Belgian beers essential ingrediants

I havent brewed any belgian style beers other than a wit. I was just gifted some Chimay and was planning on harveting the yeast and trying a batch. I was putting together a recipe and want to get a consensus on what makes a beglian stand out. Obviously the yeast is key, but im talking about malts and hops.

What, beside the yeast, is an essential ingrediant in a Belgian abbey or stong ale?

On malts, most of the recipes i've seen use pilsner malt. Some recipes use 2 row and vienna or munich as well. The specialty malts ive seen include aromatic, biscuit, special b and some caramel/crystals. There seems to be a heavy emphasis on aromatic.

The hops ive seen are across the board. Some use american hops, some british and some stick to only nobles. It seems like nobles make the most sense, probably a Hallertaur or Saaz mix, but Ive seen two many variations to dimiss the options.

Spices are something that pops up in alot of Belgian recipes. I've seen orange peel in abbey ale recipes and strong ale recipes.

Finally candi sugar seems to be in every belgian recipe ive seen in one form or another and something that I assume needs to be in a Belgian recipe.

Any input on the above would be appreciated.

My first stab at a dubbel turned out pretty good (even though it was ultimately more similar to a trippel in point of fact). I am trying to shoot closer to Chimay Red for my next one though. I do partial-mashes and partial-boils for convenience sake, mostly.

Here is my specialty grain bill (will mash with 2 lbs of Rahr 2-Row):
8oz Belgian Aromatic
8oz Belgian Caramunich
8oz Special B
3oz English Chocolate
.66 lb. Carahell (I wanted another crystal malt, and this was leftover)

I will be using some wheat DME this time (Chimay lists wheat as an ingredient on their bottle, though most recipes I've seen don't incorporate it)
I will plan to add a pound of wheat DME for the full boil, then add a second pound of wheat DME with 3 lbs of pilsen DME for the last 15 min.

As you mention, I think the Candi Syrup is also an essential piece of the puzzle. I had used clear syrup in my first try because I was worried about it being too dark, but then it ended up too light. I got D-45 this time, and I am thinking I will add a little bit (1/2 cup only) of table sugar for good measure.

I don't think the hops are AS important (particularly, as important your yeast choice), but I think you want noble ones for the spicy/earthy profile as opposed to the floral ones. I will be using .5 oz of Galena for bittering and .5 oz each of Styrian Goldings at 15 min and flame-out.

I am going to wait until I bottle whats in my primary (a third try at a Hefeweizen, which I have been conspicuously less-successful at) to brew this one though. This is mainly to allow me enough time to drink some of my previous brews and free up more Grolsch swingtops. But definitely post your results, because I am really interested trying to more effectively replicate this particular style.

I've always used candi sugar on Tripels or Belgian Strong Ales. Pilsner malt as the base. I like hallertauer mittelfruh, Saaz for hops. Styrian Goldings will work too. I've used Munich, Biscuit, and Caramel for specialty. Favorite of the three is Munich. I'm looking to put the yeast front and center. I've never used corriander or orange peel in either

If what you are after is a dark strong, I can't really say. I know there would be more specialty malt variety(Special B, aromatic, etc). and you would swap out the candi sugar for dark. I don't think the hops changes much from golden to a dark. Orange peel and other spices seem to be more prevelant in dark strong. Dark strong is a style on my list, but never made one yet. Maybe this fall.

Bottling my golden strong tonight. Whole recipe was based on Belgian Pils and Candied Sugar with very small amounts of cara-pils and aromatic. It tastes pretty damn good so far. Belgians rely a lot on the yeast characteristics.

Belgians aren't so big on brewing "rules". Pretty much anything goes as long as it makes tasty beer.

Generally though, the malt bills and hop schedules are pretty simple. Spices are generally restrained and compliment the yeast. Sugar is quite common in all forms.

The one thing that seems to be pretty constant is the general fermentation concept. They tend to pitch in the mid 60's and let rise from there. Temps into the high 70's and 80's are common and will really drive the attenuation numbers. In comparison to big beers from other traditions, belgian styles shoot for very low FG.

Thanks for all the responses.

I put together a recipe that Im going to try after I built up a good colony of Chimay yeast...

8 lbs pilsen
2 lbs vienna
2 lbs munich
4 oz aromatic
4 oz special b
1lb light candi sugar

1 oz sterling 60 mins
1 oz saaz 10 mins
.5 Tettnang 1 min

OG in the area of 1070-80 depending on how around 13 lbs hits my efficiency numbers. Ibus in the low 20s.

This is in the area of a strong ale. Little darker than I would like so Ill probably tinker some.

Im going to put together an abbey type recipe, split my starter and brew that the weekend after.

Recipe looks great, actually. My only comment would be that it looks almost exactly like what I did for my first batch, which came out LIGHTER than what I was expecting, not darker. If you're going for a 'Red,' I would go with some darker syrup at the very least.

Well i changed it up some. I need to start planning ahead and get my online orders set in advance, seems like im always subbing things at the last minute. That being said, I did want a more golden/lighter color and was going to make some changes anyway.

I went with 10 lbs pils and reduced the vienna & munich to 1 lb each. The only specialty grains I used were aromatic and a little carapils. I went sterling at 60/10 and Hallertau at 2. I did a 2 lb batch of light/golden candi sugar and used all of it in this brew.

Had oversparge issues related to my step infusions and ended up with almost 6 gals even after a 90 min boil. My OG was still a surprising 1082, im getting crazy good efficiency numbers lately.

The chimay yeast has been chugging away since sunday. Im going to let this sit until late summer and bottle around 8/10 or so. Thanks for the input.

joyceman said:

That being said, I did want a more golden/lighter color and was going to make some changes anyway.

I went with 10 lbs pils and reduced the vienna & munich to 1 lb each. The only specialty grains I used were aromatic and a little carapils. I went sterling at 60/10 and Hallertau at 2. I did a 2 lb batch of light/golden candi sugar and used all of it in this brew.

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Sounds like a solid recipe, and if you're after something on the lighter side, I'd say your changes were spot on. Chimay white is a great beer, and you'll probably end up with something not unlike it.

Looks like a Big Belgian Beer. Keep us posted on how things turn out.

Im really impressed with the Chimay yeast, it dropped crystal clear with just 5 weeks in the fermenter. Going to secondary (need the primary) this for another month of aging and bottle late July. Ill take a hydro reading then and check my attenuation.

If anyone is following, I bottled last weekend. FG was right at 1016 which gave me around 80% attenuation. I really like the Chimay yeast specs, hope I end up liking the taste. Tasted the bottling bucket dregs and they were OK, nothing special. I know, green and uncarbed.


Im going to let these sit until September before I try one.

yes - I'm still interested, for one.

I have my second try at a Chimay Red-esque dubbel bottle-conditioning now as well.

Maybe a question for another forum, but is it easy to culture from a bottle of Chimay? Without getting too in-depth, how did you do it?

drlars said:

yes - I'm still interested, for one.

I have my second try at a Chimay Red-esque dubbel bottle-conditioning now as well.

Maybe a question for another forum, but is it easy to culture from a bottle of Chimay? Without getting too in-depth, how did you do it?

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Make a small starter using DME and water. Boil for about ten minutes and let cool then aerate by shaking. Pitch the dregs from the bottom of a bottle. Swirl as often as you can for about 2 days. Then make a bigger starter and repeat the process. You may need to step up to another starter a couple more times.

So, basically... just keep exponentially increasing your culture by making repeated yeast starters. Presumably, with the DME used, its not for economic reasons, but instead because you want a more authentic strain (that is, the supposed strains from the big companies [WLP500 and Wyeast 1214 for Chimay] aren't really the same?)

That was my method. Got a bottle of Chimay Red and did a (i think) 10oz 1025starter with the dregs. Let it sit a day and added 16 oz or so. Repeat with another 16 oz. Let it sit for a day or two crashed and decanted the yeast into a 1.5 L starter.

I use second runnings for starter wort not DME so cant comment on that.

The reason I harvested the yeast was it was free, Id never tried harveting before and seemed like a fun experiment. Im preety happy with the results so far. It dropped pretty clear, but did kick up pretty easily - almost like a bread yeast. The attenuation was great. Just hope the taste comes in good also.

I made a Dubbel with it just a couple of weeks ago. 10lbs Pilsner, 1lb amber candi, 1/4 lb biscuit with sterling and saaz. Looking forward to that one in October or so.

You can certainly use AG wort rather than DME for your starters. DME is just convenient if you don't have fresh wort to use.

I popped a couple last week. I was planning on waiting for September, but...

Real nice brew. Very smooth and slightly spicy with a nice subtle fruit background. I was worried that I kept ferm temps too low for the real Belgian flavor to come through, but I like this taste alot. The high abv sneaks ups on you.

My only real complaint is a grainy and yeasty character. Not overwhelming, but there. I wonder if a little more time will settle that out. This Chimay yeast drops quickly but, like Ive said before, seems to kick up very easily. Seems you need to be real careful when pouring if clarity is an issue for you. Probably not a big deal with a darker recipe, but this is a very light gold.

All in all a real good beer and a definite rebrew. I've got about 20 of these in German swingtops and Im going to try to age those out to the holidays. The other case worth will be toast by halloween.

Heres a link to the recipe on brewtoad if anyone wants it. The efficiency numbers are all bs meant to account for oversparge and volume issues. Everytime I step I screw up my volume numbers.

http://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/st-vith-golden-ale