So I just had Kasteelbier Bruin-Brune (aka Bière du Chateau Donker), and I'm in love. I want to try and brew this huge, heavy, sweet/malty Belgian Quad(?). Never made a Belgian anything before (not a fan of the Ommegang dirty-foot taste), but the Kasteel was amazing (and not footy at all), so I'll give it a shot.
Here's what I have so far, please critique/suggest changes (but with keeping the 2-row base and hopefully within the 18E BJCP guidelines):
11 lbs Pale Malt (2-row)
5 lbs Munich Malt
2 pounds Aromatic Malt
1 lb 8 oz Biscuit Malt
8 oz Special B
1 oz Styrian Goldings (5.4%) @ 60 mins
1 oz Saaz (4%) @ 35 mins
1.5 oz Saaz (4%) @ 25 mins
1 lb Candi Sugar (Clear)
Belgian Ale yeast (Wyeast 1214)
Seriously I'm no Belgian expert and I hardly know that much about their biers... sorry I'm just high on codine cough syrup. No really now I'm serious, I'm not an expert on Belgian brews but did just finish 'Brew Like a Monk' and would say you'd need to replace the 2 row with Pilsner to be authentic. Also make sure your sugar % is 8-15%. Don't be afraid, I'd shoot for 12%. I'll let someone more experienced or familiar witht the brew you're cloning critique the yeast strain or add what they will. Hope I was of some service.
Schlante,
Phillip
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Primary- Brown Porter
Secondary-1-gal Cherry Pomegranate Melomel
Next/Planning - Wine, Orfy's Hobgobblin, Blonde, ESB, Saison, Cascadian APA
Bottled/Drinking-1314 Wee Heavy, Motherland RIS, Melomel, Spear of Longinus Barleywine
"Perhaps wisdom for me is understanding how truely small I am, and that there is no smug self centered moment of clarity when there is so much more to learn" Anthony Bourdain
I would tone down the specialty malts, 3.5 lbs of biscuit + aromatic is more than you need. The Munich will provide plenty of maltiness on its own. I wouldn't worry about switching to pils, you won't miss it in such a complex beer (a paler style would be a different story).
I would get rid of the clear candi and go with 1.5 lbs of the dark syrup, loads of flavor to compliment the special B.
Make sure to make a huge starter and keep you fermentation temperature in control at the start. Nothing worse than a fusely headache bomb.
Good luck.
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Check out The Mad Fermentationist for my adventures in fermentation (cheese, bread, ginger beer plant, and of course plenty of funky beer).
Dark Candi Syrup. Either the D or the D2 would do great in this recipe.
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Check out The Mad Fermentationist for my adventures in fermentation (cheese, bread, ginger beer plant, and of course plenty of funky beer).
Nope, candi sugar is made from refined sugar that is caramelized, then centrifuged. Molasses is the byproduct of sugar refining, so its flavor is completely different.
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Check out The Mad Fermentationist for my adventures in fermentation (cheese, bread, ginger beer plant, and of course plenty of funky beer).
I've had pretty good luck making candi sugar myself, but I have never been able to get it as dark and flavorful as the commercial stuff (and that is with 3+ hours of cooking).
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Check out The Mad Fermentationist for my adventures in fermentation (cheese, bread, ginger beer plant, and of course plenty of funky beer).
If you intend on entering this in comps or keeping it BJCP, I would forget the flavor hops additions and keep all hops at 60min. The guidelines say a slight hop flavor is acceptable, but more often than not you will get dinged for that flavor. Yeast and malt flavors are much more important.
Also, concerning malts, you may want to look into using caramunich and melanoiden malt for a portion of the grist (around 4% and 3% respectively). Caramunich will add complexity and the melanoiden malt will help the malt flavors/aromas really pop. Special B should be included. Sugar will help dry the beer out and can be up to 10% of the grist.
Regarding dark candi syrup, I have done beers with and without it and personally I find it's not really necessary if you expect to get those flavors from malt. Remember most belgian's are made from 1 or 2 malts with most of the flavors coming from the sugar syrup and yeast. Therefore, don't muck up the beer with tons of specialty grains and a whole mess of dark candi syrup.
As for yeast, I like WY3787 (Rochefort strain) as it gives great spice flavors, attenuates great, and doesn't throw off lots of hot alcohols.
Please critique my Kasteelbier Bruin-Brune Recipe
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