Brew of the Month, February Edition: Belgian Pale Ale

By Matt Ross

February’s Brew of the Month is a Belgian Pale Ale. This style is known for being packed full of flavor yet sessionable at the same time. All ingredients act harmoniously to create a delightful and crisp brew.

More than 90% of the grain bill for the Belgian Pale Ale is base malt. Pilsner malt accounts for 60% and is complimented with smaller additions of 20% Vienna and 10% Munich. For increased malt complexity, small amounts of aromatic and cara 20 were selected for a sweeter biscuit flavor. For all-grain brewers, the grains are mashed at 152F to create a balanced wort that will not be too fermentable or too sweet.

Hops include an ounce of Glacier at 60 minutes, an ounce of UK East Kent Goldings at 20 minutes and an ounce of German Select at fire out. It is also dry hopped with an ounce of UK East Kent Golding to bump up hop aroma. This combination was chosen to highlight delicate floral and bright citrus flavor without turning this fun crisp pale ale into an IPA.

This beer was fermented with White Labs 550 Belgian Ale yeast. This yeast likes to ferment a bit warmer (around 68 degrees F on the low end) but produces a wonderful bouquet of estery spice, phenolics and banana. Starting gravity on this beer was 1.049 and it finished around 1.007 making this beer a sessionable 5.5%.

Overall malt and hops balance well and allow the yeast to shine through on the palate. It has a touch of residual sweetness which plays nicely with the floral aroma from dry hopping. This beer is great to drink fresh but will also do well with some age on it.

The all-grain Belgian Pale Ale brew of the month recipe is $29.93 and extract is $33.05. As always, we encourage our patrons to take our recipe and put their own spin on it. Curious about how this beer would taste with a saison yeast? Make it yours. Brew on, Grand Rapids.

All Grain

• 6lbs Cassel Pilsner Malt
• 2lbs Weyermann Vienna Malt
• 1lb Briess Munich 10L
• .5lb Cara20
• .25 Aromatic

• 1oz Glacier @ 60min
• 1oz East Kent Golding UK @ 20min
• 1oz German Spalt (Select) @ 0min
• 1oz East Kent Golding UK Dry Hopped 5 Days

Extract

• 6lbs Briess Pilsen Light LME 
• 1lb Briess Sparkling Amber LME
• .5lb Cara20
• .25 Aromatic

• 1oz Glacier @ 60min
• 1oz East Kent Golding UK @ 20min
• 1oz German Spalt (Select) @ 0min
• 1oz East Kent Golding UK Dry Hopped 5 days

The staff at Siciliano's is always eager to answer your homebrewing questions. Stop by for help developing custom-made recipes like this one!