Help with my first Belgian Strong Ale (AG)

Hi there all. Hope everyone is doing well. I am going to be brewing my first AG Belgian Strong and my questions are these...Thanks

1) Could you critique my recipe?
2) After listening to JZ and taking the advice regarding additional sugars (i.e. table sugar). Should I just add my 1.5# after/during boil or add it in gradually thru the primary (maybe 2-3 days in)

and of course if I shouldnt go that route, any advice would be great...Thanks

Ardennes Ale
Belgian Golden Strong Ale


Type: All Grain
Date: 12/17/2009
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Mad Sams Brewing
Boil Size: 6.84 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Igloo Cooler (5 Gal)
Taste Rating(out of 50): 0.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.50 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 64.15 %
2.00 lb Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 15.09 %
1.25 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 9.43 %
1.00 oz Styrian Goldings [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 16.9 IBU
1.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (10 min) Hops 4.5 IBU
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1.50 lb Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 11.32 %
1 Pkgs Belgian Strong Ale (Wyeast Labs #1388) Yeast-Ale



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.078 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 0.000 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.018 SG Measured Final Gravity: 0.000 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.80 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.00 %
Bitterness: 21.3 IBU Calories: 0 cal/pint
Est Color: 7.7 SRM Color: Color


Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge Total Grain Weight: 11.75 lb
Sparge Water: 4.83 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.4 PH

Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 14.69 qt of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F



Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage

Carbonation Type: Kegged (Corn Sugar) Volumes of CO2: 2.4
Pressure/Weight: 1.9 oz Carbonation Used: -
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 60.0 F Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 62.0 F

Notes


Created with BeerSmith

I like my Belgian styles to be really dry and attenuated, so I'd probably mash it lower, at more like 148. Otherwise, that sounds quite tasty to me.

I add sugar a couple of days after fermentation starts. I've added as late as 2 weeks later (got busy and forgot) and it was fine.

Do I just pour the sugar in and swirl it around or stir it with a spoon (sanitized of xourse)?

Recusit8m said:

Do I just pour the sugar in and swirl it around or stir it with a spoon (sanitized of xourse)?

Click to expand...

I boil a very small amount of water with the sugar and let it cool.

+1 for boiling w/ water

with a beer that big, there is going to be lots of dissolved CO2 in the beer. If you just dump the sugar in and stir, your going to be asking for a beer volcano and the mess that accompanies it.

I've always added the sugar to my belgians at the end of the boil, with good results.

dingusmingus said:

I've always added the sugar to my belgians at the end of the boil, with good results.

Click to expand...

I've had poor results adding the sugar in the boil. I've had much better results adding it to my primary fermenter after a week.

I boil the sugar in water (2 cups per pound) and chill it down to the fermenting temp in an ice bath. Then I pour it in the primary and let it chug away for another week before taking another reading.

I'm a noob so don't take my word as gospel but I just finished a tripel where I made the additions after fermentation started. I waited for high krausen then added 1/3 of my sugar followed the next day and the day after by another third. It worked great and when I bottled this past weekend she tasted pretty good, still in need of some aging but pretty good.

I only have a few BGSAs under my belt but the one where I added the sugar during the fermentation tasted way less 'alcoholic' than the ones where I added it to the boil.

I agree on wanting it to ferment dry. If you look at the numbers it will seem like it's way over-attenuated but all that alcohol really increases the perception of sweetness (it also increases the mouthfeel). My best BGSA so far (the one where I added sugar during the ferment) started at 1.088 and finished at 1.008.

I think I would up the IBUs in your recipe a bit, maybe mid 20s.

Howdy from across the river!

That looks like it is going to be an incredible beer. I've been wanting to brew a big belgian for a while now. I really want to do something that would turn out similar to Abt 12, I love that stuff.

good luck and happy brewing

EvilGnome6 said:

I've had poor results adding the sugar in the boil. I've had much better results adding it to my primary fermenter after a week.

I boil the sugar in water (2 cups per pound) and chill it down to the fermenting temp in an ice bath. Then I pour it in the primary and let it chug away for another week before taking another reading.

Click to expand...

Interesting. On the other side of the coin, I've never had problems adding sugar to the boil.

I say kick down the aromatic a bit, I usually do my BGS ales like this:
85% Belgian Pils
15% simple sugar (honey, cane sugar, glucose, fructose, clear candi, etc)

duvel yeast strain (don't know what it is in wy, but wl it's 570)
mashed slow and low, 147 for 90 mins or longer.
Sugar added on the 3rd day of fermentation.

The last one went from 1.090 to 1.005, carb'd it up to 3 volumes, it was awesome after a bit of aging.

I did a BDSA recently where I used dark candi syrup. I added it at the begining of the boil to add a little carmelization to the wort. Mine ended up witha SG of about 1.096 and after 3-4 weeks is now at 1.016. I hoping to get it a little lower, then secondary for a few months and age in bottles til next fall. If you're doing a golden, i would either add the sugar near the end of the boil, or during primary ferm as noted earlier here. to minimize any color addition.

Ok, sorry to have been away for so long in regards to this thread, but the primary is about done...OG was about 1060 prior to sugar addition which I did add in 2 additions during primary fermentation (.75# day 4 and .75# day 6 or 7)...Primary went on and on and on...lol...So I figure the OG per BeerSmith with the addition was about 1072 or so and I attribute that to miscalculation of boil off rate as I ended up with about 5.5G at the end of the boil...Que Sara Sara...How long do you think I should age this in secondary? 3-4mo? and should I secondary this in a keg? Wish I had a barrel...

Recusit8m said:

How long do you think I should age this in secondary? 3-4mo?

Click to expand...

A month or so is probably plenty, assuming you will be bottle conditioning. Longer won't hurt, though.