Will this beer be too sweet?

[Mell_man79]

So here's the deal. I'm trying to brew a Delirium Tremens clone and I'm worried if it will come out too sweet with the ingredients I'm using. I've put the ingredients in Brewer's Friend and it's telling me my OG will be 1.086 and my FG will be 1.019 giving me a beer with nearly 9% ABV. I'm concerned though that at a FG of 1.019, the beer will be sweet. Definitely do not want a sweet beer. The ingredients is as follows:

9.9lb light liquid malt extract
2.2lb Belgian candi sugar
25g Styrian Goldings
20g Sterling
20g Strisselspalt
20g Williamette
0.40 Oz Corriander Seed Spice
0.14 Oz Ginger Root Spice
0.14 Oz Grains of Paradise
20g Mangrove Jack's M41 Belgian Ale yeast

Now. To brew this, I'm using a hop extract that I received from geterbrewed.com that says it will get the beer an IBU of 30. The rest of the hops in the kit will be added to the fermentor five days before bottling using a hop tea. The spices will be added to boiling water along with the candi sugar which will then be left in the fermentor while the beer ferments. This is my first time not brewing from an actually kit, so any advice will be welcomed. But back to the original question. Will this beer be too sweet if it was an OG of 1.086 and a FG of 1.019? I know this won't be a direct Delirium Tremens clone, but I definitely don't want a overly sweet beer. If this FG is too high leading to an overly sweet beer, what do I need to do to get the gravity down to 1.010ish? I originally wanted to get the beer to about 8.5% ABV, but measuring liquid malt extract doesn't sound very fun. I'm willing to sacrifice some of the malt and sugar if need be though. Want something I can actually drink more than one of close to 8.5% ABV.

 

[MyQul]

Well, the attenuation looks ok at 77%. One of the main reasons for the candi sugar is to tackle, exactly the problem your worried about. The point of candi sugar n belgian beers is to dry the beer out and thin the body so it isn't too cloying and sweet.

I'm not into Belgian beers and have never made one as they're usually far too strong for my tastes, so only know the theory. Who you want is 'Belgian candi sugar runs in my veins @dad_of_jon ' to give you an actually experienced opinion. Now I've tagged him into this thread hopefully he'll be along soon to give to an answer

 

[HebridesRob]

Info on the yeast here...

http://mangrovejacks.com/products/belgian-ale-yeast-10g

Attenuation = "Very High"
I doubt it'll stop at 1.019 so I wouldn't worry.

Belgian breweries often allow their beers to warm up to pretty high temperatures. If you have the means to control temperature you might like to try starting off at 20 C (or so) and increasing the temperature by 1 degree a day up to 28 C. This should help with attenuation and get the yeast to develop some interesting fruity flavours in your beer.

 

[Mell_man79]

Ah thanks for the reply. And for tagging the other guy!

 

[Mell_man79]

That's what I was hoping for HebridesRob. I'm using two packets of this yeast and read that the attenuation was very high. So I was hoping by using two packs the brew would definitely end up on the low end of 1.010. I've just gotten into homebrew a couple of months ago. Not much room for brewing in my home or a way to control temp. I'm about to brew two other 23 liter kits besides this one and they're all going on top of my fridge.

 

[TheRedDarren]

I'm not sure you'll have too much to worry about, 77% isn't a highly attenuating yeast, if it is, as mentioned, a highly attenuating yeast it won't stop at 1.019. Also don't forget your mash temperature, if you mash low you can squeeze a few more points out of the yeast.

 

[Simonh82]

I agree that it's unlikely to stop at 1.019 but I think 1.010 might be a bit optimistic. I'd be happy with 1.014 for a beer with that starting gravity.

I recently made a Belgian IPA using the Duvel yeast. Whitelabs gives an attenuation figure of 78% but I think I got 84 or 85%. I think I started at about 1.064 and ended up at 1.008.

I used a tin of golden syrup instead of candi sugar. My beer ended up at 6.8% and not at all dry. I did have the advantage of being able to mash at a low temperature to create a more fermentable wort.

I think it sounds like a good recipe but if I were to do anything I'd cut back on the malt extract and leave the sugar.

 

[Mell_man79]

I'm not sure you'll have too much to worry about, 77% isn't a highly attenuating yeast, if it is, as mentioned, a highly attenuating yeast it won't stop at 1.019. Also don't forget your mash temperature, if you mash low you can squeeze a few more points out of the yeast.

The attenuation on this yeast is 82-88%.

 

[Mell_man79]

I agree that it's unlikely to stop at 1.019 but I think 1.010 might be a bit optimistic. I'd be happy with 1.014 for a beer with that starting gravity.

I recently made a Belgian IPA using the Duvel yeast. Whitelabs gives an attenuation figure of 78% but I think I got 84 or 85%. I think I started at about 1.064 and ended up at 1.008.

I used a tin of golden syrup instead of candi sugar. My beer ended up at 6.8% and not at all dry. I did have the advantage of being able to mash at a low temperature to create a more fermentable wort.

I think it sounds like a good recipe but if I were to do anything I'd cut back on the malt extract and leave the sugar.

Hey. I was thinking the best thing to do was to cut back on the malt to keep the ABV down to a easily drinkable level. The thing is, measuring liquid malt extract I'm sure is a very messy process. But if need be, I'll have to do it.

 

[TheRedDarren]

Exactly, its s high attenuator

 

[Mell_man79]

So. Advice so far from another source is that if anything, an IBU of 30 may be too low for this brew. They have suggested a IBU of 40-50. For this brew, I'm using a vial of what I believe is concentrated hop oil. This is added at the beginning of fermentation and is suppose to bring my brew to an IBU of 30. I also have 85g of assorted hops in tea bags. This will be added to a little boiling water, and then added to the wort, teas bags and all, 5 days before bottling. Now. I'm not sure how this works, but will these hop tea bags bring my IBU up any? Somewhere in the 40-50 range as suggested? I think it's important to note that I don't like English bitter beers. And this is not the style I'm going for. I just want a nice balance. Also. I'm using two packs (20g total) of Mangrove Jack's M41 yeast of which I had good results in the past. But if a low IBU will be my issue, How would I get that up to what has been suggested?

 

[strange-steve]

I think your IBUs are ok however I don't think tremens is dry hopped. If you do want to increase the bitterness then you could put some of those hops in the boil rather than in the fermenter. Your og might be a bit high also because you want a low fg for this beer, so maybe reduce the amount of dme to bring the og down to 1.075 or so which will give a drier finish and more bitterness.

 

[Mell_man79]

Hey guys. I think I'm just gonna brew this beer and see what happens. From the replies, with the yeast I'm using, it should finish up lower than 1.019. Which means the beer shouldn't end up sweeter than I want it. I've looked at other recipes with similar ingredients ad OG and they've gotten good reviews by those who brewed them. So. I'm just gonna brew it. If anything, I'll lower the malt extract. I don't want to end up with a 10%+ beer I can only drink one of before needing a nap.

 

[Mell_man79]

Hey guys. Just an update. I ended up brewing this beer as described, along with Festivals New England Pilsner and Belgian Pale Ale kits. Ended up with an OG of 1.080 instead of the 1.086 my brew calculator said I would. Probably because I spilled some of the malt extract all over my counter while measuring it. Maybe because while this was going on and I was desperately trying to contain the spill, my kettle, with a full can of malt extract and 1kg of candi sugar and spices, boiled over. So. There's that. In any event. I think I'm happier at 1.080. This should a a better drinking beer if it Finish's around 1.015-1.019. Thanks for the advice guys.