Wrong water profile?

[Wrighty69]

Hello. I've brewed a Belgium Blonde beer but a quick taste test after a week to check a reading was nothing like I was expecting. There's no banana or clove but what I would describe as spicy.
The recipe was :
Pilsner (1.5kg)
Munich (600g)
Biscuit (100g)
Belgium candi sugar (150g)
Torrified wheat (40g)
Acid malt (30g)
Magnum for bittering with Saaz at 30 min and 10 minutes.
Water here in South Wales is:
Ca 30 Mg 2.5 Na 9 CO3 29 SO4 27 Cl 12
In 16l of water i added gypsum 1g, Epsom .3g and calcium chloride 1g
Calculations should have given me:
Ca 67 Mg 3.8 Na 9 SO4 69 Cl 52 with a PH5.5
I used a whole packet of CML Belgium which fermented the 11 litres out in around 3-4 days at 22c
Could anyone advise why I didn't get the banana/clove i was hoping for please? Thanks.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Banana (ester) and clove (phenolic) come from the yeast and fermentation profile, not the water. I don't know what CML Belgium "really" is (they repack, they don't make their own) but in general dry yeast tend to give less of those flavours than liquid yeast. Some Belgian yeasts tend to express their phenolics as more of a spicy/peppery note than clove, and people have spent years trying to optimise fermentation profiles to get more banana and/or clove. The fact that even CML only talk about "hints of clove" suggests you shouldn't be expecting too much on that front.

If you're going in a saison-y direction, this is a great review of saison-style yeasts :
https://www.maltosefalcons.com/blogs/brewing-techniques-tips/a-guide-to-saisons-and-saison-yeasts

But warmer will always drive more esters (and potentially off-flavours), you're maybe a bit on the cool side.

But since you mention water my comment would be that it's a rather USian water profile - yeast and mash enzymes will feel happier with at least 100ppm Ca, and a lot of Belgian breweries (but not all) tend to have a certain amount of (bi)carbonate, as a lot of southern Belgium has the same aquifers as Kent.

 

[MashBag]

Yup. Me too, run the yeast warmer. You could also add cloves support the flavour profile either late in fermentation or as a clove tea.