Belgian Dark Strong Ale, HBT Contest Winner, 18E
 

This one scored a 41 in the 2009 HBT comp and tied for 1st in the 18A-E class. It ended up at 10.5% and is extremely smooth. I was very impressed for my first attempt at a true belgian.

13.3 lbs pilsner malt
.5 lb caramunich malt
.38 lb aromatic malt
.25 lb special B malt
.13 lb chocolate rye malt
.6 oz Magnum 14% for 90 minutes
.5 oz hersbrucker 3.3% for 15 minutes
.25 oz hersbrucker 3.3% for 2 minutes
.14 tsp seeds of paradise for 2 minutes
2.25 lbs amber candi sugar approx 25 srm. added with 15 minutes left in boil. made per the instructions on http://www.franklinbrew.org/brewinfo/candi_sugar.html
1 lb turbinado sugar approx 10 srm. added with 15 minutes left in boil.
1 tbsp of 5.2 stabilizer
1 whirlfloc tablet with 10 minutes left in boil
Mash at 149 for 75 minutes. Double batch sparge. approx 7 gal pre boil.

I used a 2-liter starter of WLP500 Trappist. OG was 1.090, FG was a 1.010. Primary fermentation started at 65 degrees and gradually ramped up to 75 over a week long period. Transferred to a keg after a week, primed with 3.75 oz of corn sugar and pitched 2 packs of US-05 and stored for 9 months at around 75 degrees. This got the carbonation to around 3.5 volumes. the beer finishes out to around 33.2 ibu and 18.6 srm.

Ooooooh. This just got shortlisted on the "to-brew" list.

I'm really excited to age this beer and see how it changes. I have 10 22oz bombers of this left. i want to store it in one of the caves on our family ranch. The idea is to grab two bottles every winter and sample them. This beer ought to be pretty nice after 5 years! The caves are at a constant 65 degrees all year round. To deal with the humidity, I am going to dip the necks in wax so that the caps won't rust. Put them all in a rubbermaid container and store in this room.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/...um/ACL_058.JPG

Anybody try to do something like this before??

Pierre Celis & St Bernardus do a Grottenbier that is cave aged, but other than that I don't know of any commercial examples.
http://www.sintbernardus.be/en/beers.html

Ommegang aged some of their Three Philosophers quad in a cave, and it's superb! Tastes way better than the stuff that wasn't cave aged. Good luck!

http://www.ommegang.com/index.php?mcat=1&scat=8&ssnl=1

Yeah, as mentioned above, Ommegang has cave aged renditions of almost all of their beers (the ones strong enough to be ageable anyway). Their Dubbel, Quad and Saison have been cave aged. I had the aged Dubbel and it was pretty fantastic.

This one is next up on my list. Would anyone happen to know what .14 tsp of Seeds of Paradise would weigh?

I just used my 1/4 teaspoon and filled it approx 1/2 way full. Close enough for me!

Hi,

Any guess at which if the following would be a good sub for hersbrucker?


Amarillo
Cascade
Centennial
Chinook
Columbus
Fuggle
Golding
Magnum
Willamette


Thanks!

I'm looking to do a parti-gyle and was thinking about BDSA for the big beer. Any idea what the SG of the runnings were when you stopped?