Belgian IPA

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Dave Y said:
Well, Belgian-ish IPA or BIIPA I suppose.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/edit/1555555

After my Tripel and Saison, I’m thinking of trying a kind of Belgian themed IPA. I’m looking for a somewhat balanced like a Saison, with some extra hop contribution, not too much citrus, not too much tropical. Floral, spicy, would be fine. I want to keep this under 7%ABV and I don’t want the hops to dominate the beer. I’ve got a pound of honey in here, which I probably won’t get much from by way of character, but it should help with a slightly drier finish.

I’m planning on using Mangrove Jacks French Saison strain, warm fermented, likely no temp control while my current lager finishes.
I do have other hops available - Simcoe, Idaho 7, Strata, Citra, a little more Cascade, cluster & zappa.

Any thoughts?
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Really intrigued by the rye and how it will play with the belgian yeast. Could bring out some cool spicy notes. Let us know how this turns out!
 
Alright, it’s in the kettle at 80F as of about 45 minutes ago.

I made my numbers, pretty much on the money. I made a couple minor errors along the way but nothing that should affect the outcome.
I put the chiller in at 20m to end of boil, set a timer for 5m, should have been 10. put 10m hops in at 15. I realized about 2m in, and shortened the boil and finishing hop by a couple minutes.

I misread my pre-boil gravity and thought I was a little under, but I wasn’t. Not that it would have mattered because ...
I forgot to turn on the sparge kettle :-( so I stayed in vourlauf for about 40 minutes while the sparge water got to temp.

I nailed 1.057 on the final gravity.
pitched yeast, dropped to 1.053
added honey got to 1.057, and with a little more, got to 1.059. Close enough.
It’s probably going to get lost in this beer, but, the honey has a bit of a finishing spice to it.
Color is a little darker than expected (rye) but there’s a lot of sediment & hops left in suspension.

I’m hoping to see yeast activity late tonight.
 
After 24 hours, gravity dropped from 1.059 to 1.026, sitting at about 87F
impressive.

I’m using a 14 gallon fermenter but only 6 gallons of soon to be beer. Even so, I’m glad I went the blow off valve route. Fermentation is rather vigorous.
 
Dave Y said:
After 24 hours, gravity dropped from 1.059 to 1.026, sitting at about 87F
impressive.

I’m using a 14 gallon fermenter but only 6 gallons of soon to be beer. Even so, I’m glad I went the blow off valve route. Fermentation is rather vigorous.
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That's with MJ's Saison yeast, isn't it?
It's on my list of yeasts I like :)
 
You went 87 that early? Damn. I like to start them cooler and them let them go higher after low krausen
The Saisons get going pretty good. The Belgian Abbey Ales are insane during early fermentation.
 
Im kind of a stickler on this stuff
Sounds like you're making a hoppy saison.
Ive made a hop forward Belgian beer but used Belgian yeast and Belgian malt. And fermented cooler. The hops were not Belgian sourced
As far as temperature maybe for a abbey ale or saison but IMO those temperatures bring on yeast esters may be kind of weird with a bunch of hops in there.
Waiting to hear
 
Yeah, the range is 60-90F IIRC, I’m only not sure on the low end. I pitched at ~80F and it stayed steady overnight but once the ambient got over 85 it started creeping up. It was 88F last night at about 1.022, so I moved my Märzen to the keg and swapped over the cooling circuits, brought it down to 77 overnight - reason being, I don’t want it to end up at like 1.004 or similar.
It looks like it worked, sitting at 1.015 @10:30 CDT. I’ll probably have to star ramping it down in a few hours.

I’m hoping the hops don’t try and take center stage here so we’ll see.
 
But saisons are supposed to be dry :)
 
If that is a French Saison yeast, it will get VERY dry. My first was 1.002 without a whole lot of effort. My second was 1.000 with a little effort. That is what they do. Some of the Belgian ones don't get as low.
 
I took a quick sample, I’m betting my tilt is reading a little high. It’s at just under 80F now, reading 1.014-1.016. I put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes to get some yeast free sample - a little honey is present, some subtle funk - think 70’s funk, as in bad. ’70’s bad, which is actually really good.

NOTHING by way of hop aroma though. Going to need to dry hop - minimally, but still have to do it. Cascade is my first thought, but should have a better sense later today or tonight.
 
Maybe I missed something
The title says Belgian IPA or did you change it to a Saison
 
Brew Cat said:
Maybe I missed something
The title says Belgian IPA or did you change it to a Saison
Click to expand...
Brew Cat said:
https://byo.com/article/belgian-pale-ale-techniques/
Click to expand...

This is where it’s the best fit https://www.bjcp.org/style/2015/21/21B/specialty-ipa-belgian-ipa/
If it leans more funky / Belgian, I won’t shed a tear or anything. It’s also an IPA, but, kind of a bástard IPA. So it’s got to have some dry hops. I don’t want to overpower the yeast character, but I hope I can ‘match it’ if that makes sense or support it.
 
Sandy Feet said:
If that is a French Saison yeast, it will get VERY dry. My first was 1.002 without a whole lot of effort. My second was 1.000 with a little effort. That is what they do. Some of the Belgian ones don't get as low.
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I agree...
Although my saisons turned out real low SG, they initially tasted like a blond and never bone dry.
Some even went to below 1.000, but all very very tasty.
They are not supposed to be hoppy, but thats not to say you can't do it.
But if you have a chance, leave some as is and dry hop half the batch
 
Dave Y said:
This is where it’s the best fit https://www.bjcp.org/style/2015/21/21B/specialty-ipa-belgian-ipa/
If it leans more funky / Belgian, I won’t shed a tear or anything. It’s also an IPA, but, kind of a bástard IPA. So it’s got to have some dry hops. I don’t want to overpower the yeast character, but I hope I can ‘match it’ if that makes sense or support it.
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Wow that's some description
The comments says hops and yeast choice is critical.
I looked back at my recipes because I know I fooled around with the style. My note said to cut back on the ABV
The best one I made was with Belgian Pilsner malt willimete hops and a Belgian abbey ale yeast
It was a pale ale not an IPA. Came out fine fermented around 68F
I also tried to make a hoppy saison with WH3711. Made it a couple times finally gave up on it. I remember it being drinkable but not as good as a regular old west coast IPA
Interested to hear your results
 
Brew Cat said:
Wow that's some description
The comments says hops and yeast choice is critical.
I looked back at my recipes because I know I fooled around with the style. My note said to cut back on the ABV
The best one I made was with Belgian Pilsner malt willimete hops and a Belgian abbey ale yeast
It was a pale ale not an IPA. Came out fine fermented around 68F
I also tried to make a hoppy saison with WH3711. Made it a couple times finally gave up on it. I remember it being drinkable but not as good as a regular old west coast IPA
Interested to hear your results
Click to expand...
That is an interesting as hell description and might be a very fun experiment. I think the key might be finding the right yeast strain. If a French Saison yeast, those are clean enough to get away with American hops, and I am intrigued. I have only used a couple of Abbey strains, but I know White Labs does have a yeast that is a combination of an Abbey strain and a Saison.
Keep posting, Dave. You have my attention LOL. I might modify it to make it more sessionable, but it is a very cool idea.
Come to think of it, my Cascade/Mosaic combination in a NE might be interesting to use with a Saison yeast that is not too funky.
Dave, are you going to be on the Zoom meeting? I might have things worked out tomorrow where I can be on, and I would love to hear about this shit.
The brewery up the road us doing a lager fest tomorrow. I want to have a couple, but I might be able to go early.
 
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I have taken 3 samples, even with some quality time in the freezer for a few minutes, I’ve still got yeast in suspension, but I did get a little spice on the palate . I’m fixin’ to check on things in a few minutes, already dropped the hammer and moving into cold crash.
- I’m thinking - already at 1.009 and that’s a low as I really want it, put the yeast to sleep. T/F to a different / clean fermenter for dry hop at ‘cooler than room temp, but not quite lager temps.
That’s what I’m thinking anyway.

I’ve not been to the zoom yet, but I did grab the invite, and if free in the PM I’ll try and jump on.

Cascade and Mosaic... hmm. Last night I was looking hard at galaxy, but I’ll take a fresh look at inventory, got to cram in some yard work.
 
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