Belgian Dark Strong Ale, look OK?

[Jimmy321]

Have 2nd step up starter of WLP545 in the fridge and planning to make the following tomorrow, does it look OK?

I plan on pitching at 16°C and keeping below 19-20° for a few days then letting it rise in to the mid 20's to help the yeast finish.

Plan to keep in the primary for 10-14 days then in to a carboy in my lager fridge for 3 weeks + 4 weeks bottle condition at room temp.

Belgian Dark Strong Ale (Belgian Dark Strong Ale)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.095 (°P): 22.7
Final Gravity (FG): 1.011 (°P): 2.8
Alcohol (ABV): 11.06 %
Colour (SRM): 43.1 (EBC): 84.9
Bitterness (IBU): 25.5 (Average)

75% Pilsner
12.5% Candi Sugar, Dark
6.25% Brown Sugar, Dark
6.25% Caramalt

2.5 g/L Styrian Golding (3.3% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes (Boil)
1.2 g/L Styrian Golding (3.3% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil)
0.5 g/L Perle (10% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)


Single step Infusion at 65°C for 90 Minutes. Boil for 90 Minutes

Fermented 16-25°C with WLP545 - Belgian Strong Ale


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

 

[dennisking]

Never made any Belgium beers but might well in the future. Would be interested to hear how this one turns out.

 

[Farmbrew]

May want to darken the beer a bit more either using a darker crystal malt like special B (the darkest type) or going 50/50 on the white/ dark candy sugar mix.

Keep an eye out for the fermentation temp...this belgian stuff can generate a lot of heat. If the temp is dropped to quickly the yeast may stop working.

Happy brewing!

 

[Jimmy321]

I have some Carabohemian 150 EBC that I was keeping for a dark lager so I can use that.

The sugar I have is the darkest I could find in Morrisons, it looks about 150 EBC, it's cane and molasses according to the label.

I also have Black malt and Roasted barley but I am under the impression that roasted malts do not go well with this style of beer.

 

[Farmbrew]

Sounds good you will get a treacley taste from the dark sugar as it's not like the Candy sugar but the yeast should cover this up a bit. I've seen reports that brown sugar can be used instead of Amber Candy. yeah dont use the roasted malts.

 

[Jimmy321]

Yesterdays brew day did not go exactly to plan, ended up with 2L extra sparge water and a much lower OG of 1083 only had 20.5L of wort at the end as my boiler only holds 26-27L. Also changed to hop additions.

If it's too sweet I may make a similar brew with different sugars, I might even bottle half with Brett!

I made the following except with the lower OG.

Belgian Dark Strong Ale (Belgian Dark Strong Ale)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.094 (°P): 22.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.010 (°P): 2.6
Alcohol (ABV): 10.95 %
Colour (SRM): 47.3 (EBC): 93.2
Bitterness (IBU): 27.5 (Average)

75% Pilsner
12.5% Candi Sugar, Dark
6.25% Brown Sugar, Dark
6.25% Crystal 120

2.8 g/L Styrian Golding (3.3% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes (Boil)
0.8 g/L Saaz (3.85% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil)
1 g/L Styrian Golding (3.3% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil)
0.5 g/L Saaz (3.85% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)


Single step Infusion at 65°C for 90 Minutes. Boil for 90 Minutes

Fermented at 20°C with WLP545 - Belgian Strong Ale


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

 

[RobWalker]

your second recipe looks much better to me. styrian goldings are wonderful hops, shame to not use them towards the flavour/aroma stage! same with saaz, makes a cracking beer.

1.083 is still a nice OG, I'm sure you'll enjoy it :thumb:

 

[Jimmy321]

I for got to mention that the Crystal 120 is actually Carabohemian 150 but it was not in the Brewmate menu, decided the perle hops were not the best choice in the end.

 

[Jimmy321]

This dropped to 1029 on the 14/11 and to 1016 today 17/11, I have no idea where this is going to end so will keep it in the primary till I get at least 4 days of the same reading.

It was difficult to keep the yeast temp down it went up to 24°c with a room temp of 20, you could hear the fizzing of the fermentation when the lid was cracked open, it's now sitting in a room at 23-24° with some house coats wrapped round the FV.

The yeast was well behaved, I had plans for a blow off device but it was a rather controlled vigorous start perhaps because it was pitched at 16°C

The tasting from the sample jar was good, still sweet but dry which is sort of what I'm hoping for.

 

[clibit]

You can add ingredients to the Brewmate database very easily, via the Edit menu. You just need to know the gravity points and colour, for fermentables. Which googling should find for you.

 

[Jimmy321]

another 48 hours and its down to 1010 which is 88% attenuation.

 

[Jimmy321]

This is still slowly fermenting was at 1007 two days ago it's now at 1004 so still dropping 1.5 points per day currently 95% attenuation and 10.5% vol.

 

[zgoda]

It will kill you instantly.

 

[Jimmy321]

This finished at 1002 so I've just transfered it to a carboy and it's in my lager fridge at 0.5°C.

The trial jar tasted like banana rum and a bit too thin but it's got a lot of conditioning to do so time will tell.

 

[Asalpaws]

Wow that's hardworking yeast! I've made some strong Saisons with similar FG, the esters and high carbonation can give a lot of body, despite the low FG. Nice one T

 

[Jimmy321]

Yeah, I plan on 3.5vols CO2 using ordinary white cane sugar. It will not be ready for christmas but I may sample it by then :)

 

[Jimmy321]

After 3 weeks cold conditioning I bottled this today, aimed for 3.7 vols CO2 but ended up with just under 20.5L in the bottling bucket with my calculation based on 19.5L BUT the temp was 2°C lower than expected so it may still be 3.7 vols CO2.

Got 41 500ml bottles which are now in a room with a temp of 20-22°C where they will condition for 4 weeks although I will be trying some before then.

Carboy out the lagering freezer since 8:00am



Some of the 41 500ml bottles

 

[zgoda]

Congrats and drink it cautiously, I found it's hard to drink half liter of such beast and not fall asleep (33cl is my volume of choice).

 

[Jimmy321]

OK this has now had 4 weeks warm bottle conditioning and it's not a dark beer as planned but more like a brown beer.

Just to note I added about 3g of bottling yeast and as far as I can tell it took till my tasting last week to fully carbonate.

I first tried this about one week in and it just tasted of sugar and alcohol, very boozy and I tossed 1/2 the bottle.

Tried it again about two weeks in and it was much the same except the carbonation was sort of saving it.

Had another bottle last weekend and it was much more drinkable but still had a sugar twang going on but I finished the bottle.

Just now I'm drinking it at a temp of 10°C and it has a serious chill haze, could not see through the bottle at 7°C and it's still cloudy at 10°C, it still has a sugar twang to it but it's much more palatable with full carbonation helping it's otherwise thinness. The banana flavor when I tried it at bottling appears to have come back but it's complemented with the sugar and some rummy notes also the hops are now showing through and there's some spicy notes.

Right now I would mark this as just above average but as it's improved every week I expect it to get better with time, it's young for what must be close to 11% with priming sugar added.

Going to put 24 bottles in my garage and leave the rest for another two weeks warm conditioning to compare in the future as it will likely be a few years by the time I finish it.

It can't be bad as I'm near finished the bottle!

Pics.