First Belgian- suggestions? - Page 3

**shamrockdoc** · 11-11-2010, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tedclev

I am about to brew my first Big Belgian and am just looking for any suggestions. I have done a few high gravs, but am wondering what input everyone has. I am interested in anything, from mashing/boiling, to yeast pitching and fermenting, to bottling and aging. I already have these ingredients, so this is def what I'm making, but feel free to give recipe advice too.

I am planning on mashing for 90 min, then boiling for 60. I have read different recommendations as far as the Candi Sugar. Last ten minutes or after fermentation has begun? Why wait until it's fermenting? Thanks in advance!

malt & fermentables
% LB OZ Malt or Fermentable ppg °L
47% 6 0 Briess GOLD LME 34 5
23% 3 0 Briess DME Golden Light 43 5
16% 2 0 Belgian Candy Sugar Amber 36 75
4% 0 8 CaraVienne 35 21
3% 0 6 Cara-Pils/Dextrine 33 2
3% 0 6 Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L 35 10
2% 0 5 Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L 34 40
2% 0 4 Belgian Special B 30 220
0% 0 1 Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L 33 120
Batch size: 5.0 gallons

Original Gravity
1.093
(1.083 to 1.097)
Final Gravity
1.020
(1.018 to 1.022)
Color
24° SRM / 47° EBC
(Brown to Dark Brown)
Mash Efficiency
85%

hops
use time oz variety form aa
boil 60 mins 1.0 Styrian Goldings info pellet 5.4
boil 30 mins 0.5 Willamette info pellet 5.5
boil 5 mins 0.5 Willamette info pellet 5.5
Boil: 3.0 avg gallons for 60 minutes

Bitterness
12.0 IBU / 5 HBU
ƒ: Tinseth
BU:GU
0.13

yeast
White Labs Trappist Ale (WLP500)
ale yeast in liquid form with low to medium flocculation

Alcohol
9.7% ABV / 8% ABW
Calories
305 per 12 oz.

misc
use time amount ingredient
boil 10 min 1 tbsp Yeast Nutrient

Does anyone else cringe at the cost of all that DME!? ....Jebus wept thats alot of powdered wort!

permo · 11-11-2010, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Houblon

Ok so out of 7 you feel you understand yeast & brewing?

Little advice, keep an open mind and always question the "statu quo".
Do your own test using basic standards & controls.

Take a number

.

7 belgian beers with sugar, 50 brews total.........

Thanks for the advice. I just know what works for me and give my advice based on that......after 50 batches I do think I know a little about yeast and brewing, but sure have a lot to learn as do all of us. No need to start nitpicking me, your advice is good and I have listened to you in the past...so thanks.

bknifefight · 11-11-2010, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shamrockdoc

Does anyone else cringe at the cost of all that DME!? ....Jebus wept thats alot of powdered wort!

9 lbs isn't that much. I buy DME in 50 lb bags and it isn't too expensive per pound.

JetSmooth · 11-11-2010, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Houblon

If I may ask a few questions:

1 how do you calculate hop utilization then?
2 have you ever done a test yourself bewteen the two methods?

Instead of waiting for data why not get real first hand data yourself?

2 batchs -
1 with sugar in boil
1 with sugar in fermentor
Have a group of friends over and see if anybody can taste the difference, Final gravity is easy enough to test.

Its odd people keep doing the same habits based on old practices when in this case its easy enough to test.
Just sayin

1. I don't. I'm not going for repeatability yet; just noodling around until I find what works for me.
2. I haven't. This is my first Belgian. I may take your suggestion and go "all in" with the next one.

I'm not at a point where I'm brewing frequently enough to do two batches close enough to compare and not have conditioning time be a factor. But I agree it would be an interesting experiment.

This is beer, it ain't religion. Even the monks are open to different methods. That's sort of the spirit of Belgian beers.

Just saying.

Carter1932 · 11-12-2010, 12:53 PM

Just thought I'd point out that Jamil Zainasheff recommends feeding simple sugar to fermenter rather than to boil for strong Belgian brews.

Jamil has certainly brewed a lot of beer and experimented extensively, moreover he just finished writing a book all about yeast with White Lab's owner Chris White. Just saying.....

Frankfurtvr4 · 11-12-2010, 12:58 PM

yea, don't drink it early.

JetSmooth · 11-12-2010, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carter1932

Just thought I'd point out that Jamil Zainasheff recommends feeding simple sugar to fermenter rather than to boil for strong Belgian brews.

Jamil has certainly brewed a lot of beer and experimented extensively, moreover he just finished writing a book all about yeast with White Lab's owner Chris White. Just saying.....

Yup. That's why I don't sweat the opinion of someone on an Interweb forum. I've read more pro-feeding than anti-feeding information when it comes to homebrewing. Big-production is a different animal IMHO.

No offense meant, of course.

tedclev · 11-15-2010, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcp27

where you add sugar doesn't change how you determine the abv. just calculate like you added it at the start. dont forget to boil the sugar before adding if you're adding during fermentation

Yeah- I base my ABV on hydro readings, and I just brewed this beer. I am going to feed the boiled candy sugars- one pound after the krausen dies down and one pound when I rack to secondary. I will, of course, be taking hydro readings when I do this. My question is- how do I do the calculations? It isn't just an easy OG-FG...

BTW- with a 90 min mash of the grains at 145 deg, and a wort volume just under 5 gallons (to allow for the candy sugar addition later), my OG came out to be 1.095- a damn good bit higher than I was expecting... I was expecting that sort of gravity WITH the 2 lbs of candy sugar. Also, I made a 2pint starter for this batch and aerated the crap out of it.

dcp27 · 11-15-2010, 11:01 PM

Candi sugar is 36ppg, so if your OG was 1.095, with the sugar it'll be (36*2 + 95*5)/ 5.5 (assuming the new volume is 5.5 gallons, change accordingly). No need to complicate things with hydro readings

tedclev · 01-03-2011, 03:06 PM

Okay, just to follow up on all of this... I made a mistake calculating OG (I was maybe enjoying a bit too much homebrew while brewing)... The actual OG was 1.077, which brings it to 1.091 after the sugar for 5 gallons. As I have also read and heard far more supporting pro-feeding, I fed the sugars over two increments: After five days fermenting in primary, SG was 1.0165 and I boiled 3 cups water and one pound of the candi sugar- cooled and added to fermenter; also raised temp to about 72F. Nine days later, racked to 2ndary with the 2nd pound of sugar and maintained high temp. Three weeks later, bottled with 7oz priming sugar (to get extra carbonation, but not enough to have bottle bombs). FG was 1.0165. Thanks for all the input. I am waiting at least 3 months before I pop the top on one of these, but I can tell you that it tasted great at bottling time.... And I bought Brew Like a Monk...