Belgian strong water profile help

Below is a recipe for my next beer. For you brew water fanatics, what profile would you recommend?



15.5 lb Belgian Pilsner malt

8 oz Cara-munich malt

4 oz Aromatic malt

4 oz Biscuit malt

2 oz Chocolate malt

2 oz Gambrinus honey malt

8 oz amber candi sugar

4 oz clear candi sugar



1 oz Challenger @ 5.8%AA pellet (60 min)

.5 oz Styrian Goldings @ 5%AA plug (60 min)

.5 oz Styrian Goldings @ 5%AA plug (15 min)

.5 oz Styrian Goldings @ 5%AA plug (5 min)



1 tsp Irish moss (15 min)

1/8 tsp cinnamon (at bottling)



Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale yeast (primary)

White Labs WLP530 Belgian Abbey Ale yeast (bottle conditioning)

Belgian water ranges from soft to pretty hard. I would get the Ca where it needs to be, and keep the sulfates low.

If you have both yeasts now, I'd pitch both in primary. Belgian yeasts make some nice flavors together.

Thanks Nateo.

I really like that idea with the yeast. It should create some crazy nice flavors that will go nicely with my malt profile. Where do you think the Ca needs to be? I was thinking about 75mg/L just to stick right in the middle of the range.

75 would be fine. You could get away with as little as 50, but I wouldn't go under that. My Belgian beers have turned out much better with just a little CaCl than trying to replicate any specific Belgian water.