Belgian Beer Styles with Stan Hieronymus- BeerSmith Podcast #205

by Brad Smith on December 30, 2019 · 1 comment

Stan Hieronymus, the author of the book “Brew Like a Monk” joins me to discuss brewing Belgian beer styles.

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Topics in This Week’s Episode (51:38)

  • This week I welcome Stan Hieronymus. Stan is the author of Brew Like a Monk, For the Love of Hops, Brewing with Wheat and Brewing Local (Amazon affiliate links). Stan is also a certified BJCP beer judge.
  • We start with a short discussion of Stan’s recent travels.
  • We jump into Belgian styles starting with what makes Belgium such a unique place for beer.
  • We discuss how so many Belgian styles survived two world wars when many other styles died out.
  • Stan tells us a bit about the various major Belgian beer styles.
  • We talk about “Trappist” and Abbey ales and what the difference is between them.
  • Stan tells us a bit about the major Trappist styles and how they are brewed including major ingredients.
  • We discuss the use of “candi sugars” and how the ones used in Belgium are different from many sold here.
  • Stan talks about Belgian yeasts and some of their unique character.
  • He shares some of the Trappist brewing and fermentation techniques.
  • We talk about some of the changes in Trappist and Belgian beers since “Brew Like a Monk” was published back in 2006.
  • Stan gives his closing thoughts on brewing Belgian styles.

Sponsors

Thanks to Stan Hieronymus for appearing on the show and also to you for listening!
iTunes Announcements: I launched a new video channel for the BeerSmith podcast on iTunes, so subscribe now! At the moment it will only feature the new widescreen episodes (#75 and up). Older episodes are available on my revamped Youtube channel. Also all of my audio episodes are on iTunes now – so grab the older episodes if you missed any.

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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

David Dow June 16, 2021 at 12:54 pm

This is a great listen for anyone interested in the Belgian brews. I have brewed a Trappist Single that gets great reviews and I am trying to get the recipe perfected for an upcoming competition. I definitely got some great tips. Thank You!

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