Boring Beer.. add Lactose Sugar??

syd138 · 05-27-2009, 01:32 AM

So I've been messing around with a recipe trying to make a Wheatish-Belgian Dark Ale

5.00 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 83.33 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 8.33 %
0.25 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 4.17 %
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.17 %
0.75 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (60 min) Hops 13.3 IBU
1 Pkgs Belgian Strong Ale (Wyeast Labs #1388) Yeast-Ale

So I tried it today and it is very boring and has a bit of a dry after taste.

First question.. did I use too much Caramel or something? Why is this dry?

Second what can I do in the future to make this maltier.. up the OG from 1.049 to 1.060ish? Use some Munich malt? More Chocolate? Aromatic?

Third.. this beer is currently in the primary.. is there any way I can make it better by adding some Lactose sugar in the secondary?

McGarnigle · 05-27-2009, 01:51 AM

Belgians tend to be dry (although your recipe doesn't have the sugar that would make it so). Caramel makes it sweeter, not drier. More extract would make it maltier; but more Munich or aromatic could help as well if you mash. You'd need more hops to balance the malt.

I don't know about lactose sugar in secondary. Forgetting about adding to the gravity, you could add spices at bottling (steeping in vodka first) to get more flavor.

syd138 · 05-27-2009, 12:25 PM

So does Cholcolate Malt ad a lot of malt flavor.. or is it going to be more coffee-ish, darker, drier.

How do you think I can improve this recipe.. add another 1b of DME.. up the Aromatic and Chocolate by .75lb each?