Day 16: Belgian Specialty Ale

It's been a lazy Sunday, which is why we're moving directly...

On to the beer...

Beer #16 - Lazy Sunday Specialty Ale

Style: Belgian Specialty Ale (16E)

Recipe: For 2 Gallon (Extract)

1.5 lb Wheat Dry Malt Extract
.75 lb Dark Liquid Malt Extract
8 oz Caramel/Crystal 80L Malt (steeped at 152F for 20 minutes)
.6 oz Saaz Hops (3.2%) (Full boil, 30 minutes)
.5 oz Crushed Coriander Seed (Last 15 minutes)
.75 oz Bitter Orange Peel (Last 2 minutes)
Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes & 1187 Ringwood Ale Yeast

Beer notes: The Belgian Specialty Ale is actually a 'catch all' category for Belgian beers that are hard to classify. It's sort of an up in the air, do what you want (to a certain extent) kind of category. I was staring at some of the ingredients I had sitting around before I brewed and was trying to figure out what sort of 'dark wheat' beer I could brew. After struggling to categorize the beer I wanted to brew, I found this category. It's sort of like a 'get out of jail free' card when you have a ton of ingredients that would lend themselves to Belgians laying around. I guess some people would call this an Artisanal Brown Ale. Lots of coriander and orange peel in this recipe. Enough for a 5 gallon batch. I don't think I'd raise the coriander and orange peel amount too much for a bigger batch. Just hoping for some orange aromatics there at the end. First batch using all Kentwood Springs water instead of tap water. Both yeasts were saved from my first two batches in jars. Just going to pitch them both in. Was thinking about propagating both, and keeping them going, but just don't have time at the moment. Gravity is 1.064.

Cheers!
Aaron