Belgian Golden Strong Ale Pink Elephant (Delirium Tremens clone)

Brewer's Friend 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Brewed this back in February. Just had my final bottle..... Oh geez, why didn't I save them all for 10 months of aging. This is freaking amazing!

I'm going to have to brew this again, bottle them and simply "forget" about them. So so good.
 
Getting ready to try this. Maybe tonight. For those that get yeast samples from actual bottles of DT, or any other beer for that matter, what's the process? Just save the last inch or so of beer and make a starter from that?
 
enricocoron said:
Use WLP570 (the Duvel strain) if you pitch enough healthy yeast I cannot imagine you will not gain a Belgian flavor profile. Use a pitching calculator.




Hughye bottle conditions with a different strain of yeast than the primary strain. Nearly all Belgian breweries do this. There is always going to be some of the primary strain left in the bottle though.





Are you adding the Aromatic, Biscuit, and Munich? This should be enough and it's really on the darker side of a 'blonde' already so I wouldn't add any more. Boiling longer and more vigorously could aid color development. Or you could take your sugar and make a darker syrup by heating it up and using an acid.
Click to expand...

This was the one that I did and seemed to be more spot on in terms of color and flavor. http://hopville.com/recipe/488832
I used Lyle's golden syrup for the invert sugar
 
I brewed this a couple weeks ago. It is currently cold conditioning in the fridge.

My question is: if I only keep it in the fridge for 1.5 weeks instead of 2 will it make a difference?

I am having a party on Sunday and need the room in the fridge, I would like to get the beer out on Wednesday so I can start stocking up.
 
It'll probably be fine. Mine cleared up quite a bit after a week. I'm sure it'll be okay, maybe a bit yeasty but that'll clear after bottle conditioning for a few weeks.
 
I just had a DT a couple of weeks ago, and as I study more about beer characteristics, I couldn't believe the overwhelming bubblegum flavor once the beer came to proper temperature. I have always loved DT, but this realization just kind of ruined it for me. Funny, getting more educated changed my appreciation for the worse!
 
Has anyone used Wyeast Belgian Ardennes yeast with this beer? It was the only Belgian yeast my LHBS had in stock. Having read the descriptions it seems to suit what I'm after, but I may be missing something. Thoughts?
 
And another quick thing - if you have brewed this, did you use a blow off tube or was the airlock enough?

The only other Belgian I've made used the 3787 Trappist yeast and that pretty much painted the inside of my fermentation chamber with an airlock.
 
jkarp said:
Ingredients
-----------
Beet Sugar 1.00 lb, Sugar, Other
Pilsener (Belgian) 6.50 lb, Grain, Mashed

Styrian Golding 0.75 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Saaz 0.50 oz, Pellet, 15 minutes

Coriander Seed 7.20 grams, Spice, 10 min
Ginger 2.40 grams, Spice, 10 min
Paradise 2.40 grams, Spice, 10 min

Notes
-----
Recipe is from a Belgian who supposedly knew the brewmaster at Huyghe.

10 min @ 125F mash-in, 45 min @ 144F, 30 min @ 158F, 172F mashout. I'm frankly skeptical of the effectiveness of this mash schedule, but hey, it's how Huyghe does it, I'm told. 90 minute boil. 7 day ferment (pitch both yeasts), starting at 67F and allowed to rise as yeast desired. 14 day lager at 30F, followed by a 21 day warm bottle condition at 76F.
Click to expand...

Is it paradise seed? And ground ginger
 
I found in my stock of bottle a delirium brewed from this recipe. It was 14 months old. OMG it was great, better than it was when it was 6 months old.
It was a complete surprise because most of my blonde beers didn't pass the taste test after a year. This one was even better than the original. I had a couple more bottles and after tasting the first one I rushed to the liquor store to get the original to compare.

I used to complain about this recipe that i didn't reach the same level of spiciness than the original but the bottle I opened tonight was way better than the real thing.

So the true lesson here is be patient. I don't know when it went awesome because I didn't drink any for 6 to 7 months or so and it was close to the real thing but was lacking in spiciness. I'm still in shock at how good this beer was after all this time.
 
Akavango said:
I found in my stock of bottle a delirium brewed from this recipe. It was 14 months old. OMG it was great, better than it was when it was 6 months old.
It was a complete surprise because most of my blonde beers didn't pass the taste test after a year. This one was even better than the original. I had a couple more bottles and after tasting the first one I rushed to the liquor store to get the original to compare.

I used to complain about this recipe that i didn't reach the same level of spiciness than the original but the bottle I opened tonight was way better than the real thing.

So the true lesson here is be patient. I don't know when it went awesome because I didn't drink any for 6 to 7 months or so and it was close to the real thing but was lacking in spiciness. I'm still in shock at how good this beer was after all this time.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear this. I was planning on kegging this, but I guess I might bottle instead so I can hold onto some of it. Where do you store your beers? Do you have a gigantic cold room, or was it stored at room temps?
 
jkarp said:
Ingredients
-----------
Beet Sugar 1.00 lb, Sugar, Other
Pilsener (Belgian) 6.50 lb, Grain, Mashed

Styrian Golding 0.75 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Saaz 0.50 oz, Pellet, 15 minutes

Coriander Seed 7.20 grams, Spice, 10 min
Ginger 2.40 grams, Spice, 10 min
Paradise 2.40 grams, Spice, 10 min


Notes
-----
Recipe is from a Belgian who supposedly knew the brewmaster at Huyghe.

10 min @ 125F mash-in, 45 min @ 144F, 30 min @ 158F, 172F mashout. I'm frankly skeptical of the effectiveness of this mash schedule, but hey, it's how Huyghe does it, I'm told. 90 minute boil. 7 day ferment (pitch both yeasts), starting at 67F and allowed to rise as yeast desired. 14 day lager at 30F, followed by a 21 day warm bottle condition at 76F.
Click to expand...

Any chance you could clarify what were the water volumes?
 
I brewed this over the weekend with adjustments to get 6 gallons post boil (BIAB) and ended up with 5.75 gallons transferred into the no-chill cube.

I was withholding the table sugar for the fermenter and still managed to hit 1.075 OG post boil (sugarless). The scaled recipe calls for 2.3lbs of table sugar which at 5.75 gallons will contribute something like .018 gravity points which gets me a calculated OG of 1.093!!!!!

Did I goof? May need to water it down as much as possible when I add the boiled sugar (maybe toss in a handful of hops to the boil). Thoughts? Should I cut down the amount of table sugar?

My BIAB efficiency has been ridiculously high.
 
Great thread. I brewed a 5 gallon batch. Used only the WL570 yeast and did not have the ginger root, but tried to follow the original recipe otherwise. My new mash tun was not pre-heated enough, temp drift mid to low 140's. OG way low (1.06). FG 1.003. Result: drier than delirium but very tasty. I will do this again (and maybe again).
 
Question? Probably a stupid question. I have never brewed a beer that called for sugar in the grain bill. Is the sugar added to the boil and is the a special process or is it cut measure and pour?
 
Okay awesome. I am a DT fan and am thinking of brewing this next weekend. Where is a good place to get beet sugar or should I just use some other type of sugar?
 
I had my first DT and I was very happy and sad. Happy to have finally tasted such an awesome beer and sad it took me so long to find it.
While I've been busy brewing all the other Belgian clones out of the book Beer Captured I am going to do there DT clone which is close to this recipe only adding the specialty malts and only using grains of paradise.
Question is about mashing at 149 for 90 mins as opposed to 153 for 60 mins. What difference shall I expect?
Also while googling DT I noticed that this is also a medical term. Funny its all about the shakes from alcoholism. Maybe not funny but spooky.
Just reading DT in wiki and they say that the beer is made with 3 yeasts
 
Question is about mashing at 149 for 90 mins as opposed to 153 for 60 mins.

You should get a lower finish at 149, how much I can't say. The longer mash time makes it more likely to get conversion, may not be absolutely needed.
 
When I go to bottle this do I let it warm up first or bottle cold. The difference in the amount of priming sugar seems pretty substantial: 5.7oz @ 68f vs. 3.7oz @ 32f.
Just trying to avoid the dreaded bottle bombs.
Thanks
 
I trust the charts when it comes to priming but I usually use Belgian bottles for added safety. Also, it is not a bad idea to chill and drink a bottle at regular intervals to check the carbonation level.
 
Sooooo....bottle it cold, using the larger amount of priming sugar, then warm it up for the bottle conditioning? ? Something about that seems off to me.
I don't have any Belgians to bottle in, just sam Adams bottles.
 
Chefjeremy, as your original post stated, if you bottle cold the priming sugar is the lower amount. I use the brewersfriend.com calculator, and 3.5 oz. of table sugar or 3.9 oz. of corn sugar would give you 3 volumes of carbonation at 33 degrees (the calculator does not go down to 32).

I never carb more than 2.5 volumes in standard bottles. You can usually get away with more, but I like a safety factor.
 
So I'm getting close to bottling this. I don't have any fancy Belgian bottles, so I am thinking that 2.7 vol. would be ok with standard bottles? Is that about the most that I could get away with to avoid getting bombs?
 
I don't have a definitive answer to that since bottles vary, but generally speaking you should be fine, as long as everything (beer, sugar, temperature) is measured carefully.
 
Questions on the spices:
-Crushed/ground/whole?
-Filter them out after the boil, or chuck them all into the fermenter?
 
MongooseMan said:
Questions on the spices:
-Crushed/ground/whole?
-Filter them out after the boil, or chuck them all into the fermenter?
Click to expand...

This is a quote from the OP (post #28) "I used fresh grated ginger and coarsely ground whole coriander"

I really don't know if filtering out the spices makes that big of a difference. I usually don't bother. I do ease up on the spices a little from this recipe, but that is personal preference. Delirium Tremens is very spicy.
 
djbradle said:
Has anyone tried WLP545? That is the Huyghe yeast as far as I know....
Click to expand...

I've used WLP545 in my last two batches and I think this is the Huyghe's strain. I made my spice additions as extracts to add at bottling time so I could have spiced and unspiced versions. The spiced bottles are almost indistinguishable from Delirium Tremens. I think the difference is due to the freshness of my beer. The character of this yeast is fantastic on its own and I've gotten to where I prefer the unspiced version.

I don't use a starter but I add the sugar to the fermenter when the activity starts to slow around day three. I ferment this yeast a bit lower than other Belgian strains I've used.
1st Week - start at 66-68F
2nd Week - raise to 72F
3rd Week - condition at 55-60F
4th Week - cold crash 30-40F
5th Week - bottle
 
El_Conejito said:
I've used WLP545 in my last two batches and I think this is the Huyghe's strain. I made my spice additions as extracts to add at bottling time so I could have spiced and unspiced versions. The spiced bottles are almost indistinguishable from Delirium Tremens. I think the difference is due to the freshness of my beer. The character of this yeast is fantastic on its own and I've gotten to where I prefer the unspiced version.

I don't use a starter but I add the sugar to the fermenter when the activity starts to slow around day three. I ferment this yeast a bit lower than other Belgian strains I've used.
1st Week - start at 66-68F
2nd Week - raise to 72F
3rd Week - condition at 55-60F
4th Week - cold crash 30-40F
5th Week - bottle
Click to expand...

I can't speak to the WLP545, I haven't used that yeast. I agree that this recipe is very good without the spices. I have brewed this without, trying to follow the recipe exactly, and using a little less spice. My last batch I used the recommended amount of grains of paradise and the spice came through a little too strong. Spice strength varies, so it is not an exact science.

It is a very good recipe to play around with.
 

Similar threads

rkhanso
My first SMaSH recipe. Opinions appreciated
Replies
7
Views
356
fluketamer
F
Gadjobrinus
3 potential new - Best, Strong Bitter, Imperial Stout
Replies
14
Views
1K
Gadjobrinus
Gadjobrinus
Gadjobrinus
Riggwelter - hops & grist?
Replies
0
Views
514
Gadjobrinus
Gadjobrinus
rtstrider
Kölsch Omega Lutra Kolsch
Replies
4
Views
4K
wepeeler
wepeeler
TheMadKing
Winter Seasonal Beer Santa's Bermuda Schwartz (mixed style winter seasonal)
Replies
2
Views
873
TheMadKing
TheMadKing
BrewSwag 300

Latest posts

Back
Top