Belgian/ American Pale Ale

[killer]

Hi all,

Quite a few bars near me sell "la chouffe". It's fantastic - It drinks like a 5 % beer but is actually just over 8 %. You wouldn't know, it's relatively light, to my taste anyway, for a Belgian beer of that strength. I'd love to have a go at a 5 % version, with some american/ NZ hops, but a reasonably restrained amount of these hops to get a nice yeast/ hop balance.
I've seen online that it's most likely WLP550, and I suspect the lower end of the recommended fermentation temp (20 - 26 °C)

Has anyone had a go at the type of recipe I'm talking about ?
I haven't used WLP550 yet but am keen to give it a go....

Any pointers, tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[lancsSteve]

Have you tried wildeman or raging bitch by flying dog? Or Houblon Chouffe? All of those do what you;re talking about.

Wildeman uses a saison yeast, raging bitch a witbeer. American farmhouse is a good choice elsewhite labs wlp550 is the achouffe yeast (originally) and a good workhorse you can get dry saison yeast from the malt miller now if you want to stick to dry yeasts (else T-58 is an alternative)

Generally Amarillo works brilliantly with these yeasts. Have seen some views (e.g. in Mitch Steele IPA book on Belgian IPAs) that other hops play less well.

Formulate or find and American IPA or APA recipe and ferment it with interesting yeast - job done

[killer]

Hi Steve,

Cheers for the reply

I have tried raging bitch - wasn't mad about it. Houblon chouffe I like but I do prefer normal chouffe. I might try the dry saison yeast you mention as I'm gonna put an order in with rob fairly soon.
I've plenty of amarillo so might throw that in with a little Motueka.

[Lugsy]

I brewed this farmhouse IPA a while back with WLP566 Saison yeast and a bunch of American hops - it's essentially an American IPA but with a different yeast. It's taken a while to calm down but it's drinking well now, very light in body with a serious hop character and the Saison funk, seriously easy to drink at close to 9% and one that I'd definitely brew again.

I'd be happy to brew a lighter version too in the 5-6% range which would let me have more than 1 bottle at a time without suffering the next day! I can't recommend this yeast highly enough, it's got a great character to it and seems to ferment well at lower temperatures than other Saison yeasts.

[killer]

I was following that thread actually Lugsy - it started me thinking about saison yeast / belgian pale ales with american/ NZ hops... I sometimes find WLP001/ S05 a little too clean so it got me interested.
Must give something like that a go soon. ! My problem is that I'm Irish - and when I lived in Dublin every lager, Stout and Cider was about 4.5 % alcohol. So we regulate our drinking rate by number of pints. Now I live in paris though, and beers go from 5 - 9 % I still drink the same number whatever it is - just out of habit - the chouffe caught me by surprise as I drank about 4 pints of it in 2 hours. Never again !

[seymour]

It's not much, but here's what I have:

Brasserie d'Achouffe in Achouffe, Belgium
You can capture their yeast from bottles, or purchase White Labs WLP550, Wyeast 3522, BSI ABS3/B-22/BSI-550.

1. La Chouffe (unfiltered Belgian blonde ale), 8% ABV
fermentables: Pilsener Malt, Sugar
hops: Styrian Goldings, Saaz, Goldings
Coriander late in the boil

2. Mc Chouffe (unfiltered Belgian dark ale), 8%
fermentables: Pilsener Malt, Brown Candy Sugar, Honey, Spice
hops: Styrian Goldings, Goldings

[zgoda]

One day I had Houblon Chouffe, exceptional indeed, hats off. I'd say it's even better than Wildeman, but not much, both are very tasty.