Robot Pale Ale

As some of you may know, I'm a proud new Father of a baby boy and as a homebrewer I decided it would be apropriate to give out bottles of homebrew instead of the traditional cigar (or cigar shaped gum, if that's your thing). For the style I chose to go with something that would have a fairly wide appeal and be drinkable, instead of a big beer that would age well. I also wanted it to have an interesting flavor profile. I settled on Belgian Pale Ale, I figured the flavors from a Belgian yeast would make a nice tasty brew that most would enjoy.

The color is a nice hazy copper/amber color, about what I wanted, Aroma has a classic Belgian yeast aroma, slightly fruity with an underlying bready sweetness. The flavor is similar with a little caramel sweetness up front followed by some dried fruit flavors and a little hint of spice. A nice overall Belgian character. Not overly complex or deep. Body is about medium and could use a little more dryness and carbonation.

Overall: I think the beer came out pretty tasty and went over well with friends and family. On the next batch (Baptism Robot Ale) I'm going to try for a lower FG and a little more carbonation. It'll also be my first partial-mash brew.

Recipe & Notes:
Original Gravity: 1.062
Final Gravity: 1.016
IBU: 22-25
Boil: 60 minutes
Pre-boil Volume: 4.5 gallons
Final Volume: 5.5 gallons
Apparent Attenuation = 73%
ABV = 6.0%

Extract:
Muttons Extra Light DME 6.0 lbs.
Corn Sugar 1.0 lbs.

Steeping Grains:
CaraMunich 12 oz.
Biscuit 4 oz.

Hops:
East Kent Golding 5.4%, 60 min. 1.5 oz.
East Kent Golding 5.4%, 1 min. 0.5 oz.

Yeast:
Wyeast 3864-PC Canadian/Belgian Ale (Unibroue), 1 smack pack

Water:
Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Notes:
Brewed on 04/19/2009 by myself.

Steep grains for 30 min. at 150˚ in one gallon of water. While the grains are steeping heat 3.5 gallons of water up to about 170˚ in the boil kettle. When the steep is finished take the bag out and dunk it around in the boil water for about 5 minutes.

Add the steep water and 3 pounds of extract, turn heat up. Boil for 60 minutes, adding the hops (all pellets) at the intervals listed above. At 5 min. add the rest of the extract, the sugar, and the chiller to sanitize it.

Chill wort to about 80˚, transfer to carboy, add water to 5.5 gallons, aerate, pitch yeast.

4/19/2:00pm – Pitched yeast at about 74˚.

4/20/9:20am – Kraeusen is already near the neck of the bottle. Temp is around 66˚ or so.

4/21/12:50pm – Kraeusen has fallen a bit, but fermentation still looks active.

5/16 – bottled 48 - 12 oz. bottles and 1 330ml bottle.