit more interesting than making another 25 bottles of the same as before. I was thinking about making a Belgian/American IPA, using a tried and tested IPA recipe with a Belgian yeast. Probably Mangrove Jacks Belgian Abbey Yeast.

Any obvious problems with that idea? I've seen other people suggest that yeast is more suitable than other Belgian yeasts for a hoppier beer.

I love that yeast but never used it with a hoppy beer. but the clue is in the title really ferment it about 22-24 for a riot of funky Belgian fruitiness.

 

[IainM]

I've been thinking about doing one of these. BrewDog use Wyeast-Ardennes 3522 for their Belgian IPAs, and they taste pretty good to me. From what I've heard, Belgians are one of the styles which really benefits from a liquid yeast. Using liquid doesn't really add to your brew day, just make a starter up a day or two before and you're set.

 

[sven945]

Right, I've got my grains for this (2.5kg pale, 150g aromatic malt and 400g sugar, for hopefully 12 litres at the end), and ended up getting a pack of WLP500 Monastery yeast for it. The guy in my local homebrew shop suggested I might try putting no hops in at 60mins, instead putting everything in towards the end of the boil. I've had a play with Beersmith and I can get IBUs of 70 odd putting about 15g each of centennial, columbus, cascade and simcoe at 20 minutes, then I was going to put about the same at flameout (once it's cooled to 80ºC). Then some more of the same for dry hopping. Does that sound reasonable? It's all a bit of an experiment really.

Also I'm going to do my best to keep it cool when fermenting so the fruit from the yeast doesn't overpower everything, but I'm limited to using the wet towel trick.

 

[sven945]

(actually, I might miss out the Columbus and keep that for a single hop brew, since I've got 75g of that left. I'll up the others to compensate).

 

[strange-steve]

If you can keep it in the low 20s for the first couple of days it should control the esters, after that I would let it rise naturally to attenuate properly. Just keep in mind with the low fg expected with belgian yeasts the bitterness will be accentuated. Of course it's personal taste but 70 IBU sounds rather a lot to me.
The late hopping method is called hop bursting and it works well in American pale ales. How well it'll work with the Chimay yeast, I have no idea. Let us know.

 

[sven945]

Thanks! I'll just save the Columbus for another brew without upping anything else, which brings the IBUs down to 46. I'm hoping this won't turn out to be awful, but it's a bit of a first for me!