Belgian Strong Ale

[boybrewer]

I have been asked to brew a strong Belgian . So I sifted through the internet and every time it lead back to this site Aussiehomebrew . I have a recipe for it and as this is my first big beer I need some experienced opinions on how to make it . Here is the recipe .



5 kg Dingemans Pils
2.2 kg Weyermans Pils
550 gm Weyermans Wheat
500 gm Weyerman Caramunich III
140 gm Dingemans Aromatic
80 gm Dingemans Biscuit

Single infusion batch sparge @ 67.8* C for 90 min

30 gm Brewers Gold 90 min
10 gm Styrian Goldings 10 min

Yeast Wy 1388 , with a 2lt starter

500 gm dark Belgian Candi home made after 3-4 days in primary .

Any tips or ideas would be greatly accepted


Cheers
Beerbelly

 

[boybrewer]

Bump

 

[Gulpa]

I have been asked to brew a strong Belgian . So I sifted through the internet and every time it lead back to this site Aussiehomebrew . I have a recipe for it and as this is my first big beer I need some experienced opinions on how to make it . Here is the recipe .



5 kg Dingemans Pils
2.2 kg Weyermans Pils
550 gm Weyermans Wheat
500 gm Weyerman Caramunich III
140 gm Dingemans Aromatic
80 gm Dingemans Biscuit

Single infusion batch sparge @ 67.8* C for 90 min

30 gm Brewers Gold 90 min
10 gm Styrian Goldings 10 min

Yeast Wy 1388 , with a 2lt starter

500 gm dark Belgian Candi home made after 3-4 days in primary .

Any tips or ideas would be greatly accepted


Cheers
Beerbelly

Looks fine to me. If this is your first big beer you should expect a lower efficiency than usual. I normally calculate 10 points lower than normal efficiency.

cheers
Andrew.

 

[manticle]

You asked for experienced opinions. I've had a go at some Belgian styles as I love them but only one has turned out even remotely good and that was a dubbel. It needs a lot of work though.

The tip I've been given recently (due to some of mine not turning out as I'd like) is to add the sugar incrementally rather than all at once.

The other tip is to build a really big starter. I've yet to try both of these but my next one will give it a shot.

Also curious about the 2 different pils. Any reason?

One thing I'm still trying to work out is mash temp. First few I mashed high but got bad attenuation. Next few I mashed low and got great attenuation but the body wasn't where I'd like it 9or in line with commercial examples). Next I'll mash mid and see how it goes. Alternatively I guess mashing high but for longer might help.

Not pretending to be the voice of experience here - just some ideas that someone else might discuss and help both of us learn more.

By the way, while the malts look in line with what I know of Belgian brews, I think Duvel (the original golden strong) is just pils malt, wheat malt, sucrose and saaz hops so something to keep in mind depending on how close to duvel you'd like it.

 

[boybrewer]

Manticle it was suppose to be 2.2kg of pale malt the guys at G&G stuffed up the order . I went over there today to pick it up and they had forgotten to mill it .
The rcipe says to mash high at 70*C , although I've read somewhere to do a step mash like brewing a wheat beer.

 

[manticle]

When I mashed high (around 68) I found the resulting brew struggled to attenuate. If you do mash high, try stretching it out to 90 minutes.

The drunk arab's fly blown belgian recipe seems to get a lot of kudos here so maybe try tweaking that. It's in the DB.

 

[fcmcg]

Beer Belly...i was just wondering why your location says Croydon...yes you come all the way over here...Westside...um ..Can't Peter at Brewers Den,Boronia help you ?
I love G&G...my local...but your driving a hell of a way...
Ferg

 

[losp]

You asked for experienced opinions. I've had a go at some Belgian styles as I love them but only one has turned out even remotely good and that was a dubbel. It needs a lot of work though.

The tip I've been given recently (due to some of mine not turning out as I'd like) is to add the sugar incrementally rather than all at once.

The other tip is to build a really big starter. I've yet to try both of these but my next one will give it a shot.

Manticle I have read that it is a good thing to add the sugar half way through the ferment, that way atleast half of the complex sugars have been used. am i off the money here?


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Beer Belly
Looking at that recipe, it looks a little complicated. I always thought belgian strongs were a bit more simple, i.e. 6.6kg pils malt, 500gm total of specialty malts and 0.5kg of candy sugar. Again i could be way off on this!

I am planing a strong ale as well. but i have only 3ag brews under my belt so i am going to try and get out a couple more simpler beers first.

the brew i am planning uses the same hops as yours. i have never used the yeast that you are going to use either.

 

[manticle]

No, I've been given that advice too and that's what I'd do. Add after high krausen, bit by bit, day by day.

I have made a few dubbels and trippels but generally added all my candi at once (after primary krausen) and got a lot of hot alcohol (mainly noticeable in the tripels). It was suggested to me by someone who's never given me bad advice to break that up over time.

 

[boybrewer]

Beer Belly...i was just wondering why your location says Croydon...yes you come all the way over here...Westside...um ..Can't Peter at Brewers Den,Boronia help you ?
I love G&G...my local...but your driving a hell of a way...
Ferg

Yeah it is a bit of a drive . Peter didn't have most of the grains that I was after . It appears that he carries most of the generic products for your basic ales and lagers . G&G are great Chris , Dan and John were most helpfull .

Beerbelly

 

[boybrewer]

Manticle I have read that it is a good thing to add the sugar half way through the ferment, that way atleast half of the complex sugars have been used. am i off the money here?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beer Belly
Looking at that recipe, it looks a little complicated. I always thought belgian strongs were a bit more simple, i.e. 6.6kg pils malt, 500gm total of specialty malts and 0.5kg of candy sugar. Again i could be way off on this!

I am planing a strong ale as well. but i have only 3ag brews under my belt so i am going to try and get out a couple more simpler beers first.

the brew i am planning uses the same hops as yours. i have never used the yeast that you are going to use either.

Yeah the recipe came from a clone book . I have also read that the Belgians use the KISS principle.
As I have never brewed a big beer before I am sticking to the recipe basics which has about 6 different malts in it . The actual beer is called Guldon Draak ( Golden Dragon ) Approx 10%

 

[hosko11]

The only other thing you might want to consider doing is ramping up the ferment temp during primary fermentation. I was advised to do this by the far more knowledgeable around here when I put together an extract recipe. I ramp it up from 18C to 26C over 5 days in roughly 2C steps in a very unscientific, when I remember kind of way. Its always turned out a tasty brew. Here's my original post for the extract recipe link it may be helpful.

 

[The Judge]

Did any of the guys in this thread successfully brew a Belgian Strong Ale? If so, what were the crucial tips from this thread? I'm guessing the step additions of sugar during the fermentation is a big one. Let me know, cheers.

 

[sp0rk]

I've got one that's just finishing off primary fermentation right now
I added all my Candi Sugar in the boil (I hadn't read this thread) and it's seemed to work fine, it stalled at 1.018 for a little bit but has dropped to 1.014 and I'm considering racking off into a secondary for a bit of aging
Also wondering whether or not to bottle or just to age for 6 months in a keg, I've been having a lot of problems with bottles becoming gushers lately

 

[The Judge]

Yeah I would've added it to the boil too had it not been for this thread. And I'm going to go for Dextrose instead of white sugar. Only because I've got heaps of it.

I'll also be bottle conditioning them but not too sure how long I should bottle them after secondary. Does this beer need a lagering period or just do some aging in the bottles....

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

I did one recently:
Mash in 66C
Pitch enough yeast ****
Oxygenate enough ****
Keep the ferment temp up when it wants to go down and swirl ****
I added syrup to the boil, didnt appear to be a problem.
I achieved 75% ADF (yeast range was (74-78% )
All in a good result.
Oh and boil for two hours, make sure you add lots of evaporation water, this will give you the depth that these beers need and it brings up your efficiency .
Nev
BTW started at 1078

 

[manticle]

Since I wrote my bits, I reckon my golden strongs have come out well. Simple grist - belgian pils, sugar in stages after fermentation. Styrians and saaz, stepmash/hochkurz and decoction. For slightly different results, I've used pils, vienna and munich. Also done all malt, no sugar.

Big active starters, cool pitch, allow temp to gradually rise during fermentation, good few weeks cold conditioning. 1388 is a favourite yeast for the pales, use dex for the sugar.

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

1388 is a favourite yeast for the pales,

I think this is the best choice too, if you are lucky it throws some pear esters, which is what I like.
I pitch cool at the bottom of the suggested range 18C.
Nev
Edit: I should add I let it creep up in temp at day 3 onwards and like to finish it out at approx 25 C.
It can take some time to finish out.

 

[The Judge]

Good advice - cheers Nev.

 

[boybrewer]

Now its four years later the belgian strong turned out great . I didn't end up making the candi as I opted for demimur sugar and added that in three stages as fermentation started to settle then added 250 gms every three days for nine days . I then raised the temp on the first addition of sugar and on each and every addition . This turned out to be a top drop . It got a third at Vic Brew . I then put my second to last bottle in the Melbourne Brewers comp and it didn't even place . I think the bottle was around two years old . I opened the last bottle to see if it was any good and the flavours were unbeleivable . I got plum pudding flavours like raisins , sultanas and evrything else that makes a good plum pudding . I can still taste it 2 years on . It ended up being a 9% beer. Fkn awesome loved it .