Flaked Corn Belgian

Well, what to call this beer?  I've settled on Maizeltov.  Mazel tov on Wikipedia..  Maize on Wikipedia.

Hippy corn flakes from Konzum. Nothing but corn.

I'm basically making a Belgian Golden Strong Ale, but instead of using any sugar in the boil, I'm using flaked corn.  I've never used corn of any kind in my beers.  Corn and rice have a bad reputation in brewing because of crappy industrial adjunct lagers, otherwise known as Coors, Miller, Budweiser.  Or, well, I reversed the order, but BMC in America.  But it's the same shit everywhere around the world.  Whether they are used because they are cheaper or because they lighten the flavor is almost a moot point, though I think it's the price thing.  I mean, let's be real.  These are gigantic corporations and they don't give a shit about flavor as long as it's selling.  They buy the equivalent of crappy cattle feed and use it as a large percentage of their grist when making their beers.

Well, anyway, I've had some beers with corn in them that were great, some Pre Prohibition Lagers with a definite note from the corn that was quite nice.  I didn't really feel like brewing a lager for this, though, so I went with this.  I'm using enough corn here, I figure.  If it doesn't gain any character from this, I will have to consider another kind of corn.  This style might not support this well, but I'll just go for it.  Worst case scenario, I figure I end up with a decent beer with no corn character.  I suspect I will survive.

For the yeast, I went with a very reliable yeast, supposedly the Achouffe strain from White Labs, WLP550.  I've found this yeast to be a very strong yeast that drops bright.  Most alcohol tolerant strains aren't flocculent.  That's what makes them attenuate to a decent percentage.  They don't drop out, so they keep working on fermentation.  But with this yeast, it ferments and drops out, leaving a bright beer and attenuation over 80%.  And it tastes quite nice, giving a tasty mix of fruit and spice.

I went with some noble hops here to give a nice, soft and rounded hop character.  I used enough of them to leave their impression on the beer.  That's the headspace I'm in these days.  I don't want a Tripel with no hop character, I want some meat on them bones, though nothing crazy.  Why not round the Saaz up to 50 grams?  I ran out!  Only had 49 grams.

RIMS brewing system.

Recipe: 176:  Maizeltov
Style: Belgian Golden Strong Ale

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 27.00 l
Post Boil Volume: 22.40 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 20.00 l  
OG: 1.070 SG
Color: 7.7 EBC
IBU: 28.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 74.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes


Ingredients:
------------
4.75 kg               Pilsner  (3.7 EBC)                                               76.0 %       
1.50 kg               Corn, Flaked (2.6 EBC)                                      24.0 %  
 
26.00 g               Tettnang [5.50 %] - First Wort 90.0 min            17.6 IBUs    
49.00 g               Saaz [3.48 %] - Boil 20.0 min                            10.8 IBUs
 
1.0 pkg               Belgian Ale (White Labs #WLP550)           


Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 6.25 kg
----------------------------
Name              Description                            
Mash in             Add 18.00 l of water       148.0 F       90 min       
Mash Step         Add 0.00 l of water         168.0 F       15 min       

Sparge: Fly sparge with 16 l water.

Ancient brew computer, about 14 years old.

Water was like so:

83% distilled water, 17% carbon filtered tap water.  Calcium Sulfate, Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Sulfate added to achieve these numbers:

Ca 67
Mg 12
Na 1
Chloride 66
Sulfate 76
Alkalinity 52
Residual Alkalinity -46
Chloride to Sulfate ratio of .88, balanced.
5 ml of lactic acid added to mash as well.

Brew day went very well.  I was wondering if the large amount of flaked corn I used would cause a stuck sparge or slow it down, but no.  Very clear runoff, no troubles.  The wort had a definite aroma and flavor of corn.  Very nice.  Yeast was pitched a bit warmer this time, around 69.  I'm gonna crank this one up a bit, maybe end around 78.  I checked on the beer 5 hours after pitching, and it was already extremely active with a big foamy head, heavy bubbling of the airlock and crazy swarms of yeast swimming and swirling.  I love this yeast.  The pack from White Labs was a bit old from 3 months ago or so, so I made a two stage starter.  First stage was 500ml.  It went crazy and fermented that really fast.  Second stage was 1.5 liters and again with the crazy.  Nice and easy to work with and a nice character as well.

Updates:

14-05-2013:   Pulled a sample last night.  SG is at ~1.009, around 87% attenuated.  Pretty clear already.  Tastes very nice, though of course the yeast dominates the character on this one.  Nice mix of spicy and fruity.  Dry finish here.  There's a touch of corn character here, but it's pretty faint.  The alcohol is slightly hot, but not so much for this age.  I will age this one a little bit before bottling, so will rack it likely next week.  So far, so good!  Tasty beer!