Betty's Belgian Pale.

The BropsaBripsaPalmSugarBitter turned out so well, I wanted to make a big batch of it. Since I'm still working on my process, this may be a little off...we'll see how it goes.

Named after Betty McIntosh, New Westminster City Councillor extraordinaire.

It's Betty!

Recipe

Batch size: 5 gallons

Grain bill:

  • 10 lb Gambrinus ESB

Additional material:

  • 0.75 lb/340 g Palm sugar
  • 0.35 lb/160 g crystallized brown sugar

Hops:

  • 2.5 oz Willamette (4.7%) @ 60
  • 1.25 oz Willamette @ 5 minutes

Yeast:

Mash:

  • Single infusion @ 150F/65C.

Calculated IBUs: y

Prep

January 9, 2010: Made a starter for the yeast: 2/3 c. liquid malt extract + 2 quarts/2 litres of water. Gravity was 1.040.

Brew Day

January 10, 2010: Brought 7 gallons of water to 159F/70C, then added to grain in the cooler. This put the temperature around 148F/64C; I was aiming for 150F/65F, so that's close enough. Mash lasted about 7 hours...the lazy pace of brewing with kids around!

Temp in the wort dropped to 135F/57C by the time I mashed out. I got about 6 gallons wort with 1.050 gravity; this is more than the 5.5 gallons I expected to collect, but I done gone and squozed the grain. I added the first hops and the sugar and brought it to a boil. Five minutes before the end I added the final hops.

Had to squeeze the hops to get about 1 to 1.5 gallons of wort (!), but the final volume was 5 gallons, with a gravity of 1.062. Hit my numbers EXACTLY! (First time trying this, so I'm a little excited.)

Pitched the yeast with the help of my helpers; final volume about 5.5 gallons. After four hours it was already bubbling; after twelve hours it was going like gangbusters. Starters for me!

January 12, 2010: Wow, this thing is fermenting vigorously; I had to rig a blowoff tube.

Bottling

January 29, 2010: FG was 1.006, so 7.5% ABV. 18 litres yield. Pale yellow colour and nice flavour in the hydro sample. Got some washed yeast out of it, but it looks a little strange...not sure how well it'll turn out.

Tasting

February 4, 2010: Yes, it's early but the BropsaBripsaPalmSugarBitter was good young so I wanted to see what it was like. And...it's Belgian. The yeast has definitely made its presence known; it almost reminds me of a banana Hefeweizen in its intensity. I'm hoping that'll mellow, because otherwise that's a lot of strong Belgian beer to get through. It's not nearly as creamy as the Palm Sugar Bitter was at this stage, which is interesting.

Just found this page with descriptions of the yeast: "High gravity yeast with distinct solventy flavor profile from ethanol production, slightly fruity with dry finish." That seems about right; if I'd realized that, I don't know that I'd have used this yeast. Oh well.

February 28, 2010: Wow, this is mellowing nicely. The flavour has become much less intense, and that's fine by me.

March 9, 2010: ToPo and my dad both like this a lot. Hurray for crowd-pleasers! It's amazing to compare this with the Palm Sugar Bitter and see the difference the yeast strain has made. Oh, and: the flavour is more intense in the 450ml Grolsch bottles than it is in the 1 litre bottles. Weird.

May 30, 2010: Just nice. I think it's mellowed a bit in flavour, because I really, really like it. I'm very happy with this beer.