Strong brown ale

I did my first recipe using sorghum. Way easier than doing all grain, but I will see in the taste... Not really sure it has a name or a region to hail from. I was wanting to try a Leffe Brune clone, but they still havent got back to me with a hop schedule. So, I used the ingredients I had and came up with this.

Heated 3 gallons of water and added;

2lb Dark Brown sugar
2lb Golden Syrup
1.5oz EKG 60 minutes
1oz Hallertau Huckbrucker 30 minutes
1 teaspoon of Irish moss 15 minutes
6 crushed cloves 10 minutes
3.3lb Sorghum Flame out
1 split vanilla pod thrown into the carboy

Don't know about gravitates and what not, as I can't be bothered. But Brew Pal says it should come out about 6%. I will see what it tastes like in about two weeks.








The top image was taken straight away yesterday. The bottom one first thing this morning. Already smells quite strong.

Wow dude...4 lbs of sugar to 3.3 lbs of sorghum is going to lead to a very dry beer, you can expect attenuation of 80% or maybe even more. You're gonna have a 10% ABV beer on your hands, easily. According to Beer Calculus, your OG is probably around 1.092. I don't expect the results to be very "beery", that much sugar and that little sorghum is sure to introduce cidery/hoochy flavors. Especially without any added yeast nutrient. I'd expect it to take a long time to age before it's any good, like a couple years at least, but who really knows? All I can suggest at this point is, try to keep the fermentation temps down to prevent fusel production, and maybe add some yeast nutrient if you can get your hands on some.

10% is fine by me. Haha yeah the temperature is quite low in my house. It is so cold that even the penguins have packed up and left due to hypothermia.

In the other beers I have used golden syrup in, it has added increased the 'malty' type in the beer. So hopefully it will do the same again. If not, I have myself a very nice dry beer. Probably like a very dry non barley wine. Haha Either way, it was bubbling along nicely yesterday, and looking forward to trying it.

Leffe brune? Yikes, you might need to do more research next time


What yeast did you go with?

Nah man, I said I was going to do one, but they still haven't got back to me... And at this point, they STILL haven't gotten back to me. So I did this instead.

I used T-58. I asked for the ale yeast, and they sent me that instead.

I think beers like that can be pretty good, you just need some way to add substantial body. If you don't mind haze (and that beer looks dark enough to not really notice anyways), unmalted grains can really help. You can toast/roast/cook them, whatever. If you don't need them to ferment and don't care about appearance then you really have a lot of options. I definitely would have loaded it was a healthy dose of maltodextrin at a minimum, though.

What is Golden Syrup?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_syrup

That pretty much explains it all, dude. Found in all Commonwealth countries. And occasionally in America.

Just racked into a secondary. Couldn't help but try it. It DOES actually taste a little like Leffe that I had on tap in Bruges last year. It has a nice body, and will hopefully in the end have a nice clear colour to it. Earthy/spicy after tastes from the hops and cloves. Will report back once it has cleared, but below is a picture of it after 8 days fermenting.