Belgian Strong Golden Brewday

[YeastFace]

Following on from my experiment to make starter wort using my slow cooker, I needed to brew something so that lovely Duvel yeast didn't go to waste.

The obvious choice was a Duvel clone, but as I prefer a bit more malt character and a slightly darker hue I came up with something which was more like a smaller Piraat or Tripel de Garre.

Batch size: 11.5l
Estimated OG: 1.073
Estimated FG: 1.011
Estimated ABV: 8.25%
Estimated IBU: 22.6
Estimated Color: 10.8 EBC
Estimated Efficiency: 70%

2.62kg Bestmalz Pilsner (Ger) - 70.9%
370g Chateau White Wheat (Bel) - 10.00%
180g Bestmalz Munich (Ger) - 5.00%
90g Dingemans Aromatic (Bel) - 2.4%
60g Chateau Caravienne (Bel) - 1.5%
40g Bestmalz Acidulated (Ger) - 1.00%
340g Honey (went for Acacia) - 9.2% - Added with 15 minutes left in the boil.

Mash schedule was 65℃ for 90 minutes.

12g Northern Brewer (Ger): 60 minutes -15.8 IBU
12g Styrian Holdings (Svn): 15 minutes - 5 IBU
6g Styrian Goldings (Svn): 10 minutes - 1.85 IBU
0.75 Orange Peel: 15 minutes
0.5 Tsp Coriander Seed: 15 minutes
1/2 Protofloc Tablet: 15 minutes

Yeast: Duvel (Reclaimed from bottle). Also available as WLP570 and WY1388.

Obligatory grist shot

Got everything together just after 07:30 on Friday morning. As it was due to be a glorious day, I decided to brew in the summer house for the first time. I bought a garden extension lead for this purpose and it just about reached the summer house.

Mashed in, had a bit of an issue getting to temperature and ended up adding 2 kettlefuls of boiling water. This raised the temp a bit too high, so cold water was added slowly. Eventually it stabilised at 65℃ and the timer was set, although the mash was thinner than I'd wanted. I still haven't got around to buying or making a false bottom yet, but the mash bag has worked quite well so far.

Le mash

I had to nip into town for the honey and orange, stopped off for a quick ESB on the way back so the mash ended up being over two hours. Temp was showing as 63℃ by the end, but hopefully the majority had been at 65℃.

I conducted my batch sparge and then started to heat up the first runnings. I've not got around to converting my third pot, so at the moment I use a combined HLT/boiler. Unfortunately I forgot to fit my hop filter before I started heating the first runnings. No problem, I thought, and got a dry hopping bag to contain the hops. Unfortunately this oversight would have annoying consequences later. I really must sort that other pot out.

First runnings

Sparge went ok, ended up with slightly too much wort as I hadn't measured the amount of water I added to stabilise mash temp. Chill went well, I seemed to have more cold break than normal and it seemed quicker to get down to 24 when I started to transfer. At this point I was being rushed to go round the Sister-in-laws and this resulted in me transferring into the FV with the tap open. Unfortunately I didn't realise until about 5 litres was on the shed floor. Error 1.
The flow then slowed to a trickle, the cold break had started to block the tap. In the end, I got lots of trub in the fermenter. I'm not overly concerned after reading one of the Brulosopher's exbeeriments, but I would have preferred not to have so much in there.

The yield ended up at 13.5l at 1.072, including the trub, so taking that into account the estimations were probably nearly spot on.

I pitched half of the yeast from the starter and went out. I gave my sister and brother in law a bottle of my White IPA which they both enjoyed. Which was nice.

When I returned home in Saturday morning there was a big krausen. Hopefully this doesn't stall or let off too much sulphur.

I intend on doing a cold secondary for a few weeks, followed by a few months in the bottle (if I can resist).

 

[TheRedDarren]

Cracking day! Nice one mate.
I made a tripel about six months back, not a million miles from Duvel, it's just starting to come into its own, although at 8.4% it's going to last a while, everything goes black after one of those at the end of a sesh!

Seriously though, do you have temp control for the fermentation? I didn't when I brewed mine and it has fusel alcohol in it, the hangover is pretty hardcore.
With the high gravity beers part of the challenge is to avoid stressing the yeast and creating off flavours.

 

[YeastFace]

I don't no. Next thing on the list to sort out, been looking for a small countertop fridge or a cheap husky thing.

My cubby hole under the stairs is pretty much constant at 18℃ so all being well the yeast won't raise the temp past 24℃.

 

[Leon103]

Sounds like a good brew day and beer sounds right up my street

 

[TheRedDarren]

I don't no. Next thing on the list to sort out, been looking for a small countertop fridge or a cheap husky thing.

My cubby hole under the stairs is pretty much constant at 18℃ so all being well the yeast won't raise the temp past 24℃.

Ah mate, that sounds like temperature control to me! That should be just fine.
It's consistent temperatures that really count, no swings. It's the swinging temps that mess the yeast up. Later on when you have temp control you can dial in specific esters, until then keep it nice a steady.

 

[YeastFace]

Down to 1.014, but expecting it to go down a bit further. Have read this yeast can take a while to finish up.

 

[YeastFace]

Just opened a bottle which has been in the fridge for a week or so.

Massive banana, subtle spice which works well with the warming alcohol. It doesn't have the massive billowing head I wanted, but as this was a carb tester hopefully the others are better in this regard.

Duvel yeast is super.