Belgian IPA Brewday

For anyone that has known me in the Chicago region, I will not shut up when it comes to Haymarket's two Belgian IPAs, Angry Birds and Rubber Monkey.  I am currently lobbying for the normal serving sizes to be changed to "place mouth under tap and pull."  Hell, I will even take a rubber house leading directly from the tap to my mouth, or at the very least, a bucket.  Joking aside, it is one of the few Belgian IPAs that I really think balances the hoppy character you expect from a great IPA and the fruity, phenolic notes needed from a good Belgian beer.

As a result, I e-mailed Haymarket after a failed attempt at my own Belgian IPA looking for some pointers.  Lucky for me, Head Brewer Pete Crowley shot me back an e-mail to get me going in the right direction.  He stated the key was to use the Duvel/moortgat yeast strain and low mash temperatures.  His last piece of advice was "dryhop the crap out of it."  What kind of guy would I be to say no to that?

Batch Size: 5 Gallons
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.020
Boil Time: 90 minutes
Mash Time: 90 minutes

8 1/2 lbs Pilsener
2 1/2 lbs White Wheat
1 lb Briess Caramel 80 L

0.5 oz Cascade @ 30 minutes
0.5 oz Chinook @ 30 minutes
0.5 oz Cascade @ 20 minutes
0.5 oz Chinook @ 20 minutes
2.0 oz Cascade @ 0 minutes
1.0 oz Cascade @ 0 minutes
2.0 oz Cascade @ dry hop
1.0 oz Cascade @ dry hop

0.75 tsp yeast nutrient @ 15 minutes
1.0 tsp irish moss @ 15 minutes

Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale

Water profile: Chicago

Mashed in with 4 gallons of water at 148 degrees F.  Wanted to keep it low per the instructions of Mr. Crowley.  Let the mash sit for 90 minutes in order to ensure full conversion.  Batch sparged with 4 gallons at 170 degrees F.  Came up about a gallon lower than I wanted, so I quickly heated up another gallon and put it through the grain bed.  Collected a total of around 6.5 gallons.

Brewed: 7/6/13

Chilled to 70 degrees F and pitched yeast starter made a couple nights before.

7/15/13 Moved to secondary and dry hopped with a total of 3 oz of leaf hops.

Bottled: 7/24/13

Tasting: A good base for a Belgian IPA to build off.  Will be rebrewing this one soon.