Another Fun Clone

Belgian beers are almost all extremely simple recipes. Getting through Brew Like a Monk was such a joy. Stan Hieronymous does an excellent job of finding out as much information on Belgian style beers brewed both in their homeland and here in America. Starting out, he documents the Trappists with loads of useful tips on their techniques and recipes. I was really interested in the smaller beers that the monks brewed for their personal consumption since they mostly brew higher ABV beers for sale. A few are talked about in BLaM: Westmalle Extra, Chimay Doree, and Orval Petit. Petit is simply a lower gravity version of the original, but Extra and Doree are a bit different than their bigger brothers. The former contains no sugar and is hopped higher, and the latter is spiced. I chose to tackle Westmalle Extra since it seemed like a nice easy drinking pale beer to have on tap. I put together as much of a recipe as I could and then decided to shoot Stan an email. He was extremely helpful putting together the pieces, that I think this will turn out to be an excellent beer.
So, what we know:
OG 1.046 FG 1.005 88% AA 5.3% ABV 5 SRM 31 IBUs
100% Pilsner malt, all Czech Saaz hops, Wyeast 3787 (Westmalle)
What we don't know:
Quantity and timing of late hop additions, what Pils malt, mash schedule, fermentation schedule, pitching rate.
Stan has given me some advice: use a small 10min hop addition; long, low temperature mash to ensure high fermentability, and assume their fermentation schedule is the same as the rest of their beers (pitch at 64, raise to 68).
The recipe

Stats OG 1.047 FG IBU 38 ABV SRM 3

Specifics Boil Volume 8 gallons Batch Size 5.5 gallons Yeast 88% AA Wyeast 3787

Fermentables

% Weight	Weight (lbs)	Grain	Gravity Points	Color
100.0 %	9.50	Castle Pils	44.1	3.1
	9.50		44.1

Hops

% Wt	Weight (oz)	Hop	Form	AA%	AAU	Boil Time	Utilization	IBU
80.0 %	2.00	Czech Saaz	Pellet	4.0	8.0	40	0.303	33.0
20.0 %	0.50	Czech Saaz	Pellet	4.0	2.0	FWH	0.184	5.0
	2.50							38.0

9/23/09: Brewed today. Did a 90min mash at 147 followed by a 90min boil. I'm doing the latter because this is the first brew that I'll incorporate my no-chill method. There has been no claims of massive DMS production, but I've heard very little from folks who have done high % of Pils malt beers. You'll notice to the hop schedule looks strange, and that's because I'm following the adjustments from this guy. I"ll also build a 2 L starter from the resulting beer that I'll pitch in about 32 hours when the wort has chilled. I'll save a bit from the starter for next weeks barrel brew. Wish me luck!