Critique my Belgian strong recipe

Need thoughts since I'm planning on a Belgian strong ale that would be ready to induce comas by Thanksgiving. I've loved the few commercial ones that I've had, but wondering if there's anything I should consider ingredient-wise to make it more...erm...Belgian? Went with the limited WL545 since it's a limited WL release (*grin*), and it produces (according to Northern Brewer) "moderate esters" and "spicy phenolic character" appropriate for Belgian strong ales.

Estimates:
OG: 1.080
FG: 1.014 @ 82% attenuation
8.9% ABV
29.2 IBU's
19.6 SRM

60 min. boil

9 lb. Amber LME
1 lb. Light DME
1 lb. Amber Candi sugar (thinking late addition for this)

2 oz. Fuggle (4.5%)-60 min.
1 oz. Styrian Goldings (4.5%)-10 min.

WL545-Belgian Strong Ale (Platinum)

I guess the question is, what sort of recipe are you aiming for? What kind of flavors do you want?

For a Belgian strong dark I'd go with light/pils extract (maybe with a bit of wheat extract mixed in) and get my color from a bit of Special B and CaraMunich (less than a pound total), and some dark candi syrup (which also adds some dark fruit character, and plenty of color).

Hope that helps, good luck.

Dark candi sugar is really key to a strong dark (if that is what you're going for). I like basically pilsner malt and dark candi.... thats it. If you're shooting for a triple or golden strong type beer, the key is pilsner malt and lots of table sugar to drive the fermentation and dry out the beer.

You said a 'Belgian strong', but that is pretty broad. I'd consider a Golden Strong (like Duvel) and a Strong Dark (like Chimay Blue) to both be strong Belgian beers, but completely different beers with completely different flavors and ingredients.

In general, most Belgian yeasts will be fermented warmer than standard ale yeasts to drive phenol and esther production as well as dry out the beer.

I'm not sure it'll be ready by Thanksgiving.

I have a Belgian Golden Strong that I brewed a month ago that's just about finished with primary fermentaion and conditioning. It "fermented out" in a week, but took this long to clean up and start tasting nice. It's a Duvel-esque "clone" and I plan on bottling in two weeks and then sitting on it for three to six months before really getting into it. I understand they really need their rest.

Of ocurse, this is my first and I could be mistaken. But with less than two months, I don't know that's the style I'd start now.

Talked it over w/ the LHBS guy (who's a bloody genius when it comes to brewing), and he suggested I use WLP500 (Trappist) and WLP530 (Abbey) in place of the WLP545, since he said it was basically a mix of those two. He also suggested using a starter and a warming blanket to speed things up a bit, but here's the final version:

9 lb. Pilsen LME
1 lb. Wheat DME
1 lb. dark Candi syrup
1/2 lb. CaraMunich
1/2 lb. Special B

2 oz. Fuggle-60 min.
1 oz. Styrian Goldings-10 min.

Whirlfloc tablet

OG: 1.082
FG: 1.015 @ 80.8% attenuation
ABV: 9% (woof!)
IBU: 28.7
18.0 SRM

that looks solid.

I am also brewing a belgian strong dark (aka, Quad). Can't wait. Be sure to let us know how it goes.

You might want to increase your boil to 90 min if you are going to use pils. Make the first hop addition at 75 min

mdstrobe said:

You might want to increase your boil to 90 min if you are going to use pils. Make the first hop addition at 75 min

Click to expand...

Not a big deal with extract since it boiled during production.