Brewing first low gravity Belgian table beer

I've never brewed such a low gravity beer before tomorrow. I'm looking at brewing up 3 gallons of an all pilsner brew with an o.g around 1.044. My lowest gravity brew was in the 1.070's after about 20 batches. Biab single infusion with the typical 60 min mash and 90 min boil. Not sure what my final will be, maybe 1.011?

It'll be something like this:

4 lbs Pilsner (BE) - 84%
8 oz. honey - 11%
4 oz. table sugar - 4%

1 oz. German Hull Melon about 21 ibu's
60 min - .33 oz
15 min - .33 oz
5 min - .33 oz

2 gallons with WLP540
1 gallon with WY3522

By mashing in the mid 150's to the upper limit of 158F to maintain body and adding the sugars to keep the gravity to an approxiamte 4.9% abv or so, am I defeating the purpose of trying for more body in this brew with the sugars? I'll be looking for CO2 volumes of about 2.0 even to help that issue out as well.

Essentially I'm starting this brew tomorrow morning early and the ingredients are all I have on hand without having to travel to the lhbs and lose precious time.

Whaddya think?

They honey might be nice but the table sugar will just add booze, lactose is better for body....I'd cut the table sugar and or maybe substitute with lactose....

You could add some caramel, mash higher, or add stuff like lactose to add body. The sugars will just dry it out more, which will tend to thin it out as well.

Maltodextrin? I have some from soda making.....

I have no time to get anymore ingredients since brew is tomorrow morn. I won't be home from work until after midnight tonight.

TipsySaint said:

They honey might be nice but the table sugar will just add booze, lactose is better for body....I'd cut the table sugar and or maybe substitute with lactose....

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Might just go with your advice sir, thanks.

pricelessbrewing said:

You could add some caramel, mash higher, or add stuff like lactose to add body. The sugars will just dry it out more, which will tend to thin it out as well.

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I am aiming for mid to upper 150's so that's pretty high for a table beer. I know from some research that the mash ranges are all over for such a low gravity beer but this most likely takes into account lot's of crystal/caramel malts.

What is your reason for the honey and sugar addition?

That little of honey it is basically doing the same thing as the sugar addition. That is as a simple sugar it will completely ferment out and add little to no flavor. If you want honey flavor look into using honey malt.

Fathand said:

What is your reason for the honey and sugar addition?

That little of honey it is basically doing the same thing as the sugar addition. That is as a simple sugar it will completely ferment out and add little to no flavor. If you want honey flavor look into using honey malt.

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Honey definitely adds flavor after fermentation, otherwise they would just use sugar.

Well it is 14% of the bill. It was pretty cheap The yeast was cropped, the grains and hops were 11 bucks, and the honey is about 2 bucks.

Some takeaways from a byo article:

"The real strength of honey is that it adds potency and lightness to beer, as other sugars do, yet smoothes out the roughness that inevitably comes from adding sugar. We’ve found that honey also seems to knock the bitter edge off the hops while allowing some of the more subtle hop character to come through. Of course, if you want a strongly hoppy honey beer, you can always add more high-alpha-acid hops to the kettle. Honey also adds subtle floral notes and aroma to beer, thanks to the various pollens and nectars used by bees in its production."

This next point comes from adding pasteurized honey to primary rather than the boil:
"The National Honey Board in Longmont, Colorado has done research into the effects of honey on beer. Their recommendations for amounts of honey added to a batch of beer (as a percent of total fermentables) are: 3 to 10 percent honey produces a subtle, floral flavor and delicate aroma; 11 to 30 percent produces a robust honey flavor that should be balanced by strong hop flavors, spices, or darker specialty malts; above 30 percent produces beer dominated by honey flavor, which verges on being what medieval brewers called “braggot.” "

https://byo.com/stories/item/322-brewing-with-honey

I think I'll stir it in at flame out. I'm currently at my last 10 minutes of the boil actually . . . . .

I hit my target OG on the dot......10.9 Brix or 1.044 sg

very cool!

2 gallons went to WLP540 and 1 gallon to WY3522. I was hoping to catch some cropping from the 540 but to no avail as I popped the bucket top exactly 2 days later from the pitch to find no krausen and just massive fizziness on the surface. Oh well, I'll pitch my bsda on top of that one instead.

The cropped 3522 took off in 3 hours with a nice foam head and the same for the 540. Started at 64F and let it rise after a day in a ferm chamber to 76F. Here's hoping for some nice yeast character.....

Just wanted to update that I tried one of the 3522 version and it was great. Very refreshing, nice body, that hull melon hop was coming through, and the simple grainy pils. Looked like a coors light. The yeast was still in suspension a bit even after 1.5 weeks of 30's-40's. Just needs some longer conditioning time but I'm quite pleased with my first table beer!

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Here's the one with 3522....very tasty! I think I might add a touch of Munich or caramel malt next time. A great base to work with though that I would call a success!

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And here's the one with wlp540......what's up with the cloudiness? It's like that even in the bottle. It was brewed on 10/28. Apparently this yeast does not want to flocculate. Wlp540 is known to be slow. I'm surprised that such a low gravity brew is taking this long.

Wow that is cloudy. I have never used 540 but have used the equivalent Wyeast 1762 and nevr had something that cloudy.

I like your thinking about a more sessionable Belgian. I love my Belgians but they are usually not something that you can drink every day because of the high ABV. I have done a couple and they are great to get that Belgian flavor without the big ABV. Imash higher than normal and do not use any sugar so they do not get ovely dry and still have good mouthfeel. I will have to look but I think I even put in some flaked oats for a little more mouthfeel.

Seriously. The 3522 was crystal clear (but of course some sediment got in the glass). I even cold conditioned for a week in near freezing temps outside and no change.....I guess I'll have to let it sit in the cellar for another month. The 3522 tastes much better imho. I have used 1762 many times and that flocculates very clear.

djbradle said:

Seriously. The 3522 was crystal clear (but of course some sediment got in the glass). I even cold conditioned for a week in near freezing temps outside and no change.....I guess I'll have to let it sit in the cellar for another month. The 3522 tastes much better imho. I have used 1762 many times and that flocculates very clear.

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3522 is a great yeast. The more I use it the more it is growing on me.

I just wanted to update this thread to say the WLP540 was so underwhelming it was worth dumping. It was cloudy almost 3 month later and still had a sulfur component to it. Unfortunately I did a 2 gallon batch with that yeast so I must figure a use for it. I think I may use it for cooking....

The 3522 was awesome; super clear, crisp, great spice/ester yeast aroma taste, and very drinkable.

I really can't pinpoint why the wlp540 was so bad. And why it stayed cloudy unto this day whilst the 3522 was crystal clear after 2 weeks. Both yeasts were treated the same way with the same temps.