Brother Martin's Belgian Ale

Belgian Beers are truly the King of Beer, because they beat other beers hands down on flavor, strength, carbonation, head retention, etc. Not only is this style older than Bud, but it is the originator of the phrase, "liquid bread."

That's because the trappist monks in Belgian who originated this style in the Middle Ages were trying to create a drink that had enough sustinance to carry a good monk through a day of fasting during the Lenten season. Only at sundown could they eat. But with a good draught of Belgian Ale at noon, a monk could make it through a day of prayers!

My versions of this beer have been strong on flavor and strength as well. My first recipe was a darker Belgian style, but my second was more like a Triple, which is deceivingly light in color, but up to 10% ABV. Unfortunately, I let it settle in the secondary for 2 months so that there was no active yeast available to carbonate it in the bottle. Next time I'll have to use a bottling yeast! Oh well, live and learn.

My third try hit almost the same gravity and I added a little bit of corriander to spice it up. I hope it is a worthy successor to Brother Martin's Belgian Ale II!

Brother Martin's Belgian Ale (The Original)

GRAIN BILL and EXTRACTS:

• 3.5 Lbs. Cara Munich malt (20 degrees L.) mashed for 1 hr.
• 2 lbs. of 2-row pale malt mashed for 1 hr.
• .5 lb. of 30 deg. L. Crystal malt (20 degrees L.) mashed for 1 hr.
• 4 lbs. Cooper's light pale malt extract
• 1 lb. light clover honey
• 1 lb. light brown sugar

• 2 oz. Cascade hops boiled for 60 min. (6.4% AAU)

• Wyeast #1214 Belgian Ale Yeast, 1oz. in 2 cups starter.
• 5 day primary fermentation at 70 degrees
• 27 day Secondary fermentation at 70 degrees
• Original Gravity=1.080
• Terminal Gravity=1.014
• Bottled on April 6, 1994

BREWING NOTES:

• Based on a Trappist Triple Malt, this beer packs a whallop with 9% alcohol. A great Winter Warmer.
• The Belgian Ale yeast has a very high attenuation (ability to convert sugars) and so will always give high alcohol beers with lots of esters.
• This beer also ages well. I still had a few bottles left in March of 1995. I open one each Christmas to celebrate the same thing the first Trappist Monks did with their version of this Ale--to celebrate the birth of the World's Savior, Jesus Christ.

Brother Martin's Belgian Ale II

• This Trappist Triple Malt recipe tries to attain the deceptively light color of a Belgian Triple, even with its 9% alcohol.
• Brewed with Peter Chocholak and Fred Tonsing, our brew session was complicated since we were making 2 beers from one mash. We took the first 2 gallons, set aside a gal. and used the next 3.5 gallons from the sparge on the 14 lbs. of pale malt mash (I wanted at least 1 gal. of higher gravity wort for the Brown Ale).
• Then we boiled the two beers in different kettles with different hops and fermented them with different yeasts.
• It was hard to obtain my final gravity using this method for 2 beers, so I took a reading from the boil and discovered it was lower than I expected, so I threw in some Dry Malt Extract. But I didn't let it cool enough before taking the reading, so I underestimated it and overshoot the final gravity (which wasn't so bad at 1.086).It didn't carbonate in the bottles for almost a year but 2 years later it has become one of the best beers I've ever made! Too bad there are no 12 oz. bottles left for competitions :-(.

GRAIN BILL and Adjuncts:

• 14.5 Lbs. 2-row Pale malt mashed for 1 1/2 hrs.
• 1.5 lbs. White Belgian Candi sugar
• 1 lb. light DME
• 1 lb. light clover honey
• 1.5 oz. Hallertauer hops boiled for 60 min. (4.6% AAU)
• .5 oz. Hallertauer hops, last 15 min.
• 1 oz. dried sweet orange peel (last 15 min.)

• Brewing Date: March 26, 2004
• Whitelabs (WLP500) Trappist Ale Yeast, in a pint starter 2 days earlier
• 11 day primary fermentation at 68 degrees
• 63 day Secondary fermentation at 68 degrees
• Original Gravity=1.086
• Terminal Gravity=1.008
• Bottled May 28, 2004

MY RECENT TRY AT THIS:
Brother Martin's Belgian Ale III

• I brewed this Belgian Triple with Peter Chocholak for the Barley Bandits Bodacious Big Brew and BBQ (or the BBBBBBBQ) on Aug. 5, 2006.
• We made 2 beers from one giant mash of 17.5 lbs. of grain. We took the 2nd gallon from the 1st runnings for a Brown Ale and another 5 gallons for the Triple. Then used the final runnings for the rest of the CA Brown Ale.
• Then we boiled the two beers in different kettles with different adjuncts, hops and fermented them with different yeasts.
• This time, I was able to hit my desired gravity becuse I took gravity readings along the way with Pat Duke's spectrometer.

GRAIN BILL and Adjuncts:

• 17.5 Lbs. 2-row Pale malt mashed for 1 1/2 hrs.
• 2.5 lbs. White Belgian Candi sugar
• 8 oz. light DME
• 1 lb. amber DME
• 3 lb. light clover honey
• 2 oz. Styrgian Goldings hops boiled for 60 min. (3% AAU)
• .5 oz. Styrgian Goldings hops boiled for 45 min. (3% AAU)
• .75 oz. Fuggles hops, last 15 min.
• 1 oz. dried sweet orange peel (last 15 min.)
• 2 tbspn crushed corriander at end of boil
• 2 tspn Sparklebright (powdered Irish moss and sodium bicarbonate) at end of boil

• Brewing Date: Aug. 5, 2006
• Whitelabs (WLP500) Trappist Ale Yeast, in a pint starter 4 days earlier & fed again day before
• 6 day primary fermentation at 78 degrees
• 20+ day secondary fermentation at 72 degrees
• Original Gravity=1.084
• Terminal Gravity=1.008?
• Bottled Sept. ? 2006