31st Brew – Belgian IPA - Dec 18, 2010

The patio is FINALLY done, so we are celebrating by brewing up some Belgian IPA and drinking some select brews. I had planned to have a massive party when the patio was done, but its going to be cold and I expect most people will be very busy with the holidays. Rest assure though that we will be making this a worthy celebration. For example, if we have a good enough response I will be picking up a 6 liter bottle of St. Bernardus Abt 12.

Ok, some info about the brew. Nothing too complex, but looking for a light to moderate level of Belgium character mixed with a s%#t load of hop flavor and bitterness. Not too strong, but enough punch so that we can add a decent level of hops for balance. Maybe 7-7.5% would be nice. After looking through the white labs catalog I think that I will use either the WLP550 (Belgian Ale) or WLP575 (Belgian Style Ale Yeast Blend) yeast. These yeasts should provide the moderate Belgian flavor I’m looking for, matched with a decent level of attenuation.

Hop choice may require some investigation because its not clear yet what would work the best. We do have a bunch of homegrown cascade ready as well as a bunch of odds and ends that have been collecting. So this may turn into the Belgian random hop. One added twist with the hops is that we will be using the new Blichman Hop Rocket as a HopHack.

That’s about it. We’ll ferment this at the usual ale temperatures 68-70, and shouldn’t have any issue with chilling this round given the water should be sufficiently cold now. Hope everyone can make it out.

While I’m at it, I might as well mention a few other things on the horizon:

1. I have begun the process of developing a new brew system with more automation and larger capacity. Don’t want to spill the beans on the details just yet, but it will have a 10-20 gal capacity and be controlled digitally.
2. I plan to upgrade the blog soon to the new BlogEngine version and hopefully with a new look and/or domain to make it more beer centric.

Cheers!