Belgian ale

My first batch in the primary in about 5 years. Thought and or advice please.

It is a belgian ale, attempting a double but I do not believe I made it that far.

ingredients:

6 lbs english light DME
1 lb belgian candy sugar
1 lb honey
5 oz munich malt
5 oz special b
3 oz belgian aromatic malt
3/4 oz northern brewers hops
1/2 oz hallutar hops after 45 min
1/4 oz northern brewers after 50 min
1/4 oz saaz hops after 50 min

Cooled and transfered to primary
Added Trappist Ale yeast WPL 500 after makin starter for 12 hours.
O.G. 1.043 (wish it was up around 1.060)

After 12 hours I have about 1 bubble every 3 sec in the airlock.

What are your thoughts, options? I am really trying to make a fairly authentic Chimay red down the road, this is my first go at it.

Thanks,
Gene

First, never ever ever trust the airlock. It tells you nothing except that the beer might be devolving carbon dioxide. You can only trust your hydrometer to determine the extent of fermentation. Oh, and if you've got lots of icky foam in the fermenter. That's a good sign.

Second, I suspect you boiled less than the full brew length of five gallons, and probably didn't get the wort mixed sufficiently with the top-off water. Muntons DME produces a consistent 1.045 per pound per gallon. Candisuiker provides a consistent 1.045 per pound per gallon. Honey nets you a consistent 1.035 per pound per gallon. Your recipe, without figuring possible additions of fermentables from the specialty grains, nets you an OG of ~1.070 for 5 gallons. There is no possibility that your gravity could have come out light, unless you forgot to add some of the ingredients, so just relax and rely on my computed OG.

Third, welcome back to the obsessi...er...hobby! Your beer will turn out well.

Cheers,

Bob

Thanks for the input and you may be right that although I agitated the carboy for aeration, I may not have sufficiently mixed the water with the wort, good point. I will let you know how it turns out.

Another note, I went to your website and you must be from around Eaton PA? My Mom is in West Chester. Do you have a business there?

Yeah, you probably didn't mix the wort enough. 'Sokay. It happens.

We live and work in Easton, PA. We're about an hour from West Chester, depending on how you drive there.

Cheers,

Bob