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First Belgian
I'm planning my next brew, which I've decided will be a Belgian Strong Ale. I've just started trying some different Belgian styles and I'm really starting to get into them. I especially like the dark ales, like Brasserie des Rocs Triple. I love the dark fruity, caramel/molasses flavor of the beer...it's just so complex. So, I've worked up a recipe and was wondering how it looked. Would you guys change anything?
3.5 gallon batch
OG - 1.088
FG - 1.019
IBU - 24.4
ABV - 9.2%
Specialty Grains:
6oz English crystal 80L
6oz Belgian Special
Sugars:
5lbs pale malt extract
1lb Belgian candy sugar amber
1lb honey
1lb corn sugar
Yeast:
WLP530
I was even thinking of racking the beer onto 1lb? or so of prunes/cherries. I was also trying to think of spices to add. I don't know...maybe some allspice? Any other ideas? This is pretty early planning right now, but I'm getting excited about doing this one. Who am I kidding, I get excited about them all.
Belgians are great and you can combine lots of different ideas. However I have found that until you get the hang of how all the flavors contribute. A traditional tripel is usually very light in color and less malty, but with a sneak up on ya ABV. Although a dubbel is less in ABV, it usually is darker and more malty. Combining these 2 styles can be delicious, but will be out of profile.
With that said, looking at your recipe, I would think about changing your extract to pilsner instead of pale malt. A dubbel would be more suited for a plum/cherry/fig flavoring, while a tripel usually benefits from a more citrusy orange peel/lemon peel addition. I normally don't add much in the way of spice to a dubbel, but do like adding corriander or seeds of paradise to a tripel.
And for the 6 oz of belgian special, I am assuming special B, which is a delicious crystal malt. I would almost think of dropping the crystal 80 and maybe adding some aromatic or melanoidan for color, without picking up too much sweetness.
Sorry if I am being overcritical, but I have tremendous passion for belgians, go for the flavors that you like best, and keep in mind that most of your flavor will be coming from the yeast, so don't try to get too cute to get every bit of complexity, the ferm temp will give you a broad array of esters and fruitiness by itself.
Prost!
Sorry if I am being overcritical, but I have tremendous passion for belgians, go for the flavors that you like best, and keep in mind that most of your flavor will be coming from the yeast, so don't try to get too cute to get every bit of complexity, the ferm temp will give you a broad array of esters and fruitiness by itself.
No, you're not at all. This is exactly the type of advice I was looking for. Like I said, this will be my first attempt at brewing a belgian and it's nice to get good feedback from someone with so much knowledge of the style.
I was wondering about using the pilsner malt. Not really sure why I went with the pale malt. I'll have to make some changes to my recipe. So most of the flavors in belgians come primarily from the yeast? That's amazing to think that the yeast can produce such complex flavors. Am I good going with the WLP530? Will it give my the flavors I'm looking for?
My only piece of advice for starting down the Belgian road is the addition of extra sugars to boost gravity.
My first triple I used Belgian candi sugar beacuse that was what the recipe called for.
I added it towards the end of the boil and those damn little rocks of cugar just would dissovle very fast and they sat there on the base of the kettle. The high heat darkend them a little bit and my first Tripel was a little darker than I would have liked...and sort of caramelly.
The second time I drew some hot wort off the kettle (I have a SS valve) into a smaller pot. I then added the sugar as stirred off the main heat source until dissolved. I got exactly the color I was looking for that way.
So just be wary of how the sugar is added.
Thirsty on the other hand likes to add boiled and cooled sugar during fermentation and not in the kettle.
He gets great resutls with that and it eliminates the problems I had, so maybe you want to try that wat too.
Good luck!
brewchez wrote:
. The high heat darkend them a little bit and my first Tripel was a little darker than I would have liked...and sort of caramelly.
I think this is actually the process used by Westmalle. I have read their copper kettles give hot spots and caramelize the wort a little extra. To brew a Westmalle clone to profile I have heard of caramelizing the sugar addition.Mike you are a true pioneer!
So just be wary of how the sugar is added.
Thirsty on the other hand likes to add boiled and cooled sugar during fermentation and not in the kettle.
He gets great resutls with that and it eliminates the problems I had, so maybe you want to try that wat too.
Good advice. Never gave much thought to how well the belgian candy sugar would disolve.
Actually, I tried thirsty's method of adding sugar during fermentation with my last batch, which was an double IPA. It was a 3.5 gallon batch and I ended up adding 1lb of corn sugar once the initial ferm started slowing down. I projected this one to be around 8.5 ABV, so although not huge, it's still my biggest beer to date. It's been just sitting in the primary for close to 2 weeks now. I plan on letting it chill for another week and then transfer to the secondary and dry hop. I'm in no hurry with this one.
thirsty wrote:
brewchez wrote:
. The high heat darkend them a little bit and my first Tripel was a little darker than I would have liked...and sort of caramelly.
I think this is actually the process used by Westmalle. I have read their copper kettles give hot spots and caramelize the wort a little extra. To brew a Westmalle clone to profile I have heard of caramelizing the sugar addition.Mike you are a true pioneer!
Oh RIGHT! I meant that was exactly what I was trying to do!
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