Seat of the pants Belgian

[Dave1970]

SWMBO is taking the kids and leaving me 'home alone' for 3 days :party:

Seems a shame not to brew on one of those days, will be playing rugby on Saturday but my fermenting fridge is taken up with a lager at the moment. The garage is too cold so this is leading me towards something that will happily ferment at house temps - hence the idea of a Belgian - or at least given the ingredients available perhaps Belgian Style would be a better description.

I have some Duvel yeast in the freezer so have just chucked some in a starter

I've knocked this together, but I have no idea about Belgians really -

18 Litre brewlength
Original Gravity (OG): 1.083
Final Gravity (FG): 1.015
Alcohol (ABV): 8.85 %
Colour (EBC): 14.6
Bitterness (IBU): 36.5

1.6 kg Maris Otter Malt
1.6 kg Pilsner
1kg Vienna
0.5 Aromatic Malt
1.0 kg Dextrose

25g Hersbrucker (5% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes (Boil)
25g Kazbek (5.7% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes (Boil)
10 Hersbrucker (5% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
20 Kazbek (5.7% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)


Single step Infusion at 67°C for 90 Minutes. Boil for 90 Minutes

Fermented at 12°C with Duvel yeast

Any thoughts? Like I said, I'm flying by the seat of my pants with available ingredients here

I also have available:
Malts Crystal, Biscuit, Wheat, Chocolate, Melanoidin, another kg of Vienna (and loads more MO)
Hops Cascade, Citra, East Kent Goldings, Glacier, Magnum, Nelson Sauvin, Northdown, Northern Brewer, Nuggett, Pioneer, Whitbread Goldings Variety

 

[RobWalker]

I think you're looking at a belgian strong golden ale. you're on the high end of the IBUs there, can go anywhere as low as 20ish if you like. You'll want to attenuate the crap out of it to keep in style...

have you thought about racking off and dry hopping a gallon with US hops + spices? A lot of breweries are doing it these days and it makes a really amazing beer.

 

[pittsy]

If i was making that recipe i would do 10% vienna malt , 5 % aromatic and the rest pilsner malt . I would also use some candy sugar ( easy to make ) to increase the strength above 5.5% as imo it hides the strength/taste of alcohol .
I would want around 20/25 ibu if around 5% but at around 8%+ 30/40 ibu seems about right .
I would also mash 68/70c for 90 mins to give a fuller body , the candy sugar will do enough to get a lower gravity .
Hope it goes well

 

[morethanworts]

12C with Belgian strong yeast? :shock: That's a new one to me. I imagine it will certainly keep the esters down, but I'd think you'll need to get it up well over 20 later on, ideally, to fully attenuate. Mid to high 20s Centigrade is a common finish with these yeasts. I agree about those IBUs too. I did a Westmalle Tripel style in the low 30s and even that is at the top end, just, for my taste. I'd definitely shoot lower.

I'm curious about using a Duvel bottle culture, or a WY/WLP version. Duvel is apparently split into two batches, fermented with 2 strains separately, and then regrouped. Maybe that is just to stop one strain becoming too dominant over the generations, but I'm keen to know if you get both strains in the WY/WLP version, and in equal measures in the bottles: they may reseed with one of the two (or something else).

 

[Dave1970]

Thanks for the advice guys

I can't add any more Pilsner because that's all I have, the MO can go, I have a big bag of the Dingemanns pale from Rob, so that should be a bit more Belgian.

Now looking at 1.6kg each of Pilsner & Pale, 0.6 of Vienna and 0.5 of Aromatic - gives 5.5% before the sugar

I can make some Candi syrup easily enough - I wasn't sure how much difference it would make compared to straight brewing sugar

12C? :shock: That'd be left from the lager recipe I wrote over More like 21-22C is likely

 

[Dave1970]

and I've lowered the early hops to give 34 IBU's

 

[morethanworts]

I can make some Candi syrup easily enough - I wasn't sure how much difference it would make compared to straight brewing sugar

I used 50/50 brewing sugar and clear candi in my second batch of tripel, which equated to 6.5% and 6.5% of the bill. It definitely added something nice as compared to the straight 13% cane sugar I used in a previous batch, not that there was too much wrong with that. Both attenuated to around 88-89% after 3 weeks (with WY3787 and up at 24C after the first few days).