First Stout Question

[Lee111]

Hi

I was wondering if you lot can help me out.

I’m relatively new to AG brewing, I’ve only done about 6 or 7 AG kits last year. I set myself a challenge this year to make a good Belgian stout. I’ve found the recipe I want to follow and I have most of the ingredients. I’ve only just noticed the recipe asks for white and dark sugar. ( 800g of each ) I have 1kg of Belgian clear candi sugar and 1kg of Belgian dark candi sugar. I’m just wondering if I should use the candi as I have it on hand or will this have a negative affect on the stout ?

Thanks

Lee

 

[Sadfield]

It should be fine.

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

You can probably use them with no problem, why do the recipe call for both is a head scratcher for me though?

 

[Lee111]

You can probably use them with no problem, why do the recipe call for both is a head scratcher for me though?

I honestly don’t know. It be fair it’s only the second one I’ve done that says to add sugar. I thought it was something to do with the yeast / sugar consumption. It is a high ABV around 11% but I thought it would all be one type of sugar. If I ever find out I will let you know.

Thanks for the reply

 

[peebee]

I stumbled on this thread as it appeared on the "Similar Threads" list of another thread I was working on. I'm certainly too late to be any help to @Lee111 ... his "challenge" was for last year, not this one!

But I've got me eye on "Stouts" having just received Ron Pattinson's new book: "Stout!" (Yeap, it's out now!).

... I set myself a challenge this year to make a good Belgian stout. ...

"Belgium Stout" ... there's something wrong with that ...

Nope, I'm not talking about mentions of my pet hate "Belgium Candi Sugar", although I have notice it! It's the word "Stout". It's an English word. Why is a country that has been capable of brewing beers to easily challenge any brewed in Britain brewing a style of beer closely linked to Britain? The Belgiums have no need to blatantly copy British beer.

The answer was in Ron Pattinson's book. Whitbread's "Extra Stout" brewed between the wars and after WWII was "for the Belgium market"!

Just like we Brits are partial to a strong Belgium beer, the Belgians were partial to a London Stout it seems. These post-WWI "Extra Stout" brews did well to keep a 1.055 SG, but I guess the Belgians hankered after the Edwardian Double and Triple Stouts making way for the ex-pat John Martin to complete plans with Guinness and release the 1944 "Special Export" (one of my favourites; 8% ABV, and at the time only available in Belgium and some surrounding areas).

So. a potted history of "Belgium Stout" according to PeeBee . Beats some of the nonsense I've read on the Internet (that doesn't even mention London's involvement in "Stout"). Really needs some of R.P.'s trawling over export/import figures to prove ... perhaps the figures are already in the book for me to find? (Long way to go to finish reading it). But the Whitbread "Extra Stouts" go on the Xmas list (already too late for doubles and triples). Certainly no "Belgium Candi Sugar" nonsense (Whitbread were using Invert Syrup No.3 and I've got dead-easy emulations of that ... as has everyone). No "brown malt" emulations, by this time they are using cylinder roasted brown malt (like you buy) as can be seen by the small quantities used (<10% not >20%). And no excessive use of hops and black malt, the Londoners, nor the Belgians, didn't care for that. (Some of the later Whitbread extra stouts were using chocolate malt, not black).

 

[peebee]

Post WWII recipe from the depths of R.P.'s blog, but you can get what I'm claiming from it. The recipe isn't much different from the post WWI ones:

https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2016/02/lets-brew-wednesday-1948-whitbread.html