Belgian Single

Today I'm brewing a Belgian Single, sometimes known as a Patersbier. I brewed a Patersbier years ago and, while I don't remember many of the details, I do remember enjoying it.

Belgian Singles are generally pale, dry, highly attenuated beers with relatively low alcohol compared with the better-known Belgian Dubbel, Tripel, and Quadrupel styles. Despite the lower gravity, a good Single can still have plenty of character from the yeast, hops, and malt.

I'm primarily brewing this batch to enter into a Belgian beer competition. I also wanted to revisit the style since it's been a while, and obviously I don't remember much about that last one. Depending on how it does, I may enter it in other competitions as well, but we are getting towards the end of competition season, and I have a couple other heavy hitters (Florida Rum Barrel Imperial Stout, and MOAR Cherries! Fruit Lambic) that I will definitely be entering.

The BJCP Guidelines describe the style as follows:

A blond, bitter, hoppy table beer that is very dry and highly carbonated. The aggressive fruity-spicy Belgian yeast character and high bitterness is forward in the balance, with a soft, supportive grainy-sweet malt palate, and a spicy-floral hop profile.

Often not labeled or available outside the monastery, or infrequently brewed. Might also be called monk’s beer, Brother’s beer, or simply a Blond (we don’t use this term to avoid confusion with the very different Belgian Blond Ale style). Highly attenuated, generally 85% or more.

Here's the recipe as I'm making it today:

Target OG: 1.052

Target FG: 1.008

IBU: 30

ABV: 5.7

4.66# Solstice Pilsner Malt

4.5# Isaria 1924 Malt

4.8oz Weyermann Acidulated Malt

4.8oz Weyermann Wheat Malt

2.4oz Munich Malt

1g BrewTan B (Mash)

3ml Hopshot (60 min)

28g Sterling (10 min)

Wyeast Nutrient (10 min)

4.66g BCAA (10 min)

Whirlfloc (Flameout)

28g Sterling (Whirlpool @155F for 30 min)

SafAle BE-256

Zinc Buddy

Mash at 151F, 90 min boil, chill to 65°F then raise to 67°F over two days.

Water Profile

Target Water Profile
Ca	Mg	Na	SO4	Cl	HCO3
50	0	5	105	45	0

To 11 gallons RO/Distilled water, add:

• 7.7g Gypsum
• 0.8g Pickling Salt
• 1.1g Calcium Chloride
• 1.7g Magnesium Chloride

Brewing Notes
I was going to brew this beer last night (Friday evening) but I started recirculating my water for heating and noticed a big problem...chunky brown bits in the water. Apparently I forgot to rinse my pump or my RIMS after the last brew, and things had gotten funky. So instead of brewing, I did some intense cleaning and put off the brewing until today.

I added 1ml of phosphoric acid to the mash after the initial reading of 5.43. I used my hop spider this time after running into hop debris issues and kegging my recent NZ Pilsner. Whirlpool hops actually got dropped just shy of 140F.  

I ended up about 7 points over target, putting my brewhouse efficiency just shy of 84%. I ended up getting exactly 5 gallons in the fermenter. Given that this yeast is known to be pretty active, I'm hesitant to add any volume (messy blow-off) by diluting the wort, so I'm just going to let it ride a few points high.  

I was able to chill down to about 60F, but by the time I got the fermenter in the ferm chamber, it was closer to 64F. 
 

Session Readings
Equipment used	10 gal MT
Strike water volume	3.5 gal
Strike water temp	163.3 °F
Mash thickness	1.41 qt/lbs
Beginning mash pH	5.43
Ending mash pH	5.36
1st running gravity	18 (1.072)
Volume into BK	7.0 gal
Pre-Boil gravity	11 (1.043)
Pre-Boil pH	5.39
Post-Boil gravity	14.8 (1.059)
Post-Boil pH	5.27
Aeration	0.5l/min for 2 min
Post ferm gravity	x (1.0)
Post ferm pH	x

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Mexican Firing Squad

Another cocktail recipe. I made my own grenadine a while back and hadn't used much of it. I Googled for best cocktails with grenadine and this was one of the first ones that popped up. I tend to gravitate to booze-forward cocktails (Zombie, Old Fashioned, etc.), but I thought this one sounded interesting. Both my wife and I thought it was really good, not too sweet, and not too sour. I made it using half limes from our Key Lime tree, and half with store-bought Persian Limes.  I highly encourage making your own grenadine for this (or any cocktail). Real grenadine is easy to make and tastes soooooo much better than the cough syrup known as Rose's Grenadine.  

Here's how to make it:

2oz Tequila, Blanco

3/4oz Lime Juice

3/4oz Grenadine

4 dashes Angostura Bitters

Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice and shake well to chill. Strain into a glass filled with fresh ice.

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Loco Moco

Food recipe today! Loco Moco is a breakfast comfort dish that originated in Hawaii. It's surprisingly easy to make, filling but not nearly as heavy as I was expecting, and it's super tasty. 

Makes four servings. 

Start by cooking 2 cups of white rice

Gravy

2T Butter

1 Medium yellow onion, sliced

8oz Mushrooms, sliced

2 Garlic cloves, minced

2T All purpose flour

2C Beef stock

1T Worcestershire sauce

1t Soy sauce

1/2t Black pepper 

1. Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Add onion and mushrooms and cook to deep brown (about 10-12 minutes).
2. Add garlic and cook for one minute.  
3. Sprinkle flour in and stir constantly for one minute. 
4. Gradually add beef stock, Worcestershire, and soy sauce. Combine well then simmer for about 10 minutes.  

Burger Patties

1# Ground beef 

1t Kosher salt

1/2t Ground black pepper

1t Garlic powder

1t Onion powder

1. Mix ingredients well and form into four 4 ounce patties.
2. Cook over medium heat, 4 minutes per side. 

Eggs

1. Fry four eggs until whites are set but yolks are still runny. 
2. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

Assembly

1. Spoon rice into a bowl.
2. Add burger patty.
3. Cover patty in a generous amount of gravy.
4. Finish with a fried egg on top and serve.

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NZ Pils 2026

Today I'm brewing one of my favorite lagers, a New Zealand Pilsner. I've only ever tried American interpretations of the style, never one actually brewed in NZ. However, this recipe is based on a one (since deleted) from a NZ homebrew shop that is allegedly a clone for Panhead's Port Road Pils, one of the style examples cited in the BJCP guidelines. Variations of this recipe have done well for me in competitions and I think it's a great hop-forward easy drinking lager. 

I tend to tweak this recipe a little bit every time I brew it. Tweaks are usually grain-related based on what's available and/or what I have on hand. Today I'm using up the last of my Rahr North Star Pils that I brought from Utah. I'm dialing back the Hopshot slightly from 3ml to 2ml because I've noticed I seem to get better hop utilization here in Florida at roughly 100 feet above sea level. Finally, I'm moving my normal whirlpool additions to flameout, and I'm moving the dry hop additions to the whirlpool. My primary driver for this is I'm trying to eliminate any risk of oxidation with dry hopping, and honestly it's probably not very common for this style to be dry-hopped to begin with. Here's the recipe as I'm brewing it today.

Target OG 1.048

Target FG: 1.011

IBU: 54

ABV: 4.7

7# 9oz - Rahr North Star Pils (93.7%)

6oz - Weyermann Carahell Malt (4.7%)

1g BrewTan B (Mash) 

2ml Hopshot (60 min) 

10g - NZ Motueka (10 min)

20g - NZ Nelson Sauvin (10 min)

30g - NZ Riwaka (10 min)

20g - NZ Motueka (Flameout)

30g - NZ Nelson Sauvin (Flameout)

30g - NZ Riwaka (Flameout)

3g - Loral Cryohops (Flameout)

40g - NZ Riwaka (whirlpool, 30-45 min @165F)

7g - Loral Cryohops (whirlpool, 30-45 min @165F)

Whirlfloc

Wyeast Nutrient

4.66g BCAA (Dissolved in water or wort, 5 min)

Zinc Buddy

Saflager W-34/70

Single infusion mash at 151F, 90 min boil, acidify mash to a pH of ~ 5.1-5.2. Start fermentation at 48F, ramp up to 52F over 6 days, diacetyl rest when gravity ~1.016.

Water Profile

This is a fairly soft water profile with slightly higher sulfate to chloride ration. To 11 gallons of distilled water, add:

• 6.0g Gypsum
• 2.3g Magnesium Chloride
• 2.4g Calcium Chloride

Water Profile

Target Water Profile
Ca	Mg	Na	SO4	Cl	HCO3
53.8	6.6	0.0	79.8	55.6	0.0

Brewing Notes

I hit my initial strike temp exactly at 151.1. The initial mash pH was a little high so I dosed with 1.5ml of phosphoric acid to bring the pH from 5.67 down to 5.36. I had one minor issue, I forgot to install the temp probe into my boil kettle, so it leaked out some wort before I caught it. If I had to guess, I'd say it was around 6-8 ounces, so not a huge deal but I definitely lost some gravity points. I wasn't able to get the temp down to 48F (that will probably have to wait for winter time). I did get it down to ~55F whirlpooling, and I set the ferm chamber to 50F.  

Session Readings
Equipment used	10g MT
Strike water volume	3 gal
Strike water temp	167.3 °F
Mash thickness	1.512 qt/lbs
Beginning mash pH	5.67 - Before acid 5.36 After acid
Ending mash pH	5.40
1st running gravity	16.2 (1.065)
Volume into BK	6.75 gal
Pre-Boil gravity	9.1 (1.035)
Pre-Boil pH	5.48
Post-Boil gravity	12.9 (1.051) 1.047 per Tilt
Post-Boil pH	5.42
Aeration	0.5l/min for 2 min
Post ferm gravity	X (1.0)
Post ferm pH	X (1.0)

Update 7/19/2026 11PM

Fermentation is underway and temps are holding at 52F. Per the Tilt, gravity is down just under 1.043 this evening. 

Update 7/21/2026 9AM

Things are rolling along.  Temps are holding steady ~52F. Tilt is putting the gravity in the neighborhood of 1.024.

Update 7/22/2026 9AM

Tilt is reading ~1.012 this morning so I'm going to change the ferm chamber set temp to 62F and let the temp free-rise for a diacetyl rest.

Update 7/24/2026 9AM

Tilt is still reading 1.012 this morning. Looking at the gravity readings since 7/22, it's read as low as 1.009 to as high as 1.019, so just like an ale fermentation, there's a little bit of wobbling happening. I'll probably leave this beer in the fermenter until 7/29 or 7/30 then transfer to a keg to start cold crashing.  

Update 7/27/2026

Tilt is reading 1.011 this morning.

Update 8/9/2026

Some things came up this week and I wasn’t able to keg this beer yet. Tilt is reading 1.010, meaning ABV is right on target at 4.7%. I’m hoping to get this beer kegged over the next week.

Update 8/15/2026

I finally got this beer kegged today. It was a bit of a pain after an eventful week. On Thursday we woke up to an electrical issue in our house, with all kinds of popping, arcing, hissing noises, and the power out in half the house. Turns out we had a bad leg and a bad neutral somewhere between our meter and the transformer in our yard. We spent over half the day without power, but on the bright side, the house didn’t burn down.  Fast forward to today, hop debris kept limiting flow, so this transfer took forever…seriously around 2 hours. In hindsight, I probably should have used one of my three hop spiders in the boil kettle, but I totally forgot to. This beer smelled amazing and I’ll be putting it on tap within a week. 

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Sahti 2026

Today I'm finally brewing one of the more unusual historical beer styles, at least compared to styles I typically brew: Sahti, a traditional farmhouse ale of Finland. Here’s how the 2021 BJCP guidelines describe this historical style:

A sweet, heavy, strong traditional Finnish beer with a rye, juniper, and juniper berry flavor and a strong banana-clove yeast character.

The use of rye doesn’t mean that it should taste like caraway (a common flavor in rye bread). The juniper acts a bit like hops in the balance and flavor, providing a flavor and bitterness counterpoint to the sweet malt. Piney, woody juniper character more common than gin-like berries.

An indigenous traditional style from Finland; a farmhouse tradition for at least 500 years, often brewed for festive occasions like summer weddings, and consumed within a week or two of brewing.

I love that the guidelines specifically say that the use of rye doesn't mean it should taste like caraway. Believe it or not, I've had numerous discussions with other judges and homebrewers that mistakenly associated "spicy" rye character with what's actually caraway in most rye bread.  

A friend of mine from my old homebrew club in Utah, Mike Johnson, made a Sahti that won gold on

multiple occasions. I reached out to Mike for tips on replicating this style. I also found a good write up on Craft Beer & Brewing, and tons of great information on Brewing Nordic. I highly recommend Brewing Nordic. It contains an incredible amount of information on traditional Sahti and was invaluable while researching this batch. For my attempt today, I'm kind of mashing all this great info together and hoping it yields a nice drinkable beer and a decent example of the style.

There are a few challenges to trying to brew this style in the U.S. that I wanted to mention: 

• First, one of the key ingredients is Tuoppi Kaljamallas, a dark roasted rye malt, isn’t available in the U.S. Fortunately it’s not too difficult to take rye malt and roast it in the oven for a very close substitute. 
• Another challenge is the traditional yeast, a bread yeast, is not readily available outside of Finland. I was thinking one of the Kveik farmhouse strains might be a good alternative, but Nordic Brewing says it’s really not. Banana esters are a huge part of the fermentation profile for this beer and a lot of the Kveik strains are fairly clean and/or give you citrus and tropical fruit (but not banana). I'm using WLP300 for banana flavor and aroma. I've only used this yeast once before and that was about 15 years ago so I don't really remember much from that batch. Clove phenolics are another important part but according to my research, should be more restrained than the banana character. I plan to use WLP565 and pitch it about 24 hours after WLP300. WLP565 is notorious for quitting early unless temps are raised quite high. I'm counting on this to ensure the beer doesn't dry out too much.
• Third, the correct varieties of juniper trees don’t grow anywhere near me in Florida. Nordic Brewing mentions that many modern interpretations skip juniper altogether, but I want to include it in my version. I ended up ordering a 4oz pack of juniper leaves from Spruce On Tap. These are still a different variety from what is found in Finland, but I've heard good things about Spruce On Tap's offerings. This recipe only calls for 10 grams, so I’ll have plenty leftover if I decide to brew this again or experiment with juniper in another beer.
• Traditional Sahti is typically raw, never boiled. This means it’s never gotten hot enough to form hot break so lots of proteins carryover to the finished beer. This contributes to body and usually cloudiness in the finished beer. Mike said he usually boils his, same as any other batch of beer. I decided I want to try the raw/no-boil approach, although I am planning on taking the beer up to 170°F to sanitize and hopefully drive off some SMM while maintaining the raw beer character.
• Fermentation is traditionally stopped early by dropping the temperature before fermentation is actually complete. The beer is then stored cold until ready to drink. For my attempt, I plan to enter this beer in one or more competitions so I need it to be stable. I will mash high to create lots of unfermentable sugars with the hopes of it finishing close to 1.034. I’m hoping this along with my yeast selection will eliminate the risk of bottle bombs due to residual sugars in the beer.
• Sahti is usually served still or with low carbonation. I think I’m going to prefer some carbonation, so I’ll probably shoot for something around 1 volume. 

Roasting Rye Malt

I’m using the instructions from Nordic Brewing. The quick Cliffs Notes version is you preheat your oven to 350F. If you have a convection option on your oven, use it. Spread the rye malt out into a thin layer on a foil lined cookie sheet. Target time is 45 minutes, but check it around 40 minutes and make sure the malt isn’t burning/charring. You won't see a huge color change to the outside of the rye malt, but inside you'll see a very noticeable change. After 45-ish minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool. I did this process a few days ahead of brew day. I do this with smoked grains and toasted oatmeal too; based on what I've read and heard from other brewers, this allows the malt to mellow a little bit and for flavors and aromas to round out. By the way, the roasting process smells amazing; I got major bread crust aroma from it. My wife came into the house a couple hours after I finished roasting the malt and said the house smelled like I'd been baking bread.

Enough talk, here's the recipe as I'm brewing it today:

 

Target OG: 1.097

Target FG: 1.034

IBU: 0

ABV: 8.3%

7.5# Solstice Pilsner

7.5# Weyermann Vienna

4.1# Weyermann Munich I

1.2# Home-roasted Mecca Grade Rimrock Rye malt

Rice hulls, 1-2 handfuls 

10g Juniper tips/leaves mixed into the mash

1g BrewTan B (Mash)

80% of one vial of WLP300 Hefeweizen and 20% of one vial of WLP565 Belgian Saison I

Mash at 159°F. Collect about 5.25 gallons in the boil kettle. Bring wort to 170°F and hold for 30 min to sanitize and hopefully drive off some SMM (DMS precursor). 

Chill to 68°F. Aerate for 2 min. Pitch WLP300 and wait 24 hours before pitching WLP565.

Allow ferm temp to rise to 74°F in that first 24 hours. After 24 hours, pitch WLP565 and allow temp to rise to 75°F over a day. Maintain 75°F for the duration of primary. 

Water Profile

Target Water Profile
Ca	Mg	Na	SO4	Cl	HCO3
55	8	15	40	80	90

To 10 gallons of RO/Distilled Water, add:

• 2.7g Gypsum
• 2.7g Calcium Chloride
• 2.3g Baking Soda
• 3.6g Magnesium Chloride
• 1.0g Pickling Lime

Brewing Notes

I went with a slightly thicker mash on this brew since I won't be boiling off any water. I also am using my 20 gallon mash tun so that the grain bed wasn't as deep which should help improve efficiency. This was a large grain bill and it just barely overfilled my grain bucket while milling. I probably spilled a couple grams worth of grain onto my garage floor. 

First runnings were 1.094, so I definitely won't be hitting the 1.097 target OG. I tend to get right about 83-84% efficiency on most beers, but efficiency is always lower on bigger beers, so I can't say it's unexpected. The color on this beer is amazing; deep amber and clarity is looking good right now. This is likely due to the fact that I recirculate during the entire mash, so the grain bed tends to do a great job of filtering out small particles.  

No issues with the remainder of the brew session. OG is showing 1.091 on my refractometer and 1.090 on my Tilt. WLP300 was pitched at 1:30PM @67°F. I decided to pitch the whole vial; my rationale is even 1 vial is under pitching for a 1.091 beer, so I think it will work out fine. I'm planning on pitching WLP565 tomorrow at 1:30PM

 

Session Readings
Equipment used	20 gal MT
Strike water volume	6 gal
Strike water temp	176.4 °F
Mash thickness	1.18 qt/lbs
Beginning mash pH	5.38
Ending mash pH	5.37
1st running gravity	23 (1.094)
Volume into BK	5.25 gal
Pre-steep gravity	22.1 (1.090)
Pre--steep pH	5.40
Post-steep gravity	22.4 (1.091)
Post-steep pH	5.35
Aeration	0.5l/min for 2 min
Post ferm gravity	1.020 (9.6% ABV)
Post ferm pH	x

Update 6/7/2026 8:40AM

Gravity has started to drop and I'm seeing active signs of fermentation, so It seems that WLP300 has gotten off to a good start. I'll take the WLP565 out of the fridge in a couple hours and allow it to come up to room temp before pitching.  

Update 6/7/2026 3PM

WLP565 was pitched at 1:30PM. Gravity is currently reading 1.079 on the Tilt. 

Update 6/8/2026

Gravity this evening is down to 1.051 per the Tilt. That means there's about 20 points before it gets to where I "hope" it will stop.   

Update 6/11/2026

Fermentation seems to be winding down. Gravity is between 1.035 and 1.034 this afternoon. I pulled a small sample a couple days ago and again today. I'd say it's definitely more banana forward than clove, but there is a hint of clove. Also it's not too crazy on the banana that it seems artificial. There is noticeable sweetness and I'd say it reminded me of banana bread crust with a hint of chocolate and coffee. I don't feel like I picked up anything distinctly juniper. I'm considering making a juniper tincture and dosing it with a little bit to see if I can add a little more complexity.

Update 6/14/2026

Gravity is holding steady just shy of 1.035 per the Tilt. I'm going to leave it on the yeast cake for another week then keg it.

Update 6/15/2026

Gravity is reading 1.0316 per the Tilt this morning. 

Update 6/29/2026

I went ahead and kegged this beer tonight. Gravity had inched down to about 1.020, definitely lower than the 1.034 I was hoping for. Aroma and flavor are really nice and I'd say they reflect the style guidelines well. I'll likely be putting this into the next competition.

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