OK, here’s the brew I’ve been waiting for, wanting to try for months, yearning for – a home-brewed Belgian IPA made right here in Nicaragua. I’m thinking of throwing a packet of dried Belgian yeast into our palm-thatch roof so it can just be there, growing, hanging out, ready to bring yeasty goodness to any fermentation that happens. That’s how the Belgian monks create their amazing brews (that, and a life long vow of celibacy I suppose- not ready for that)- the yeast is specific to each abbey. The only reason I won’t do that is I don’t want our other types of brews to always have Belgian yeast floating into them.
Still, I couldn’t give up the precious yeast that we can’t buy down here so when the fermentation was done, I mixed up a quick batch of passion fruit and ginger mead and pitched the yeast slurry into it… we’ll see how that comes out. In the meantime, here’s the recipe for a most awesome Belgian IPA that I’m calling “Belguaguan” – you know, a Nicaraguan Belgian!
6 lbs. light malt extract
1.5 lbs. wheat malt extract
1 lb. British crystal malt
2oz. Willamette hops @ 60 minutes
1.5 oz. XX hops @ 15 min.
0.5 oz. XX hops @ 0 min.
1 packet Wyeast Belgian Abbey yeast
hip-E habitat 
i didn’t know belgians made IPAs. I have always been reluctant to order or buy a belgian, thinking they tended to be like wheat beers which i have become prejudiced against for some reason (i stay away from buying those too, so it is a prejudice not based on any recent experience). this picture doesn’t look like a belgian to me. Perhaps i should be a bit more adventurous next time i see one on tap.
We went to dinner recently at 1320 Bistro and pub in Old Torrance where they have quite a large selection of beers on tab. i don’t recall any belgians, but i probably just passed over any with hardly a notice. I had a Double Bastard from Stone and Debbie had an IPA from Strand Brewery in Torrance. The Double Bastard was almost too, too. (I celebrated Christmas Eve with an Arrogant Bastard i had in the bar fridge. Not at all too, too) The local IPA was quite good.
im not sure if the belgians themselves made IPAs, but I first had an IPA brewed with Belgian yeast at the Stone Brewery. It was a limited release called the “Cali-Belgique” and it was awesome! I started watching for it at Whole Foods and 6 months to a year later I finally found it. You could probably find it now at the Whole Foods in Torrance if you wanted to try it – which I recommend!
I love the taste of Belgian yeast so we bought a few packets to use down here, but it’s hard for us to brew a beer without ample hops = belgian IPAs!
we just finished that batch but maybe we’ll have some on hand for you to try in March!
Hey guys, thats awesome your able to brew here, i am working on bringing some of my equipment down here as well. I searched some homebrew forums and found that there is a company headquartered in Guatemala that sells malt extract and they have a distributor here in Managua. i stopped by last week but they didn’t have any. i told them to let me know when or if they will order some in. my spanish sucks so the conversation didn’t go to far. but im also going to send an email. ill let you know how that goes. might be worth a shot for you guys to give it a go too.
here is the website – distcaribe.com