Thoughts On A Belgain Dark.

[Dave70]

Having a look back, there seem to be a few threads with folk (a lot more experienced than I) lamenting about not being able to get their Belgain's nailed - some even throwing in the towel (quitters..).
I have a Tripel ready to bottle tonight that was kept as simple, and produced as close to the BCS recomendations as I could make. So far so good with that one.
Tomorrow I'm planning to have a crack at Jamils Strong Dark which involves a more complex grain bill but pretty much the same procedure apart from starting the ferment at 20 deg and raising to 22 over the course of a week. I know some here take it to over 25.
He also recommends cane sugar, I thought dark candi would have been the go for this style?

I'm not looking to fiddle with the recipe, but if any body thinks they've tweaked the mash / fermentation to get a better result I'd be happy to hear about it.

cheers.

 

[j1gsaw]

I did Jamils belgian strong a year ago, its drinking wonderfully. I used dark candi sugar, but i fed it in 50ml increments over a 10 day period. I kicked it off with wyeast 3787, after 7 days, i then started the sugar additions... at day 5, i dropped two packets of champagne yeast in. I think i had an OG of 1090, but with the 500ml of candi sugar it would have bumped it up more etc naturally. The champagne yeast pulled the final grav down to 1018. I think from memory it settled at 11% alc approx.
Very nice beer, but def needs a year in the bottle imo. I tried one after a few months, and it was ok, but not what i was expecting, but after 12 months, wonderful, big malty, semi sweet, colour is spot on. I carbed lightly just in standard tallies as i didnt have any champagne bottles at the time. You certainly need a good starter and a blow off tube though, as it loves to escape the carboy, so i found out lol.
I fermented at the usual 18/19deg to start with, and let it sit on 20 when i added the champagne yeast. Normal mash at 65 deg. Worked for me.

 

[Dave70]

Interesting.

It might be a beer for another day though, I need a fireside warmer for winter.

So what are you doing there? Enjoying a Dark and doing a bit of re loading?

 

[matho]

Dave,

I did a dark about 7 weeks ago and I'm drinking it now, it's tasting really nice and is defantly a winter warmer.
It took just under 4 weeks in the fermenter and then I primed it in the keg and let it naturally carb. If your bottling then maybe put a few aside and see what they taste like in a year but you will defantly be able to drink the rest this winter .

Cheers matho