Brewing a Big Belgian - Critique, Plz?

So, I put this recipe for a Belgian Dark Strong together this morning, and I am sparging as we speak. I am still planning to add some invert sugar and some homeade amber Belgian Candy Sugar during the boil. Give me some critique, please.

Obviously, I can't alter the grain bill at this point, but I would love some advice on the amount of invert and candy sugar I am adding. I am still working on a hop schedule, but I am looking at some Galena or Northern Brewers for bittering along with some Mt. Hood and Saaz or Tettnang for flavor (will probably stay away from aroma hops on this one).

Here is the recipe:

8.5 lbs. Pale Malt
2 lbs. Pilsner Malt
.5 lbs. CaraPils
.5 lbs. Aromatic malt
.25 lbs. Special B Malt
.25 lbs. Special Roast
.25 lbs. Biscuit
.25 lbs. Cara-Vienne
1.75 lbs. Invert Sugar
1.00 lbs. Amber Candy Sugar

Looks pretty good--the biggest thing with Belgians is the yeast strain and temperature of fermentation. What yeast are you using?

cweston said:

Looks pretty good--the biggest thing with Belgians is the yeast strain and temperature of fermentation. What yeast are you using?

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Well . . . hmmm . . . I am prepared to get flamed for this, but . . .

I have been reading a lot about this fementis product called Safbrew T-58. I started a thread a few days ago about the fermentis products. Anyway, fermentis claims that their S-33 is appropriate for Belgian beers; however, most brewers seem to think it is a strain of the old Edme yeast. Duvel, of course, uses a Scottish Ale strain for their famous Belgian Golden, but they are after a clean yeast profile and the S-33 is apparently fairly clean.

The T-58 strain, however, is described like this on the fermentis webpage:

Known for its high ester, spicy and peppery flavour profile, able to tolerate high alcohol conditions (up to 11.5% v/v). Available in 10g sachets.

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Anyway, I have read a few threads on different websites claiming that the T-58 strain is a really amazing yeast. I know that estery and spicy are a few adjectives associated with some strong belgian beers, so I wanted to give it a go.

I know that the liquid yeast enthusiasts on this board will freak, but . . .

sonvolt said:

So, I put this recipe for a Belgian Dark Strong together this morning, and I am sparging as we speak. I am still planning to add some invert sugar and some homeade amber Belgian Candy Sugar during the boil. Give me some critique, please.

Obviously, I can't alter the grain bill at this point, but I would love some advice on the amount of invert and candy sugar I am adding. I am still working on a hop schedule, but I am looking at some Galena or Northern Brewers for bittering along with some Mt. Hood and Saaz or Tettnang for flavor (will probably stay away from aroma hops on this one).

Here is the recipe:

8.5 lbs. Pale Malt
2 lbs. Pilsner Malt
.5 lbs. CaraPils
.5 lbs. Aromatic malt
.25 lbs. Special B Malt
.25 lbs. Special Roast
.25 lbs. Biscuit
.25 lbs. Cara-Vienne
1.75 lbs. Invert Sugar
1.00 lbs. Amber Candy Sugar

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I was sparging at the exact same time today. (Actually, I may have been entering my boil).

Anyway, we should brew sometime, seeing as we are a whole 7 or 8 miles apart.

Looks like a good recipe--

I've been pondering doing a Belgian soon, and have been doing some practical research and looking over some recipes.

Did you base this off any particular beer?

Biermann said:

Looks like a good recipe--

I've been pondering doing a Belgian soon, and have been doing some practical research and looking over some recipes.

Did you base this off any particular beer?

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I did not base this off any beer. I simply looked at the BJCP guidelines for Belgian Dark Strong . . . looked at the ingredients I had laying around and went from there. I don't know if my color is going to come out as dark as I would have liked, but it is looking good so far.

We should brew. I teach at ICC, and next semester's schedule has me teaching in the mornings. So, I can get free most days after about 1:00 or so. Of course, weekends are always good as long as my boy does not have a wrestling tournament or something going on.

Let me know when you want to brew.

I recently did a Belgian Golden Strong, or a modified type. It was a 5 gallon batch that had 0.5oz coriander seed at 11 and 3 min. 1 lbs of corn sugar and 1 lbs of candi sugar was added. A week later, the recipe called for boiling up another 1 lbs of corn sugar and adding. The idea was to give it more of a dry flavor.

It aged for almost 9 weeks in the secondary. Since then with cooler temps in the house (65 and lower) I've had trouble carbonating. Recently got it in a closet with 70 F. Hopefully it will be carbonated soon. It tasted great even though it was flat.

sonvolt said:

I did not base this off any beer. I simply looked at the BJCP guidelines for Belgian Dark Strong . . . looked at the ingredients I had laying around and went from there. I don't know if my color is going to come out as dark as I would have liked, but it is looking good so far.

We should brew. I teach at ICC, and next semester's schedule has me teaching in the mornings. So, I can get free most days after about 1:00 or so. Of course, weekends are always good as long as my boy does not have a wrestling tournament or something going on.

Let me know when you want to brew.

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I might be brewing next week, maybe around Tuesday. A couple of my residents (physician trainees) were wanting to know how to brew, especially AG, so I've invited them over. Another take on brewing from someone else experienced may be helpful with their "understanding." I'm planning on doing something simple, like a porter.

Cool. PM me when you set the date for sure.

I would be interested in hearing your experiences with the 58. If I can suggest doing a ferment temperature step profile? Perhaps start out at that yeasts lower tolerance on the first day or so then push it up higher the next, etc. I am interested in some of the highly estery characteristics of some of the Belgian styles and was listening to that podcast. In it he mentioned this type of thing. In fact BYO clone has an 85 ferment temp for one of them (Ommegang maybe?)

It looks very similar to the belgian I just made. I used 1 lb of dark candi sugar syrup. It's still in the primary, but should be racked soon. I'm curious on how your yeast choice worked.

Why Carapils and sugar?

Carapils is to give a beer body and sugar is to thin out the body.

Brewsmith said:

It looks very similar to the belgian I just made. I used 1 lb of dark candi sugar syrup. It's still in the primary, but should be racked soon. I'm curious on how your yeast choice worked.

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This is fermenting away pretty good right now. I added my own homeade candy sugar - it was amber in color, but obviously not as dark as Promash stats for it. My color was a lot lighter than my Promash calculations. I intended this to be a Belgian Dark Strong, and it fits that style in every way except color. Too bad it is also too light to be a Belgian Strong Golden or a Tripel. Oh well . . . just won't put this one into a contest.

As for the yeast, I underpitched quite substantially - on purpose! I am hoping that the underpitching will further accentuate the estery, spicy characteristics of that yeast. We'll see and I will report when I get a taste. The yeast is aggressive - I did not anticipate seeing activity for the first 36-48 hours or so because of the high gravity of the wort (1.080) and the low pitching rate (10 grams dry for 5 gals). I had bubbles in the airlock in less than 5 hours.