Beer Forum

Like most of the homebrewing community, I've brewed heaps of IPAs. I have not however brewed any Belgian styles. I would love to brew an IPA that has some funk to it. Here in Australia, there aren't too many modern examples of Belgian beers that I can think of. Don't worry, I'm planning a trip to California soon! However, I have had some examples of farmhouse or belgian-style IPAs that struck a great balance between American hops and the esters and phenols created by belgian yeasts. Now, it might not be the best place to start if I haven't got much experience working with Belgian yeast strains, but I want to brew a Belgian-style IPA.

My question is - does anyone have any experience with this style and how do I create a good balance between the west coast hops and belgian yeast?
I know the answer is probably trial and error. That's fine - I would love to hear everyone's experiences anyway.
It's probably worth mentioning that I'm using the Wyeast 3655-PC Belgian Schelde Ale. It's from the latest private collection release.
http://www.wyeastlab.com/vssprogram.cfm

Here's a good article I found, but it doesn't really give a first hand homebrewer's account of brewing the 'style'.
https://byo.com/stories/item/636-fermenting-belgian-style-beers

Thanks!

I'm not a fan of a lot of them. Belgian phenols and citrusy hop bitterness just doesn't go together for me. Maybe dialled back on hoppiness and using noble hops but thats basically a hoppier than normal belgian. I guess I just don't get the idea of covering beautiful belgian ester aromas with hops.

The examples that I've liked the best are the lighter colored IPAs brewed with Witbier yeasts.
Deschutes' Chainbreaker White IPA is one that comes to mind. I know, it's hard to get in Oz.

They tend to be on the more subtle side with lower phenolic levels and lower hop bitterness, but still packing firmer than APA level bitterness, with lots of hop flavor, and lighter malts in the grain bill, as opposed to lots of medium crystal that seems to pervade many of the IPAs these days. Too much "Belgian" and/or too much "IPA" and they clash. Keep both aspects understated and the combo is really, really enjoyable.

HTH-

Chain Breaker isn't too bad. Here's the problem, its not in my top 20 favorite IPAs and not in my top 20 favorite Belgians. It is in my top 5 for Belgian IPA, but that's like saying "of all my exwives, you're my 4th favorite".

Id also recomend the chainbreaker. Deschutes post all the ingredients for Thier beers online......just not the amounts.

Houblon Chouffe is my favorite Belgian IPA. There is a clone recipe called Hop Chewy that comes really close to the original. A quick search will find this recipe on many sites.