Belgian Beer - Recipe check and advice

[Hazelwood Brewery]

You mean I shouldn't believe what I read on the internet!? Probably just as well I didn't set out to make my own candi then.

I did have a little read of Palmer and now concerned at his comment that golden syrup can taste quite salty, so 1.2kg in the beer might be too much. I had a tinker and thought about reducing the molasses and using 500g demerara sugar but then noticed my FG was predicted to be 1.005 max which is probably a bit thin for what I'm aiming for.

Any thoughts on what I could do, perhaps a small amount of oat or lactose to get up to around 1.010? I'm thinking oats as I'm asking a lot of the yeast, so if it doesn't fully attenuate and I've added lactose, I've got a sweet beer at the end.

I wouldn’t add lactose. Your mash profile could be your answer, I would scrap the first two steps and make the third step (now your first) 65C for 40 minutes followed by 70C for another 40 minutes, finishing with the mash-out at 77C for 20 minutes. Try that in your brewing software and adjust the temp or time of the first two steps to get what you want

 

[-Bezza-]

I wouldn’t add lactose. Your mash profile could be your answer, I would scrap the first two steps and make the third step (now your first) 65C for 40 minutes followed by 70C for another 40 minutes, finishing with the mash-out at 77C for 20 minutes. Try that in your brewing software and adjust the temp or time of the first two steps to get what you want

Thanks - got it to 1.009 which is a bit better.

66C for 40 mins
72C for 360 mins (I need to do a long step to fit with my life)
77C for 30 mins (normal time it takes for sparge water to heat)

 

[Sadfield]

This thread is the kick up the arse I need to brew the tripel recipe I've had on the back burner.

 

[user 40634]

I tried this dark sweet Christmas beer from Brew UK, turned out better than expected and didn’t last until Christmas.
It’s called Wreck the Halls

BrewZilla / RoboBrew 35L
Fermentables (5.45 kg)
4.4 kg - Pale Malt, Maris Otter 5.9 EBC (80.7%)
350 g - Caramel Munich I 90 EBC (6.4%)
300 g - Medium Crystal 240 265 EBC (5.5%)
200 g - Carafa Special I 900 EBC (3.7%)
200 g - Carared 47.5 EBC (3.7%)
Hops (44 g)
70 min - 18 g - Challenger - 7.5% (18 IBU)
15 min - 26 g - Styrian Goldings - 5.4% (9 IBU

30 min - Boil - 4 items - Anise, Star
5 min - Boil - 2 items - Cinnamon Stick
5 min - Boil - 20 g - Orange Peel,Sweet
Mash profile
66 °C - 60 min - Temperature
77 °C - 10 min - mash out
Fermentation: 20 °C - 14 days -
Water Profile
Default (Dublin (Stouts and Dark ales))
Ca 130 Mg 17 Na 33 Cl 52 SO 56
SO/Cl ratio: 1.1
Mash pH: 5.54
Sparge pH: 6

 

[-Bezza-]

Candi sugar has arrived and I've been given sign-off by the wife to brew this on Friday evening! Tinkered with the mash and sugar additions and got 1.011FG at 12%. Looking forward to doing this one and seeing what numbers I can hit!

 

[Sadfield]

Made a discovery in the local supermarket whilst locating the new hiding place for the golden Syrup. I was intending to use table sugar in the Tripel, but now I'm thinking a 30/70 mix of these could add an extra level of flavour.

 

[YeastFace]

Interesting. I use pomegranate molasses in my dark saison, but I age it on dates (or figs) so adding some of that may round out those flavours.

Might be useful in a Belgian Dark Strong too.

 

[chthon]

Made a discovery in the local supermarket whilst locating the new hiding place for the golden Syrup. I was intending to use table sugar in the Tripel, but now I'm thinking a 30/70 mix of these could add an extra level of flavour.

On the Flemish homebrew forum, the recommendation is to use date syrup for WV12 clones.

 

[Sadfield]

On the Flemish homebrew forum, the recommendation is to use date syrup for WV12 clones.

I've an unopened pouch of Candisyrup D-180, that I've also used in the past, which contains a portion of date sugar, and it adds something extra to the flavour. From memory, this doesn't look anywhere near as dark as D-180, which made me think a portion of this would be nice. Although, It'll still be a bit of a guess regarding colour contribution. I wonder how it's produced, perhaps pressed and filtered dates, so may not contain anything from maillard reaction or caramelisation.

 

[-Bezza-]

I've an unopened pouch of Candisyrup D-180, that I've also used in the past, which contains a portion of date sugar, and it adds something extra to the flavour. From memory, this doesn't look anywhere near as dark as D-180, which made me think a portion of this would be nice. Although, It'll still be a bit of a guess regarding colour contribution. I wonder how it's produced, perhaps pressed and filtered dates, so may not contain anything from maillard reaction or caramelisation.

Date sugar popped up on the link you shared earlier in the thread:

https://www.themadfermentationist.com/2007/12/11-differnet-sugars-1-great-tasting.html
9. Date Sugar (New)
-Very dry, bubblegum, very Belgian

Made me want to put some in my brew but couldn't find any in the supermarket.

 

[Sadfield]

Made me want to put some in my brew but couldn't find any in the supermarket.

This was from Tesco, they had two different brands.

 

[-Bezza-]

This was from Tesco, they had two different brands.

Hmm, there's a Tesco Express down the road so I could pop in there at lunchtime and see if there's any. I was planning on starting the brew in a couple of hours but think I might check we're not going to have a powercut first!

 

[Jim Brewster]

I'm glad you have more get-up-and-go in you than I do. This was meant to be my Christmas 2021 beer! Reckon I'll brew this before the end of the month.

I do 1 Gallon batches so it doesn't take much psyching up to get on with it whenever I feel like doing it. Got a brew done at the weekend with M47 Belgian Abbey yeast, now past high krausen, it's smelling a bit weird! Some yeasts are like that though and my first time using it so maybe that's normal.