My Belgian Project

Well, I've been brewing for 2 years now, and have evolved to all-grain. I was thinking about my goals for 2009, and wanted to build on my knowledge and have some fun with a series of beers that I could taste in one flight at the end of the year. I also wanted a cool Christmas gift for my beer drinking friends. Thus, my belgian project was born.

Each quarter, I am going to brew a belgian. January it will be a quad, April a Tripel, July a Dubbel, and Oct a Singel. In December, I have a flight of abbey style beers to examine and rumenate over the year, all aged appropriately.

Recipes are a combination from Radical Brewing and my own. I'd appreciate feedback on the recipes and approach toward this project. Here are the recipes:

Jan Quadrupel (derived from Radical Brewing)
10lb Pilsener Malt
4lb Amber Malt
2lb Munich
1lb table sugar
1lb XLDME
2oz Styrian Goldings (60 min)
1.5oz Sazz (15 min)
WLP500 Trappist Ale
2oz Oak Chips soaked in Chardonnay for 2 weeks (secondary)
Mash at 148 for 90 min
OG: 1.095

1lb XLDME and 1lb Table sugar are cooked together in pan until caramelized to preference, and added after boil has started (from Radical Brewing, pg. 166)


Apr Tripel
13lb Pilsener Malt
1/4 lb Aromatic
2lb Clear Belgian Candi Sugar
1.75oz Styrian Goldings (90 min)
1oz Sazz (10 min)
WLP500 Trappist Ale
Mash at 151 for 90 min
OG: 1.086

Jul Dubbel (Derived from Radical Brewing pg. 124) - 60 Min boil
8.5lb Pale Malt
3.5lb Munich
0.5lb Special B
0.5lb Aromatic
1lb Jaggery
1.5oz Styrian Goldings (60 min)
WLP540 Abbey IV
Mash at 152 for 60 min
OG: 1.067

Oct Singel (Derived from Radical Brewing pg. 123)
6lb Pilsener Malt
3lb Pale Malt
0.5lb Aromatic
1oz Styrian Goldings (60 min)
0.5oz Saaz (30 min)
0.5oz Saaz (0 min)
0.5 oz Crystal (dry hop)
WLP500 Trappist Ale
Mash at 150 for 90 min
OG: 1.047

Thanks in advance for your input.

Each quarter, I am going to brew a belgian. January it will be a quad, April a Tripel, July a Dubbel, and Oct a Singel. In December, I have a flight of abbey style beers to examine and rumenate over the year, all aged appropriately.

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What an excellent idea! It will be a fabulous learning experience, for style and technique.

Recipe feedback follows. I will discuss each recipe in order, with general notes at the end.

Jan Quadrupel (derived from Radical Brewing)
10lb Pilsener Malt
4lb Amber Malt
1.5lb Munich
0.5lb Aromatic Malt
1lb table sugar
1lb XLDME
2oz Styrian Goldings (60 min)
1.5oz Sazz (15 min)
WLP500 Trappist Ale
2oz Oak Chips soaked in Chardonnay for 2 weeks (secondary)
Mash at 148 for 90 min
OG: 1.095

1lb XLDME and 1lb Table sugar are cooked together in pan until caramelized to preference, and added after boil has started (from Radical Brewing, pg. 166)

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Love the caramelized sugar angle! Not something I'd have imagined myself; I'd have tossed in some Special B and called it a day.

Aromatic is overkill in a beer this big. I'd swap it for more Munich.

Apr Tripel
12lb Pilsener Malt
1lb Munich
0.5lb Aromatic Malt
2lb Clear Belgian Candi Syrup
1.5oz Styrian Goldings (60 min)
1oz Sazz (15 min)
WLP500 Trappist Ale
2oz Oak Chips soaked in Chardonnay for 2 weeks (secondary)
Mash at 149 for 90 min
OG: 1.080

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Tripel is best done KISS; all the benchmark examples of the style are really, really simple. Yours is not. 80-90% Pilsner malt, 10-20% clear sugar (I like invert sugar like Lyle's Golden Syrup; YMMV) - it's really that simple! It's easy to overthink a Tripel grist and end up with something quite different.

Mash hotter than your proposed 149 - say, 151-152 - to get the characteristics you presumably want from Munich.

Again, there's really no point to Aromatic in this style/grist.

Jul Dubbel (Derived from Radical Brewing pg. 124) - 90 Min boil
6lb Pale Malt
3lb Munich
1lb Special B
0.5lb Aromatic
1lb Dark Brown Sugar
1.5oz Styrian Goldings (60 min)
WLP500 Trappist Ale
2oz Oak Chips soaked in Chardonnay for 2 weeks (secondary)
Mash at 152 for 60 min
OG: 1.060

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Here is a place where Aromatic might come in handy. A half-pound is a good idea. A full pound of Special B is probably too much, however; it's very, very powerful stuff. If you were planning on getting color as well as flavor from the Special B, I suggest a couple ounces of Carafa I or II. That should get you a nice reddish-brown tint without an excess of caremelly, dark-fruit sweetness - which is the danger of more than a half-pound of Special B in five gallons. Dubbel really shouldn't have crystal-malt sweetness, but it should have a maltiness more pronounced than Tripel but less obvious than Bock.

Oct Singel (Derived from Radical Brewing pg. 123)
6lb Pilsener Malt
3lb Pale Malt
0.5lb Aromatic
1oz Styrian Goldings (60 min)
1oz Saaz (60 min)
1oz Saaz (0 min)
WLP500 Trappist Ale
2oz Oak Chips soaked in Chardonnay for 2 weeks (secondary)
Mash at 152 for 60 min
OG: 1.047

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This grist sounds yummy!

Now, a general observation: I don't know what you're after with the oak, but I don't think it's going to add anything positive to the beers. To the best of my knowledge, none of the benchmark examples of the style are aged in or on oak (Westmalle, Chimay, La Trappe, etc.). For your experiment's purposes, it adds an unnecessary variable to the flavor profiles; as you're using the same yeast strain, I suggest you instead investigate the flavors of malt and yeast and how they intertwine in these styles.

I also suggest you acquire some of the benchmark commercial beers for comparison's sake. That will be a very interesting - and convivial, as these beers tend to be quite strong! - tasting experiment.

A note on Special B: The brewery where I began my professional career was, to the best of our knowledge, the first US microbrewery to bottle a Belgian-style Quadruppel. We had a 14bbl mash tun, and filled to the brim with grist we could get 5bbl of 1.100+ wort in the kettle. We brewed four 5bbl batches with different grists and then blended the batches. (That was a very convivial tasting session indeed; we could barely read the handwritten notes from late in the evening.) We ended up finalizing the grist with Pilsner, Vienna, and Munich malts and invert sugar with a touch of Special B. Why? One of the 5bbl batches was 50% Special B - and here's the crucial bit - it was perfectly foul. Utterly undrinkable. When all four batches were blended into a 20bbl batch, it was divine. This was early 2000, and I drank the last bottle in my possession from that batch a month or so ago. 12% ABV and utterly perfect in a large brandy snifter. The point is, even in a heavy grist Special B can easily screw up everything.

Hope this helps you in your quest. Wish I lived within closer range so I could invite myself over to help!

Cheers!

Bob

Bob - Thanks for the feedback. Another goal of mine in 2009 is to keep it simple for the recipes, and you've helped me rein in my instinct to make excessive grist choices. The oack chips are just an idea, easy to split batches or drop it completely at the time I'm at secondary. I like the idea, so I'm leaving it for now.

I've edited the recipes on the OP and in Beersmith based on your feedback. I'm getting excited about this project. Anyone else care to give some feedback?

I finally completed the Quadrupel for this project. I had a couple of small problems, but worked through them. First, I realized I only had 1 1/2 lbs of Munich instead of the 2 I had planned, so that dropped my anticipated OG to 1.092. This was my second all-grain effort, and my efficiency was not the same as my first; it was 67% instead of 77%. That took my Quad from an anticipated 1.092 to an actual 1.083. Finally, the hops I ordered were below the anticipated alpha %; so I bumped the Saaz to 2 oz at 20 minutes instead of the planned 1.5oz at 15.

The carmelization of the XLDME and table sugar was interesting (see pic). It lumped up in the saucepan into twisted, powdery carmelized sugar. I dropped them into the boil at the 10 minute mark. This process was described by Randy Mosher in Radical Brewing - it definitely left a toffee-like aroma and taste.

Here's how the process based with pics:

Boiling the wort:


Making the carmelized sugar/XLDME:


Cooling with the CFC (build thanks to this forum):


Quad in the primary:


I have to note that I would not be at the all-grain, CFC, high-gravity level without the info pulled from this forum. I am not a frequent poster (working on that), but troll all the time, so thank you to everyone out there sharing their trials and errors for helping me get to this point.

Tripel is planned for April!!!

One more pic - the OG reading. Color looked about right:

Took a sample yesterday, Specific gravity fell from 1.083 to 1.010 in a week. Those yeasts were very busy. I normally try to use a water bath and ice to keep temperature control, but I did not this time as I've read a higher temp fermentation is desirable in trappist styles. Since the ambient remained 70 degrees for the week, I suspect the fermenting wort got as high as 80.

Tasted very raw - a lot of esters, along with the strong malt backbone. It's clocking in at 9.5% ABV, and the alcohol heat was noticeable. I could also taste a toffee-like quality from the carmelized sugar/XLDME mix, but it was subdued. This guy is going to need lots of age to pull everything together. Fortunately, I've got several brews in bottles while I wait until December for this one.

Just brewed the Tripel this weekend. The final recipe was

Tripel
13lb Belgian Pilsener Malt
2lb Clear Belgian Candi Sugar
0.25 Aromatic Malt
1.75oz Styrian Goldings (90 min)
1oz Sazz (10 min)
WLP500 Trappist Ale
Mash at 151 for 90 min
OG: 1.078 (70% efficiency)

With the 90 min mash and boil, this extended my brew day a bit. Learning my lesson from the Quad, I have kept temp control in check, slowly letting it rise over the past 2 days, and using the wet t-shirt technique to maintain the temp. Didn't take pictures this time.

This one was fun and I know I applied some things I learned from the Quad mistakes.

whats the wet t-shirt technique?

syd138 said:

whats the wet t-shirt technique?

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Put the fermentor in a bit of water with a tshirt over it just touching into the water. Water is drawn up the tshirt and cools your fermentor as it evaporates.

awesome post. Its really exciting!

You forgot to do a sour to age 18 months.

Seriously this is a cool project, very nice idea. It will be really nice to sit down and try all those beers side by side. :rockin:

It will be really nice to sit down and try all those beers side by side.

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That is the plan - I'm going to do a "vertical" tasting sometime over Christmas break.

As for a sour, now there's a good idea...

It's going to make for one heck of a Christmas party.
I never have the quick attenuation luck that some of you do. Started my quad at 1.105, 2 weeks later almost stuck at 1.030. Rousing every other day has finally dropped it to 1.016. I'm hoping to try a few around Christmas also. Good luck on the experiment.

I bottled the Trippel today. Hydro samples were fantastic. I am really excited about this one - I think I did well with all the fermentation variables...

For 4 bottles (2 12s and 2 22s), I added a special spiced extract. Basically, I soaked 1 oz oak chips in chardonnay for a few days, then discarded the chips and added 1/8 tsp orange zest, 1 crushed coriander seed, and 1/4 tsp saffron. I let that sit for about 4 weeks while the Trippel was in secondary. The liquid in the jar turned a bright purple/gold. The bottling samples of these were citrusy and aromatic.

Here' some picks - hydro samples:


the leftovers from the special spice (saffron threads, orange zest, and coriander)


Bottles complete (the red marked ones are with the spice)

Brewed my Dubbel today - recipe is up to date on the dirst post.

Things went pretty well. I had a couple of small issues. First, I was under my target OG - hit 1063 v 1067 per Beersmith. Despite the fact that I am using 5.2 stabilizer and a I am getting pretty consistent temp readings, I still seem to be getting on 65% efficiency. I'm starting to think the crush is the problem - I buy it pre-crushed.

Second problem was the boilover. I use a 8 gallon aluminum turkey fryer, and fill it with 7 gallons pre-boil; so I've got good odds on a boilover everytime. Fortunately, I received several AHS gift certificates for my birthday, which I plan to use on a 10 gal bre kettle, which I expect will help.

I also used my new oxygenation kit for the first time on this brew - 30 second of O2 before pitching the yeast. I was getting tired of the shake-shake-shake routine...

Here's some pics:

The boil:


Boilover - lost some hops


Made some BBQ sauce while it was boiling


OG reading


The reward for a hard morning's work - Homemade black forest cake (from my BDay) and Allagash Dubbel Reserve


Three beers down, one to go with this project! Great thing is I'm learning something new everytime.

Quick update on the project. I submitted the Quad and Tripel in a recent local homebrew club contest. The Quad won 3rd place in oak-aged beers (I had some significant oak in it). The Tripel took honorable mention in the Belgian Strong category. Overall, I am more pleased with the Tripel - and am quickly running out since I keep drinking it.

The dubbel is still in secondary. It did not finish dry enough, so I added 1/2 lb of corn sugar and 1/2 gallon water to the secondary. It's been in a slow ferment every since. Today its at 1.006 - I'm hoping it's done, since I want to bottle this weekend! Samples are difficult to place, I'm not sure this is going to be *great*, but I think it will be *good*.

The singel is scheduled for early October. I am picking up a wealth of experience with the grains, ferment temps, mash and boil process, and the impact of sugars - this has been a great exercise, and I would encourage everyone to try it.

Finally did the Singel yesterday. Struggled at bit to get the mash temp right - I accidently used an old recipe with 1.25 qts/lb ratio instead of the 1.5qts/lb I moved to now. Recipe is updated on the original post.

Overall, the brew went well. The recipe is similar to the Tripel, which has turned out very well. I am anticipating success with this one as well. Within 16 hours of pitching, I have a beautiful white krausen. I will run this one through a little quicker with 1 week primary/2 secondary/3 in bottle; and then I will have all 4 ready for a tasting in early December.

Took a couple pics, will post when I get them uploaded.

Alright! I've been following along in silent anticipation. I'm glad you made it all the way through. You have a strong will with your brewing schedule! The vertical tasting should be excellent. Should be a great night of tasting some beers with a lot of depth and reminiscing over the year that passed. I'm inclined to do something similar, mayby throughout the year brew a spectrum of styles a la that sam adams billboard and have a tasting of 12 over a couple of nights in december or january of 2011?

Thanks, Jamo99. I really had to work hard to fit in the Enkel in time - almost didn't make it.

One thing I've experienced is that time really does matter. When I bottled the quad in the beginning of the year and tried one it tasted awful - something like cardboard soaked in kerosene. I had another on last week (6 months in the bottle), and the toffee, oak, and fruity/spicy flavors of the yeast really shine through. It's a good beer. It's amazing what time will do.

I'll be sure to post tasting notes when I do the vertical tasting.

This is an amazing project... I really might try to do something like this! Make sure to get some pics of the tasting.

Here's a couple pics:

The boil (with my new blichmann kettle)


The hydro sample (a light 5.4 SRM)

I'm inclined to do something similar, mayby throughout the year brew a spectrum of styles a la that sam adams billboard and have a tasting of 12 over a couple of nights in december or january of 2011?

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That would be cool - would also be great if you went with a common theme - like used the same hops in all the brews, or same yeast. Then try to pick it out and compare the result between the brews.

This is an amazing project... I really might try to do something like this! Make sure to get some pics of the tasting.

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Thanks! It's a lot of fun, too. I will - I'll post pics and tasting notes.

I began the vertical tasting this afternoon. Just finished my Enkel. The updated recipe is on the original post. Here's the review:

OG: 1049
FG: 1007
ABV: 5.5%
IBUs: 19.9
SRM: 5.4

Bottled on 11-17-09

Aroma: Malty/fruity up-front. Some slight bubblegum. Fruit is like pears and apples.

Appearance: Pale straw color with white head that disipates quickly. Lots of carbonation bubbles rising from the beer. Foam laces the glass on the way down. Slight chill haze.

Flavor: Crisp malt taste. Spiciness from the hops all the way through. Graininess is evident, in a good way. Slight citrusy finish - probably from the dry hop.

Mouthfeel/Palate: Dry and easy-drinking. Definite session beer, probably perfect for summer.

Overall: Very enjoyable. The dry-hop was on a whim, but I think the Crystal hops add a interesting note for the beer. I would make this again. If I had to change one thing, I might dial back the Aromatic to a 1/4 pound.



Next up - the Dubbel...

OG: 1067
FG: 1006
ABV: 8.0%
IBU: 22.3
SRM: 15.6

Bottled 9-13-09

Aroma: Just like candy. Strong caramel smell. Raisins and dry, dark fruit is evident.

Appearance: Burnt Gold to Light Brown. Off-white head, 1 1/2 fingers, lingers and is slow to disipate. Foam mats the side of the glass as it goes down.

Flavor: Caramel dominates. Malty backbone, which I can tell is 2-row, not pilsener, interestingly enough. Slight spiciness, but it is almost lost in the caramel. Tart finish that comes from the different yeast.

Mouthfeel/Palate: Dry finish makes it easy enough to drink. However, it is not balanced well enough, and the high alcohol makes this a 1, maybe 2 bottle tops type of beer.

Overall: This will probably be the weakest of the 4 beers in the tasting. The recipe is not right, and it is too unbalanced. I also don't like the specialty yeast - WLP500 would have been much better.



After dinner comes the Trippel...

This is inspiring! I may try this in 2010. (Although I've tried to give up bottling. Might just have to beer gun a sixer of each and stash them)

leghorn said:

I began the vertical tasting this afternoon. Just finished my Enkel. The updated recipe is on the original post. Here's the review:

OG: 1049
FG: 1007
ABV: 4.4%

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=5.5ABV. A typo I assume, just a heads up.

Whoops, yep just edited the post. Thanks.

Tripel

OG: 1071
FG: 1009
ABV: 8.1%
IBU: 25.3
SRM: 5.3

Bottled 7-5-09

Aroma: Restrained fruitiness with subtle spice.

Appearance: Crystal clear, straw colored beer. Thin white head that lingers and laces down the glass.

Flavor: Crisp, slightly sweet at the start, fruit and spice nicely intertwined from the yeast and hops. Everything is balanced. The beauty of this beer is that every favorable element is clearly present, but nothing is over the top. It all binds together well in the flavor.

Palate/Mouthfeel: Dry, with slight alcohol bite at the end.

Overall: My favorite of the four. I am very pleased with this beer. I wouldn't change a thing.

Pic:

Quadrupel

OG: 1083
FG: 1010
ABV: 9.6%
IBU: 24.8
SRM: 12.7

Bottled 4-14-09

Aroma: Strong woodsy/oak aroma with slight spice. Some toffee/malt notes as well.

Appearance: Red with a toffee colored head. Faint head that lingers in the glass. No lacing.

Flavor: Toffee and oak up-front and dominant. Thin vein of spice throughout. Slight vanilla note at the end.

Palate/Mouthfeel: Very dry, slight alcoholic bite

Overall: An unusual beer. The toffee flavor comes from a technique in Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing book. The oak was an idea I had when I made this beer. Both overwhelm the remaining elements. It works overall as a beer, but not among my personal favorites.

Pic:

On my Tripel brew, I added an extract of spices to a 6 pack of bottled beer to make a Christmas Tripel. The spices were saffron, orange peel, oak chips, and coriander soaked in Chardonnay for about 2 weeks. I added that Chardonnay extract to the beer just before it went into bottles. Here's my review of that beer.

OG: 1071
FG: 1009 (maybe a bit more with the Chardonnay)
ABV: ~8.1%
IBU: 25.3
SRM: ~5.3 (maybe a bit more with the extract)

Bottled on 7-5-09

Aroma: Spicey and a bit winey, orange hints, light fruitiness. Subtle hints of vanilla and hay, probably from the saffron.

Appearance: Amber/burnt orange. Thin head that disapated quickly.

Flavor: Light fruitness and orange hints up front. Crisp malt backbone. Carb bite and slight alcohol at the end. The spice dances on the tongue and lingers afterwards. The sweetness of the Chardonnay also remained on the lips for minutes after it was sipped. Wine flavors become more evident as the beer warms.

Palate/Mouthfeel: Very light body, but lingering spice and sweetness.

Overall: Very nice. The base beer was already good, and the various spices add several dimensions without throwing it out of wack. I really enjoyed this beer.

I've been inspired by Brew Like a Monk, and your post just adds to that. I've made a Belgian Strong (that I'm drinking right now) and would really like to make the styles you've made. Very interesting idea!

I forgot to post in this thread; but, I have my quad(saq's New World Westy12) almost ready to bottle... So, as your fermentational journey is ending, mine is just beginning.

Thanks for the inspiration... and the pics!

I looked that recipe up... looks good!