Pater Canadius

Rough Westmalle Extra clone. Note the radical twist in the "Boil Notes" below.

Brewer:	Gary		Email:	-
Beer:	Pater Canadius		Style:	Belgian Patersbier
Type:	All grain		Size:	5 gallons
Color:	3 HCU (~3 SRM)		Bitterness:	26 IBU
OG:	1.050		FG:	1.010
Alcohol:	5.2% v/v (4.0% w/w)
Water:	1 Tbsp. 5.2 pH stabilizer in mash. 1/2 campden tab in mash. 1/4 campden tab in each sparge infusion.
Grain:	9 lb. Belgian Pilsner
Mash:	75% efficiency
	Dough-in to 3.6 gallons @ 156.6. Target: 147°F for 60 minutes. Actual: 148.1°F falling to 146.2°F over the hour. Batch sparge twice @ 2 gallons each.
Boil:	300 (not a typo) minutes	SG 1.042	6 gallons
	I was called away just as the kettle was on the verge of boiling. I turned the flame down to the lowest level that a small gust of wind could not extinguish, put the lid on the kettle, and asked my lovely wife to keep an eye on the flame for me while I was gone. Thusly I figured to kill two birds with one stone by preventing infection and drastically reducing the time needed to re-catch the boil upon my return. Normally I lose the boil when I set the flame this low so I anticipated that the flame would hold the wort in the neighborhood of 165° or above. Perfect to keep the wort from souring and allow an easy re-acquisition of boil temps later . . . right? Four hours later . . . returned to find that the whole volume of wort had been holding at a low boil for the duration of my absence. I proceeded to remove the lid, add the bittering hops, infuse 1.7 L of boiling water to replace the boil-off, and continue with the planned boil schedule. I expect the final product will be darker in color, possibly have more body, a more pronounced caramel flavor, and perhaps slightly higher FG due to the unfermentable sugars created by carmelization. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that one hour of open boiling was long enough to boil off all the DMS created during the previous four hours of lid-on boiling. 2 Irish Moss tablets added @ 10 mins.
Hops:	1.2 oz. Hallertauer (4.1% AA, 60 min.) .5 oz. Saaz (3% AA, 60 min.) .5 oz. Saaz (3% AA, 10 min.)
Yeast:	I chose Wyeast's 3864-PC Canadian-Belgian ale yeast. This is rumored to be the house strain used by Unibroue brewery in Quebec. Obviously this is not the best strain to clone Westmalle's Extra. However, this batch is basically serving as a 5-gallon starter for the quadrupel wheat wine I plan to brew later this week, making this slight modification necessary.
Log:	Brew date 1/20/2014 Ferm temp: 70°F

Recipe posted 01/21/14.