Homebrew is best enjoyed with friends and family, whether it’s a brew day or a warm summer afternoon sharing a new recipe out on the patio. The social aspect is a big part of my enjoyment of the hobby, as I make new friends and welcome old friends into the world of brewing.

Steve and I met through work, and we had our first brew session together in 2009. He was quickly hooked, and soon started his own brewing adventures. Like many brewers, Steve began with extract and transitioned into brew-in-a-bag before too long. He loved experimenting (an early attempt at smoked beer involved some Liquid Smoke added at bottling; do not try this at home, because even Steve grudgingly admitted that it wasn’t very good), and he also loved riffing off of commercial recipes. We would often bounce ideas off of each other, do side-by-side tastings, and give feedback for each others’ beers. We also had semi-regular “hostage swaps,” trading a growler of his homebrew for a growler of mine. Steve and I had many adventures in beer over the years, with brew days together, the San Diego AHA meeting in 2015, carpooling to club meetings, pouring our beers at festivals, and more. He was a creative brewer in ways that I am not–I like to carefully plan each recipe, and Steve was more the type to say, “hey, I wonder what happens if I add sage to this,” or “can I get an approximation of this style with a random yeast?” Steve’s sudden and untimely passing earlier this year has been hard–I lost a close friend, a role model, and a good brewing buddy.

In honor and memory of Steve, I wanted to brew one of “his” beers. A few recipes stand out for me – a sage saison, a Mirror Pond Pale Ale clone, and most all his Cali-Belgique recipe. Cali-Belgique IPA was one of Steve’s early brewing obsessions, attempting to clone one of Stone Brewing’s beers. No longer commercially available, Cali-Belgique was a modification of the flagship Stone IPA, fermented with Belgian ale yeast. Steve enjoyed this beer, and wanted to make his own version; I sampled a few early brews, as he got closer and closer to his vision for the beer. Along the way, it turned into an excellent recipe and one that was truly Steve’s own, not just a clone. I’ll forever associate this beer with him!

Crafting Steve’s Cali-Belgique

Unfortunately, I didn’t have Steve’s Cali-Belgique IPA recipe (I had never gotten around to brewing it myself, because I could readily get the beer from Steve), but I remembered that Steve pretty regularly phoned his recipes in to our local homebrew shop. So, I reached out to Charles at Pacific Brewing Supplies, and I was in luck! Charles happened to have the grain bill and hop list, which set us well on the way to reconstructing this recipe.

The latest version of Steve’s Cali-Belgique had 50% 2-row, 33.3% Belgian Pilsner malt, 8.3% Carapils, and 8.3% Dark Munich. Steve double-milled his grains, and Charles thinks Steve was hitting around 75% efficiency in his system. He started as an extract brewer, spent much of his brewing career using brew-in-a-bag, and spent the last part with an Anvil Foundry all-in-one system. Based on all of this, target gravity was probably around 1.064 or 1.065. For my own version, I increased the 2-row from 6 lb to 8 lb to improve the gravity on my system and make it match Steve’s system better. A future brew on my system should increase percentage on all grains. I assumed a mash temperature of around 152°, just for simplicity.

The latest version of Steve’s recipe included 1 oz. of Chinook (13% alpha), 2 oz. of Columbus (15% alpha), and 1 oz. of Centennial (10% alpha). I had to guess at usage, but assumed Chinook as the main bittering hop and then a combination of late hop and dry hop additions for the rest. Steve seemed to always be adjusting the recipe, so it’s safe to play around in the hopping approach, because that’s what he would do. Following Steve’s preferences and the original Stone IPA recipes, it was probably hitting around 65 IBU.

Yeast varied over the years, but Steve’s most recent batches used Abbaye or Monk dry yeast. For fermentation temperature, I remember the beer having the nice spicy yeast notes and phenols that come with a warmer temperature for these Belgian strains. So, I decided to ferment around 72°.

With all of this information gathered, it was time to brew and sample Steve’s Cali-Belgique. Cheers to you, Steve, and thanks for the many happy hours of stargazing, conversation, philosophy, and beer tasting.

Steve’s Cali-Belgique IPA Homage

• 8 lb. 2-row malt (Great Western)
• 4 lb. pilsen malt (Dingemans)
• 1 lb. dextrin malt (Viking)
• 1 lb. Munich dark malt (Viking)
• 0.5 tsp. BrewTanB, added to mash
• 1.15 oz. Chinook hop pellets (12.3% alpha), 60 minute boil
• 0.75 oz. Centennial hop pellets (8.1% alpha), 10 minute boil
• 0.75 oz. Columbus hop pellets (15.6% alpha), 10 minute boil
• 0.25 tsp. BrewTanB, 10 minute boil
• 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
• 1 pkg. Abbaye Belgian ale yeast (Lallemand)
• 1 pkg. Monk ale yeast (CellarScience DY106B)
• 1.25 oz. Columbus hop pellets (15.6% alpha), dry hop in fermenter
• 0.25 oz. Centennial hop pellets (8.1% alpha), dry hop in fermenter

Target Parameters

• 60 minute infusion mash, 152°, full volume mash
• 1.063 o.g., 1.016 f.g., 6.2% abv, 68 IBU, 6 SRM
• Claremont water adjusted with lactic acid and minerals to hit 76 ppm Ca, 22 ppm Mg, 89 ppm Na, 182 ppm SO4, 110 ppm Cl, 20 ppm bicarbonate

Procedure

• Starting with 7.6 galllons of water, I added 6.33 mL of 88% lactic acid, to drop out the carbonates. Then, I added 4 g of epsom salt and 4 g of gypsum to kick up the sulfates.
• I heated the strike water to 159°, before adding the grains and 25.7 mL of 10% phosphoric acid, holding the mash at 152° (with recirculation) for 60 minutes.
• At the end of the mash, I pulled the grains. In total, I had 6.75 gallons at a gravity of 1.052, for 68% mash efficiency.
• I brought the kettle to a boil and boiled for 60 minutes, adding hops and finings per the recipe. Then, I turned off the heat and chilled the wort to 72° before transferring to the fermenter and pitching the yeast.
• Starting gravity was 1.060. I brewed the beer on 30 March 2025, and fermented at ambient (~65°).
• When I checked the fermenter on 1 April 2025, there was no activity in the airlock, so I opened the fermenter and confirmed no activity. I had a pack of Abbaye Ale yeast on-hand, so pitched that. Krausen was visible by the next day. I put a heat pad on the beer, but it got a bit hot; around 80° by 3 April. Oops! I let it ride at ambient at that point.
• I kegged the beer on 14 May 2025, adding the dry hops in a bag. I removed the hops on 18 May 2025.
• Final gravity was 1.015, for 6.0% abv.

Tasting

• Appearance
  • A very clear, gold beer, which has a thick and persistent white head
• Aroma
  • I get a strong sensation of pineapple in the aroma as the beer warms up; some moderate alcohol notes, too. Yeast character dominates, and I don’t get much for hops or malt.
• Flavor
  • This is a very bitter beer with a resinous edge to the hops. It has a medium-low maltiness, with a light caramel quality. There is a touch of clove flavor as the beer warms. The bitterness lingers on the tongue.
• Mouthfeel
  • Medium body, medium carbonation, slightly dry finish.
• Would I Brew This Again?
  • Yes! This beer goes down surprisingly smoothly, which I didn’t necessarily expect. I would like more dry hop aroma, and probably should just let the hops float free in the fermenter rather than bagging them. For a variant, I might try Eclipse and El Dorado, while keeping the same yeast. Mosaic or Galaxy could also work. The beer overall is quite good – the low hop aroma / low flavor complexity is the main reason that I gave it a lower score (no fault of the recipe – just my handling of the hops). That said, I don’t really remember Steve’s version of this having much for hop aroma. So, I might adjust the beer for my own preferences, but as something that captures his beer as I remember it, it’s pretty close!
• Overall
  • 6.5/10