WallyBrew

Recipes 

Hey guys, I have a kit for Belgian Strong Golden Ale from Northern Brewer and I was hoping you could provide some ideas/tips on how to dress it up a little. The current ingredients are:

.25 lbs Belgian Caramel Pils
.25 lbs Belgian biscuit
3lbs Golden light DME (60 minutes)
4lbs Golden light DME (15 minutes)
2lbs Clear Belgian Candi sugar (15 minutes)
2oz Saaz Hops (60 minutes)
2oz Saaz Hops (15 minutes)
Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale

I'm not sure what to do with this style, any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks!

MalFet

Recipes 

Hmm...that's a decent looking recipe. What do you mean by "dress it up"? Less is more, young paduwan.

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bruin_ale

Recipes 

this style is really a way to showcase the yeast IMO. What yeast are you using?
Also, the fermentables are really on the low end of the scale. Still to style, but you could get away with another couple lbs of light DME easily.

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Ravenshead

Recipes 

Concur. I would even think about reducuing the flavoring hops to 1.5 or even 1.

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MalFet

Recipes 

Indeed. My previous post was under the assumption you're using an appropriate golden strong yeast. If you're using something else, this is the obvious answer for what to change.

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"Be excellent to each other." -Benjamin Franklin

Quaker

Recipes 

I wouldn't doctor it on your first batch. If you really want to play with something, split the wort and try 2 different yeasts instead. The hard part is that you need to give it months to really assess which you prefer. I made a similar one with honey in place of the candi syrup and grain bill of pilsner with a pound each of wheat and honey malt fermented with 3725 Biere de Garde. 3 months later it was ehhh ok; definitely not worth a rebrew. 6 months and some dark fruit flavors started coming out, really developed into a great beer, and I'll definitely do something similar again.

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干杯

WallyBrew

Recipes 

Sorry guys, forgot to add the yeast to the recipe. Its a Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale (gotta love the smack pack).

I was just curious if you had any ideas for variations. I'm fairly new to the hobby, this will be my 5th batch, and am looking to learn more.

Thanks guys!

phuff7129

Recipes 

Looks like a good recipe. I would add another pound of dme. Definitely plan on letting it condition in the bottle for about 6 months. Belgians are all about complex flavors and it takes time for all of that to come together. Good luck!

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WallyBrew

Recipes 

Sounds like the overall vote is that I should leave well enough alone. I'll probably start this batch early next week, I have to put my Bourbon Barrel Porter into secondary first

Thanks for all of the help!

cervezarara

Recipes 

I would recommend making a starter with the yeast. I think Northern Brewer recommends this as well. This will be a big beer (1.081), and it needs a large population of healthy yeast.