Strong Dark Belgian Help

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akimbo78

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i took a trip to Brooklyn Brewery and fell in love with their Local 2. sent them an email with my guess at their recipe. didn't hear from them for a while. yesterday one of their asst brewmasters got back to me. i plugged his changes into beersmith, and beersmith tells me that its way too dark for the style. also they use "100% bottle refermentation", which I'm not going to attempt. that's where their extra 1% abv comes from. here's the recipe if anyone wants to try it. i am doing my first all grain this weekend, and am a little leery of doing a strong Belgian for my first.

9lbs 2 row German Pils
2 oz Choc Malt
.25 oz perle hops @ 60 min
.25 oz Perle hops @ 45 min
.25 oz Perle hops a@ 30 min
.5 oz Aurora hops @ 5 min
1 oz East Kent Goldings @ 5 min
1 lb Wildflower Honey
2 lbs Dark Candi Sugar

White labs strong ale yeast.
 
"100% bottle refermentation" is just a fancy way of saying they use priming sugar and bottle condition. Unless you're kegging, its the same way you carbonate your homebrew in the bottle now.

Make sure you use a big enough pitch of yeast, that's going to be critical to make this come out right. Make a big starter or pitch several vials.
 
"100% bottle refermentation" is just a fancy way of saying they use priming sugar and bottle condition. Unless you're kegging, its the same way you carbonate your homebrew in the bottle now.

Make sure you use a big enough pitch of yeast, that's going to be critical to make this come out right. Make a big starter or pitch several vials.

the way i understood it they use fresh yeast and add more fermentable sugars in champagne bottles which are thick enough to handle a small amount of fermentation without shattering, which a beer bottle would not. they store them in rooms that are heated.
 
I think there are a couple factors to watch out for on this one:
1) Make sure you get a really goo pitch rate for your yeast. A good starter should do that for you.
2) Pay close attention to your fermentation temps. My experience with the white labs strong ale yeast is that it can be a bit touchy when it comes to temps. The range for this yest isn't as large as some (only about 6 degrees from the recommeded low to the recommended high).
3) Pick a good mash temp that will hopefully stop this from drying out too much. something in the low 150's should suffice.

Good luck with your first AG! Let us know how it turns out!
 
just did some more reading. with the longer fermenting time (figuring at least one month to six weeks) re-yeasting is almost necessary. Brooklyn uses a champagne yeast. then there's the bottles, corks, cages, etc...
 
just did some more reading. with the longer fermenting time (figuring at least one month to six weeks) re-yeasting is almost necessary. Brooklyn uses a champagne yeast. then there's the bottles, corks, cages, etc...

I have done several Belgians and always use a long ferment time. Usually 6 weeks and have never had to add yeast to bottle. They have all carbed up just fine.
 
My last big belgian was a 2 week primary with a 4 week secondary. It didn't really come into it's own flavor wise until about 3 months in bottle though.
 
beergolf said:
I have done several Belgians and always use a long ferment time. Usually 6 weeks and have never had to add yeast to bottle. They have all carbed up just fine.

So you are bottling at 6 weeks? Secondary? Going to be making one soon. Trying to figure this out. At this time I can't lager for 10 weeks like some do.
 
If you want to brew it to style, heres my 2 cents.. dump the chocolate.. dump the honey.. use about .5lbs Special B. Drop the candi sugar down to 1-1.5 lbs. All of that plus the honey is going to make it taste like vodka.

Also, I don't think there is any point in doing all the different hop times.. When I've done BDSs I have just added Saaz at 60 minutes.

But if you don't want to brew to style, do whatever.. but either way I would still definitely drop the honey and lower the sugar.
 
If you want to brew it to style, heres my 2 cents.. dump the chocolate.. dump the honey.. use about .5lbs Special B. Drop the candi sugar down to 1-1.5 lbs. All of that plus the honey is going to make it taste like vodka.

Also, I don't think there is any point in doing all the different hop times.. When I've done BDSs I have just added Saaz at 60 minutes.

But if you don't want to brew to style, do whatever.. but either way I would still definitely drop the honey and lower the sugar.

i had hops at 60 and 15. the asst brewer suggested i spread it out to prevent the yeast from dominating the flavor. i had 1 lb of candi sugar, but the brewer said thats where they get the color from. i guess the local 2 does not fit completely to the style, but it is delicious.
 
If you want to brew it to style, heres my 2 cents.. dump the chocolate.. dump the honey.. use about .5lbs Special B. Drop the candi sugar down to 1-1.5 lbs. All of that plus the honey is going to make it taste like vodka.

Make it taste like vodka if you have a ****ty fermentation.

Pitch healthy, pitch a lot, and watch your temps.

Many Belgian beers use simple sugars to dry them out - heck, I've seen Golden Strong recipes with 20% of the fermentables being sugar and they're delicious - just had a Duvel last night.
 
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