Advice on a more adventurous brew please.

[keith1664]

Having run out of cornie space I'm contemplating doing a brew Monday which will be bottled Hence I'm contemplating something a little more adventurous than my usual Pales. A RIS and something like Robinsons Old Tom are under consideration but I've tried a few Belgians and have found that I rather like the strong dark types so I'd like some advice on a few points if I were to try one.

1. Should i buy Pilsner malt or would the Maris Otter I have suffice?

2. Is UK aromatic malt ok?... the LHBS is out of Special B

3. Which yeast, he has Safbrew S-33 or there's a choice of Wyeast 1214 or 1388. The Wyeasts are propogator packs, is Friday to Monday long enough to make the starter?

4. Hops? I have plenty of Magnum, Perle, Motueka, Riwaka and Cascade. Small amounts of Saaz, Columbus, Challenger, Boadicea, Styrians and Apollo

I've had a play with Brewmate... how does this look.

Dark Belgian (Belgian Dark Strong Ale)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.088 (°P): 21.1
Final Gravity (FG): 1.019 (°P): 4.8
Alcohol (ABV): 9.06 %
Colour (SRM): 20.6 (EBC): 40.6
Bitterness (IBU): 32.8 (Average)

63.83% Pilsner
12.77% Munich II
10.64% Candi Sugar, Amber
4.26% Aromatic Malt
4.26% Crystal 60
4.26% Wheat Malt

1.2 g/L Magnum (12.5% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes (Boil)


Single step Infusion at 66°C for 90 Minutes. Boil for 90 Minutes

Fermented at 20°C with


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

Like I said I'm well out of my comfort zone with this one, so any advice is gratefully received.

 

[phettebs]

Looks very nice Keith. Too bad they are out of Special B. I love that in my darker Belgians.

1. MO should be just fine.
2. Special B would be best but I use some aromatic in my Belgians as well.
3. 1214 is my goto yeast for my Belgian Dubbel. A great yeast. I've use 1388 as well with great success. A 3.25L starter should do the trick according to mrmalty.com and assuming intermittent shaking as opposed to stir plate.
4. I tend to use a lot of Styrian Goldings or Saaz in my Belgians. I'd avoid Cascade and Columbus on these. Perle would work for bittering and then maybe a little Saaz or Styrians later in the boil?

I'd get Dark candi sugar if you can. The darker the better. I'd go with Crystal 120 if you have it. That will help cover for the missing Special B. Also, that finish gravity seems high. Most Belgian yeasts are VERY attenuative and often finish below 1.010 for me.

Try to pitch around 18C and hold it there for the first three days of fermentation. Then let it rise up to the low 20s. That is the fermentation schedule I use for all of my Belgian beers and it works great. The low initial temp keeps the fusels down and then raising it up gets great attenuation.

Have fun with this and let us know how it turns out!

Baz

 

[keith1664]

Thanks Barry, I now have a 2L starter of 1214 on the go.... looks like I need to step that up at some point.

I'll be making the Candi Sugar myself sometime over the weekend, so I'll make that quite dark and I'll maybe up the crystal.... or nip back into the LHBS first thing monday to see what else he has :twisted: (any recomendations?)

Once again thanks for the advice.

 

[phettebs]

keith, you are good to go. Have at it mate!

 

[keith1664]

Looks like this ones on hold for a bit... my yeast starter has done nothing