Thoughts on my Struise Pannepot clone recipe?

[Sadfield]

A full bodied gusher is quite an achievement though. I once had a bottle of their Westoek XX that completely emptied itself.

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[rats_eyes]

It didn't escape quickly, so nearly all of it went in the glass. I had the same with some of their other beers too. I'm not sure that their bottling process is up to scratch.

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[Ajhutch]

I'm not sure that their bottling process is up to scratch.

Now that I can clone!

 

[rats_eyes]

Me too mate, me too. There's nothing worse tham aging a beer for a year then realising that it wants to escape the bottle in 0.2 seconds as soon as it's open

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[strange-steve]

So conclusion on T-58: Using it is accepting the beer will be on a "long haul" and probably shouldn't be touched for 18-24 months. I haven't the patience to wait for one year, never mind two.

Thanks for the info, that's made my mind up. I don't really want to wait for a year or two for this to be drinkable so I've ordered Wyeast 3522 for it as suggested by Candi Syrup.

 

[strange-steve]

I did the decent thing and cracked open a pannepot of similar age. It has a less in-your-face spice character I'd say, with more body, even a smooth chocolate that my homebrew doesn't have. It's still quite peppery, so I'd say the t-58 would be a good choice if you want to aim towards this. I think the main difference is the malt character, which is stronger and smoother in the de Struise beer, which pushes the balance away from the spice a bit. I'd forgotten how nice this beer is, it's fantastic stuff!

This bottle was a bit of a gusher, so I guess my home brew beat them on that at least!View attachment 14876

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I'm rather envious, I haven't had one for a while now. The last one I had was a 7 year old bottle from Delirium in Brussels and it was probably the nicest beer I've ever tasted. I need to get another trip to Belgium organised...

 

[Sadfield]

A Ferulic Acid rest in the mash, could help if you want to get a bit more Clove character than usual out of 3522.

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[strange-steve]

A Ferulic Acid rest in the mash, could help if you want to get a bit more Clove character than usual out of 3522.

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Good shout, 10 mins at 45° should do it.
Thoughts on a water profile?

 

[Sadfield]

Water, now there's a question? Having rich malt flavours and yet dry and drinkable, Belgians could be treated either way. I take a simple approach with Belgians (including Saisons) in that I don't treat to remove Bicarbonate (c90ppm) or match a profile, the only addition is to add enough gypsum to bring the pH down and to add enough calcium for healthy enzyme activity, this for my water results in profile that is very dry/bitter. I recall many of the water profiles in Brew Like A Monk are extremely high in Bicarbonate and there wasn't much info on how the breweries treated their water, so I shied away from replicating them. I haven't done much research into Belgian water profiles though.

 

[strange-steve]

I was thinking the same, Belgian water can really go either way and you're right, without knowing how the breweries treat the water the profiles in BLAM aren't terribly useful.

I don't particularly like a lot of sulphate dryness though, even in Belgian beers so I'm tempted to go easy on the gypsum. Maybe something like this:
90 ppm calcium
60 ppm sulphate
120 ppm chloride
65 ppm alkalinity.

 

[strange-steve]

Well yesterday I had a bit of spare time so decided to make the dark candi syrup:

Equipment shot

Turns out I didn't have as much white sugar as I thought, so I added 50g or so of demerara to make up the difference.

I added just enough water to dissolve the sugar plus a pinch of cream of tartar, then brought the temperature to around 130°c and held it there.

These blobs were taken 30 mins apart to show the colour change.

And this was the finished product after 3 hours or so.

I then added 500ml of water to stop it solidifying and poured it into a 5L bottle to keep till brew day.

It has a lovely deep red colour and it smells fantastic, so I'm pleased with how it turned out. Should add some nice flavours to the brew.