White Orange Belgian Ale #1

For our second brew we chose the Belgium Ale recipe from MoreBeer! in Los Altos. The description of this beer from their website states:

Belgian ales are really about creating a simple yet elegant malt base upon which the unique Belgian yeast strains can create their wonderful, complex flavors.

Unlike with our previous ale, the Belgian Ale recipe does not steep any flavoring grains. Instead, you simply bring the water to a full boil and start the brew. The recipe uses only 6 pounds of Ultralight malt extract but adds another pound of powdered malt extract and clear candi sugar. During the boil, 2 ounces of Vanguard hops are added, part for bittering and part for flavoring.

After our first brew we understood the process much better this time and it didn't take as long. In fact, everything went very smoothly. That's one thing that you realize once you start home brewing: it's actually a lot easier than you initially think! So if you've been contemplating trying it out but were hesitant thinking it was too complicated or time consuming, just go for it! You'll be glad you did because it's a lot of fun and once your first brew is ready, you have a steady stream of good beer to enjoy with friends.

The Belgian Ale recipe had an estimated original gravity (OG) of 1.049 and our first OG measurement before fermentation was 1.049. The temperature of the wort at the time of measurement was 64 degrees.

Note: We discovered a problem with the yeast required for this brew after we had transferred the wort to the fermenter. But we'll save the details for another post...