Hi,
I wanted to share what I call a Matilda Morphed Belgian Strong Dubbel recipe with the group. This post is quite long since I included how I came up with this recipe and the grain bill and process. I had made a post earlier about what a Belgian Strong Ale should taste like and didn't want to continue that thread any longer since my Belgian is in the drinking stage. For me, this beer turned out exceptional.
Notes:
The beer is very good with some subtle spice aroma and flavor with an overarching malt flavor like I wanted. It also has a very subtle alcohol finish with no bitter after taste. ABV is approximately 8.0%
=========
Matilda Morphed Belgian Strong Dubbel
Goose Island Brewery
www.gooseisland.com/pages/matilda/25.php
Single Infusion Mash
Double Batch sparge method
I was turned on to this beer named Matilda from Goose Island Brewery in Chicago so I visited the brewery website and from reviewed the brief stat description and brew masters video, I was able to take away enough information to try and prepare a clone recipe for this beer. But when I tried Matilda, it had an uncomfortable bitter aftertaste that I didnt care for so I modified my recipe assumptions to see if I could remove that bitter aftertaste. I also wanted to raise the ABV a little so I combined some ideas from some Belgian Strong Ale recipes I had reviewed.
According to the Goose Island brew master, Matilda is wild in character with a slightly fruity/spicy aroma and flavor. Matilda was also dry and other Belgians I tried (Duval) were highly effervescent. Even though many Belgian Strong Ales are brewed that way, I do not particularly care for a dry over effervescent beer. So part of the modification to the recipe leans towards an ale style, which is what I remember drinking when I was in Europe a while back.
Here were my assumptions I drew from the web site for this recipe:
Style Belgian Style Pale Ale. The brew master at Goose Island discussed they use a typical old style Belgian yeast strain and use a second yeast addition of Brettanomyces (Brett) yeast in the bottle that can store for up to 5 years. I have not used Brett yeast before so I used White Labs WLP570 Strong Golden Ale Yeast. Besides I am going to keg the beer, not bottle.
Color The color indicated in the website is quoted as being Golden Sunrise. From what I can gather, Golden Sunrise is between 5-6 on the SRM scale of color.
ABV 7%. I wanted to raise the ABV to 8%+ so you can estimate Plato at around 16.83P which equates to around 1.069 1.073 beginning SG with a finishing SG of 1.010. That should give you between 7.8 8.4% ABV with a Brew House Yield of 75%.
Malts 2-Row and Caramel. I suspect the 2-row is Belgian Pils so that is what I used. But for this batch I decided to add a little Munich10L and Caramel10L malt for some extra color and flavor to get the color to around 5 SRM. .
Hops The web site indicate it used both Styrian and Saaz with an IBU of 32, however it didnt say which one was used as bitter. I couldnt find Styrian locally so I used Fuggles which is said to be very similar Styrian. For lack of a better idea, I used combo Fuggels and Saaz for bitter, flavor and aroma.
Note: Even though I have read that beer of this style and ABV typically use cane sugar during fermentation, I did not have to use any because the starting SG was reached from the mash efficiency.
So there you have my assumptions for the recipe. Regardless of how close it might come to Matilda, it still seems like the beer will turn out good anyway.
Grain bill:
Belgian Pils 2-Row - 9lb 8oz
Munich 10L - 2lb 8oz
Caramel 10L 11oz
Total Grains - 13lb
Cane Sugar (if necessary to reach target SG)
BHY - 75%
Hops:
Fuggle - 4.1 Alpha 31gm Bitter - 60min
Saaz 3.6 Alpha 20gm Bitter 60 min
Fuggle 4.1 Alpha 18.5gm Flavor 20min
Saaz 3.6 Alpha 10.5gm Flavor 20min
Fuggle 4.1 Alpha 7gm Aroma 0min (cover wort for 10 min)
Saaz 3.6 Alpha 3.5gm Aroma 0min (cover wort for 10 min)
SFG - 1.072
FFG - 1.010
IBU* - 32
Yeast -
Two vials of. WhiteLabs - WLP570 yeast.
Strike water 4.2gal @ 162 degrees
Mash Temp - 149 degrees 1 hour
Sparge 168 degrees 3.75 gal (depends on first run off amount from mash tun)
Bring 1gal water to 175degrees and pour into mash tun and swash around to set the temperature environment before mashing. Bring 4.2 gal of water to 162 degrees and add grains. Stir mash and make any heat adjustments along the way to get/keep mash between 149 degrees for 60 min. Drain a few quarts and recycle into tun until the run out is clean. Drain to boil pot and measure runoff. Subtract runoff from Kettle Full Volume (7.25gal) to get Batch Sparge amount. Divide batch sparge amount by 2 for two batch sparges. Heat total batch sparge water to 168 degrees, add ½ sparge water to grain, stir grain lightly to loosen sugars and run off after 15min. Do same to second batch sparge.
Hop additions are stated above. Rapid cool the wart to 80 degrees, drain wort to clean sanitized fermentation carboy, seal and allow the wart to settle for 4-5 hours then rack off sediment to a clean and sanitized carboy and wait for temp to get to between 65-70 degrees then pitch yeast.
When SG gets to at or below 1.020 rack into clean and sanitized secondary carboy. When SG gets to 1.010 rack off sediment to clean and sanitized carboy or keg and cool beer to between 40-45deg for 14 days. Keg then pressurize to between 25-30PSI. Let the beer settle in the keg for a 1 week.
Notes:
Fermentation started at 67deg and settled at around 64deg for 14 days. I racked to clean carboy at SG 1.025 for 5 days and raised temp to 70deg. Fermentation hit 1.010 SG about 5 days later. I racked into clean and sanitized Keg, sealed and topped with CO2. I kept the beer in the keg for 21 days (40-45deg) before trying the beer. It is very good with some subtle spice aroma and flavor with that overarching malt flavor like I wanted. It also has a very subtle alcohol finish with no bitter after taste.
=======
I wanted to share what I call a Matilda Morphed Belgian Strong Dubbel recipe with the group. This post is quite long since I included how I came up with this recipe and the grain bill and process. I had made a post earlier about what a Belgian Strong Ale should taste like and didn't want to continue that thread any longer since my Belgian is in the drinking stage. For me, this beer turned out exceptional.
Notes:
The beer is very good with some subtle spice aroma and flavor with an overarching malt flavor like I wanted. It also has a very subtle alcohol finish with no bitter after taste. ABV is approximately 8.0%
=========
Matilda Morphed Belgian Strong Dubbel
Goose Island Brewery
www.gooseisland.com/pages/matilda/25.php
Single Infusion Mash
Double Batch sparge method
I was turned on to this beer named Matilda from Goose Island Brewery in Chicago so I visited the brewery website and from reviewed the brief stat description and brew masters video, I was able to take away enough information to try and prepare a clone recipe for this beer. But when I tried Matilda, it had an uncomfortable bitter aftertaste that I didnt care for so I modified my recipe assumptions to see if I could remove that bitter aftertaste. I also wanted to raise the ABV a little so I combined some ideas from some Belgian Strong Ale recipes I had reviewed.
According to the Goose Island brew master, Matilda is wild in character with a slightly fruity/spicy aroma and flavor. Matilda was also dry and other Belgians I tried (Duval) were highly effervescent. Even though many Belgian Strong Ales are brewed that way, I do not particularly care for a dry over effervescent beer. So part of the modification to the recipe leans towards an ale style, which is what I remember drinking when I was in Europe a while back.
Here were my assumptions I drew from the web site for this recipe:
Style Belgian Style Pale Ale. The brew master at Goose Island discussed they use a typical old style Belgian yeast strain and use a second yeast addition of Brettanomyces (Brett) yeast in the bottle that can store for up to 5 years. I have not used Brett yeast before so I used White Labs WLP570 Strong Golden Ale Yeast. Besides I am going to keg the beer, not bottle.
Color The color indicated in the website is quoted as being Golden Sunrise. From what I can gather, Golden Sunrise is between 5-6 on the SRM scale of color.
ABV 7%. I wanted to raise the ABV to 8%+ so you can estimate Plato at around 16.83P which equates to around 1.069 1.073 beginning SG with a finishing SG of 1.010. That should give you between 7.8 8.4% ABV with a Brew House Yield of 75%.
Malts 2-Row and Caramel. I suspect the 2-row is Belgian Pils so that is what I used. But for this batch I decided to add a little Munich10L and Caramel10L malt for some extra color and flavor to get the color to around 5 SRM. .
Hops The web site indicate it used both Styrian and Saaz with an IBU of 32, however it didnt say which one was used as bitter. I couldnt find Styrian locally so I used Fuggles which is said to be very similar Styrian. For lack of a better idea, I used combo Fuggels and Saaz for bitter, flavor and aroma.
Note: Even though I have read that beer of this style and ABV typically use cane sugar during fermentation, I did not have to use any because the starting SG was reached from the mash efficiency.
So there you have my assumptions for the recipe. Regardless of how close it might come to Matilda, it still seems like the beer will turn out good anyway.
Grain bill:
Belgian Pils 2-Row - 9lb 8oz
Munich 10L - 2lb 8oz
Caramel 10L 11oz
Total Grains - 13lb
Cane Sugar (if necessary to reach target SG)
BHY - 75%
Hops:
Fuggle - 4.1 Alpha 31gm Bitter - 60min
Saaz 3.6 Alpha 20gm Bitter 60 min
Fuggle 4.1 Alpha 18.5gm Flavor 20min
Saaz 3.6 Alpha 10.5gm Flavor 20min
Fuggle 4.1 Alpha 7gm Aroma 0min (cover wort for 10 min)
Saaz 3.6 Alpha 3.5gm Aroma 0min (cover wort for 10 min)
SFG - 1.072
FFG - 1.010
IBU* - 32
Yeast -
Two vials of. WhiteLabs - WLP570 yeast.
Strike water 4.2gal @ 162 degrees
Mash Temp - 149 degrees 1 hour
Sparge 168 degrees 3.75 gal (depends on first run off amount from mash tun)
Bring 1gal water to 175degrees and pour into mash tun and swash around to set the temperature environment before mashing. Bring 4.2 gal of water to 162 degrees and add grains. Stir mash and make any heat adjustments along the way to get/keep mash between 149 degrees for 60 min. Drain a few quarts and recycle into tun until the run out is clean. Drain to boil pot and measure runoff. Subtract runoff from Kettle Full Volume (7.25gal) to get Batch Sparge amount. Divide batch sparge amount by 2 for two batch sparges. Heat total batch sparge water to 168 degrees, add ½ sparge water to grain, stir grain lightly to loosen sugars and run off after 15min. Do same to second batch sparge.
Hop additions are stated above. Rapid cool the wart to 80 degrees, drain wort to clean sanitized fermentation carboy, seal and allow the wart to settle for 4-5 hours then rack off sediment to a clean and sanitized carboy and wait for temp to get to between 65-70 degrees then pitch yeast.
When SG gets to at or below 1.020 rack into clean and sanitized secondary carboy. When SG gets to 1.010 rack off sediment to clean and sanitized carboy or keg and cool beer to between 40-45deg for 14 days. Keg then pressurize to between 25-30PSI. Let the beer settle in the keg for a 1 week.
Notes:
Fermentation started at 67deg and settled at around 64deg for 14 days. I racked to clean carboy at SG 1.025 for 5 days and raised temp to 70deg. Fermentation hit 1.010 SG about 5 days later. I racked into clean and sanitized Keg, sealed and topped with CO2. I kept the beer in the keg for 21 days (40-45deg) before trying the beer. It is very good with some subtle spice aroma and flavor with that overarching malt flavor like I wanted. It also has a very subtle alcohol finish with no bitter after taste.
=======
