The quest continues for Belgium beers. This will be the last of the Belgium beer recipe for a little bit because I don’t want you to get bored or burnt out with one style of beer – leave that up to me, no need to torture yourself over doing one style of beer over and over again. I’ll be sure to post up some recipes on IPA’s as well as lagers. With that said, I wanted to talk about a style of Belgium beers that is looked over often. That style is “Biere de Garde”. The actual translation from what I’ve been told is, “Beer for keeping”. If you want to get technical it is actually a french style of beer. This style of beer was historically brewed in late winter as well as the spring. It was originally done this way to avoid weird yeast problems. This beer would be comparable to a strong pale ale with a Belgium twist.
This recipe is going to give you a spicy and aromatic Belgium style beer. Below is the recipe:
Style: Biere De Garde
OG: 1.067
FG: 1.016
IBU: 26
SRM: 6
ABV: 6.5%
Ingredients
4 oz Cara Vienna
4 oz Aromatic Malt
2 oz Biscuit Malt
8 lbs Extra Light DME
1 oz Northern Brewer (60min)
1/4 oz Tettnanger (15min)
1/4 oz Hallertau (10min)
WLP 550 Belgium Ale Yeast
About This Recipe:
To get a full read on specialty grains check out a post that we have on it. But in a nutshell, this beer is all about having a sweet, bready and aromatic type flavor to it. Having such a large amount of Extra Light DME will give it a big malty flavor. The hops are there but don’t make this one if you are looking for a an IPA.
Since it has a relatively high ABV%. It might take a bit longer in the bottle then a typical ale. I would recommend this one staying in the bottles for about 6-8 weeks. By that time it should mature a bit and have a less, “hot” flavor to it.
Also if you were looking at doing this all grain, our conversion chart might be helpful.
Directions:
- Heat 2.5 gallons of water up to 150 degrees
- Steep grains for 30min
- Take grains out
- Add malt extract
- Bring to boil
- In beginning of boil, add Northern Brewer hops
- Boil for 45 min
- Add Tett hops and boil for 5min
- Add Hallertau hops boil for 10min
- Kill boil, cool down, put in fermenter and fill up 5 gallons
- Pitch yeast
Conclusion
Like I said, I won’t be posting up all of the Belgium beers I’ll be doing because there will be a ton of them. But as far as a good one to take a break on for a bit this couldn’t be a better one. Next recipes coming up will be about how to lager as well as some pretty killer IPA’s and Pales. Let me know if you wanted any particular recipes you would like to see in the space provided below and we can see that we can do.
Cheers!
Related Post
6 Different Suggestions For IPA’s
The Art Of Adding Sugars To Your Beer
Jay's Brewing Blog 
April 5, 2012
2012, Beer Recipes, General posting