This Belgian-style amber ale should serve as a fine vehicle for any “concrete” sugar such as panela, piloncillo, rapadura, tapa de dulce, or jaggery.

Learn how to brew a pleasantly complex Belgian Pale Ale, perhaps the least-Belgian of the Belgian styles.

There is not one pale ale—they are infinite. For example: There are a few classic types that can be assembled from essentially the same wort based on some key choices. Let’s explore the versatility.

Pale ale makes an ideal base for trying out the split-batch method and experimenting with the different flavors you can get from one kettle of wort and a single brew day. Following this recipe, you’ll get an American-style pale ale, a Belgian-style pale ale, and a British-style strong bitter—but it’s easy to imagine more variations.

Belgian pale ale is a great entry-level Belgian beer for those who are a little overwhelmed by the more common Dubbels and Tripels out there, and it’s the style I recommend when people tell me they “don’t like Belgians.”

The style is versatile, flexible, and drinkable. And whatever else it might be, it isn’t really a pale ale.

Beer nerds, here’s the mimosa mixer you’ve been looking for.

Test out your Sous Vide homebrewing skills with this recipe, which calls for just a 30-minute boil in an effort to save time.

This Atlanta brewery produces an array of lagers that explore the flavors of Noble hops, while also pushing for focused expression in their Belgian-style beers.

If you’ve tried his pale ale, Taras Boulba, then you know that Yvan De Baets has a taste for hops. But it’s the focus on subtlety, balance, and fine details like tank geometry that make the beers of this Brussels brewery so compelling.

Perennial Artisan Ales’s take on this golden pale ale is a light, clean, and decidedly herbal homage to the hops.

Replicating a beer is a different skill set (though it does overlap), but don’t worry too much about making an identical twin – making a great sibling is more than good enough, and who knows, you might even improve upon a classic!

“Light spicy nose, reminiscent of a Belgian pale ale with grass, geranium, and pepper qualities. Rounded body, fairly sweet mid-palate, which gives it a somewhat heavy impression. Missing definition throughout; the pieces to the puzzle are there but do not come together.”

can denote a specific style of beer in one context, but in its predominant form it is a generic name for a group of copper-colored, hop-forw...

In a proper pale ale, the focus is, correctly, on the hops. However, no matter whether that pale ale is British in origin, or American, or Belgian, or is from the new hazy school, the malt that goes into the recipe matters.

Courtesy of Joe Bowden, head brewer at Munkle Brewing in Charleston, South Carolina, here is a homebrew-scale recipe for the beer that won GABF gold in 2018 in the category Belgian-Style and French-Style Ales.

Brian Hutchinson and Jonathan Lee of Cannonball Creek in Golden, Colorado, embrace constant change, even when it means huge recipe changes for gold medal–winning hoppy beers.

“A fun medley of melon, apple, strawberry. Moderate bitterness comes in the middle of the taste and becomes slightly more intense as it lingers on the tongue. Light Tellicherry pepper and melon esters in the back. Cold Belgian IPA?”

“Impressive robust head. Earthy hop-forward nose. Peppery citrus component in the flavor melds with earthiness. Slightly floral and spicy hop flavor up front. Moderate but pleasant bitterness lingers in the finish. A very attractive beer.”

Light biscuit and bread crust malt, with a notable American hop aroma of pine and light citrus. Assertively bitter with forward pine and peppery hop notes along with lower apricot, and peach ester. Subtle spice notes of nutmeg and clove. It finishes dry with a lingering spicy bitterness. Not at all the beer we expected—as much pale ale as pumpkin.