BeerBorg

OK I'm embarrassed to admit it but I have a recipe I routinely brew but am not sure of its classification.

Hopefully I can get some help here.

Here are the base ingredients:

2 row
crystal 10
Saaz hops
Yeast - sometimes the T-58, sometimes mangrove jacks belgian yeast.

I want to say it's based as a belgian because of my yeast. But is it a Wit? A Hefeweizen? Ale? Blonde?

I do not usually use wheat or any other aromatic malts you may find in belgians. Sometimes I may throw in bitter orange and/or ginger.

Anyways any help on a classification just in case I enter a contest would help

Belgian Blonde it sounds like to me, fairly simple recipe from the looks. Any recipe software will steer you into the parameters of style.

Good question. It is assuredly an ale, T-58 is a top fermenting yeast. It can't be a Hefeweizen or a Wit. There is no wheat, or oats as is possible in a Witbier.

With the spice, it could be bordering on the saison persuasion, or generalized as farmhouse ale.

It could be a beer of many types.

There is usually not any crystal malt in a Belgian blonde or patersbier, but if we ignore that then a Belgian blonde or patersbier depending on what your OG is. (1.05 or < = patersbier, > 1.05-1.6something = blonde). A more authentic blonde would not have the crystal and perhaps would have clear or 1L candi syrup/candi sugar in it's place.

Until you throw in the spices. Once you do that, I call it pseudo-saison. Because T-58 tastes a lot like French Saison depending on the fermentation temps (lower). At higher temps, I don't know what I'd call that though - I guess a festively spiced Belgian blonde. But in either case if it's more then about 1.04something or so it's going to be too malty for it to really taste like a saison when using T-58, unless you add... clear or 1L candi syrup/candi sugar in place of some of the malt. To get it really saison like at 1.06ish gravity you have to use 20% sugar adjunct when using T-58.

If you ferment it hot but without the spices then it would turn into something like a more modern version of Dampfbier - which are lighter in color then the old world style of it. Dampfbier is wheat beer except with 2 row and some crystal instead of wheat and fermented with a wheat beer yeast at high temperatures. Old world versions would have some darker malt in it because in the old world they didn't have kiln control like we do today, so malt was more variable in color even in the same batch (think how some popcorn gets burned and others isn't). But modern versions are typically pilsner or pale malt.

So... it depends LOL.

OK so in a nutshell there is no classifcation? Lol......I am where I started

I won't be entering it in any contest but it's a 'house' recipe that I accidentally came up with and like it. So I thought the least I could do was call it by the 'right' name. Oh well