High Abv Beer

[Jase71]

The missuz picked up a Brewcraft Belgian Ale can the other day, and I want to use this to make a beer with a kick. I'm aiming for around 7% ABV, and wonder if there's anything specific that I need to be mindful of - such as adding yest in stages or allowing the first pitch to do the work.

Hoping to hit an OG of 1.070 and hope that the FG will end up at around 1.016. I'll be using the trub from a neighbours recent brew which is Whitelabs Saison yeast, and the other ingredients as follows:

1.8kg Brewcraft Can "Belgian Ale"
1.5kg Unhopped Pale Malt Liquid
500g LDME
500g Dextrose

to 20 litres

 

[marlow_coates]

Only have experiance with the Wyeast saison liquid yeast.

It at through my high gravity beer just fine, but I added all simple sugars about 3 days in from memory.

Also it went quite slowly, and required some fermeter swirling and higher temps to finish off.

I would recomend pitching a large starter, and slowly raising the temp during the ferment, and adding simple sugars after big start.

Hope this helps

Marlow

 

[manticle]

The missuz picked up a Brewcraft Belgian Ale can the other day, and I want to use this to make a beer with a kick. I'm aiming for around 7% ABV, and wonder if there's anything specific that I need to be mindful of - such as adding yest in stages or allowing the first pitch to do the work.

Hoping to hit an OG of 1.070 and hope that the FG will end up at around 1.016. I'll be using the trub from a neighbours recent brew which is Whitelabs Saison yeast, and the other ingredients as follows:

1.8kg Brewcraft Can "Belgian Ale"
1.5kg Unhopped Pale Malt Liquid
500g LDME
500g Dextrose

to 20 litres

I've made a couple of Belgians that started above 1080 and finished around 1020. In both I used a packet of brewcellar ale yeast and sediment from chimay blue bottles. I'm not sure if the chimay yeast worked but the second time I did it I made a small starter (probably too small) and seemed to see a bit of life.

I also added about 250 g dissolved dextrose when they were halfway through. With that amount of malt you might want to add a bit of extra bittering and flavouring hops.

If I did it again (which I fully intend to) I would drop the dex in place of some candy sugar (used candy in the initial ferment but I'd use it again) as I'm steering clear of dex except for priming. I'd also fiddle with some specialty grains and possibly base ones too for a minimash. Mine have come out tasty and rich but there needs to be more of a balance which I put down to too high a malt:hops ratio. I may also have better luck getting the flavours I want with a liquid yeast.

 

[Jase71]

What flavour does candy sugar bring to the glass ? I thought this was used more for stouts or porters ....

 

[Pollux]

I used some candi sugar (homemade) in my recent belgian attempt....

It certainly has a good solid alcohol kick while maintaining a body somewhere between a lighter lager and a chewier ale...

Have a read of this for how to make...

 

[Adamt]

Using all malt for a high gravity beer can leave you with a cloyingly heavy (in body) beer. Candi sugar is a simple sugar that ferments completely, leaving no residual (body) sugars, similar to what dextrose does, I guess. Darker candi sugars can lend some raisiny/caramel flavours to the beer. Your recipe should be OK, you could even go 1kg dextrose instead of the LDME.

The yeast handling is argubly the most important part of Belgian beer brewing. If you are using fresh slurry (make sure its fresh), you won't need to pitch more than half a cup or so. When using fresh slurry you have to keep temperature well under control - the yeast is already active and it will hit the ground running, generating quite a bit of heat. This will be further multiplied by the higher OG. Though saison yeasts are "designed" for higher temperatures - up to 24C or higher - it may be best to try and keep it closer to 20 to be safe. Others with more experience with the yeast may have more input for you there.