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Author Topic: Dryhopping a Belgian Pale Ale  (Read 3941 times)

Offline kramerog

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Dryhopping a Belgian Pale Ale
« on: March 14, 2013, 09:13:00 pm »
I brewed a BPA with Belgian Abbey II (Wyeast #1762) to propagate yeast for a Rochefort 10 clone.  Just tasted the beer after 1.5 weeks of fermentation and it tasted a little insipid.  Not bad, no flaws that I noticed but lacking zip.  I'm thinking about dryhopping it now.  Any ideas on what I should do?  Traditional or stylistically correct suggestions are preferred, but I'm open to all ideas. 

Offline erockrph

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Re: Dryhopping a Belgian Pale Ale
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2013, 09:43:32 pm »
I'd either go with a hop that will play off the plummy fruit esters (Caliente would be fantastic - used it recently in a hopped up dubbel using the Unibroue strain and I'm planning on brewing it again using 1762. Glacier would be nice as well.), or a spicy noble-type hop (Saaz, Sterling, Ultra).
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Offline reverseapachemaster

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Re: Dryhopping a Belgian Pale Ale
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2013, 10:52:37 pm »
I really like Amarillo's orange character in a BPA.
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Offline kramerog

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Re: Dryhopping a Belgian Pale Ale
« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2013, 08:37:03 am »
Interesting ideas.  I think I'll keg it and taste it before dryhopping to see if I pick up more flavors that might guide the selection of dryhops.

Offline Joe Sr.

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Re: Dryhopping a Belgian Pale Ale
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2013, 09:59:06 am »
If you have a spare keg, split the batch and try two different hops or one dry-hopped and one not.

I tend to stick to the same old hops over and over.  For a Belgian I might dry hop with a goldings, saaz or maybe hallertau.
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Offline Siamese Moose

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Re: Dryhopping a Belgian Pale Ale
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2013, 07:03:08 am »
I use Sterling in my BPA. A number of Belgian breweries (including Orval) use EKG.
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