Belgian Golden Strong Ale...how much hops

I just received all the ingredients I ordered to brew a Belgian Golden Strong Ale yesterday:

8 lbs. DME pilsner
2 lbs. Belgian Candi Sugar light
1 lb. Belgian pilsner
.5 lbs. Carapils

1 oz. Styrian Goldings
2 oz. Saaz

I was going to do this hop schedule:
60 mins. 1 oz. Styrian Goldings
60 mins. .5 oz. Saaz
15 mins. 1 oz. Saaz
1 min. .5 oz. Saaz

The problem is the Styrian Golding hops I got are only 3.5% and I was expecting them to be more like 5.5 or so. So I was shooting for an IBU of around 30-35 since the FG should be a little over 1.090. This falls way short now even with a full boil.

I have some Willamette hops at 4.6% and am thinking about adding 1 oz. for 60 mins. This should get me into the 30-35 IBU range.

Does this sound reasonable? Do you think Willamette is a reasonable substitution when doing a Belgian Golden Strong?

When I made my tripel a couple of months ago, I couldn't get Stryian Goldings. I had to substitute with Willamette. I believe if you check the BYO webpage, Willamette is the last suggested substitution for Styrian Goldings...

It tasted good at bottling time. I have yet to taste the final product...

Styrian goldings are Slovenian-born and bred Fuggles. Williamette are an American version of Fuggles. So, yes, an adequate substitution. Also helps that they're available!

Excellent, I knew they were listed as a substitute, I just didn't know how good of one. I figured that since the sub is for bittering it won't make that much of a pronounced difference.

Thanks!

I just bought a whole bunch (that's a metric unit ) of fuggles and williamette (as much as the LHBS would let me have) to make some Belgians and also some British old ales. I'm looking forward to the brews!

i actually made a darn good tripel (if i do say so myself) using chinook as the bittering hop.

both tripels and golden strong ales are not supposed to be very bitter, so using just about any bittering hop will work. even the chinook turned out smooth in low quantities.

as rare as styrian goldings are right now, i'd hang on to those babies for aroma/flavor and use a high alpha for your bittering. but that's just me.

I did a ton of late hopping on by BGSA, as suggested by Adam Avery, in talking about Salvation, their version of a BGSA. I also aged with oak, and blended in a little chardonnay when I bottled it.


in fact, here is the hop schedule and recipe


14# Great Western 2-row
0.25# CaraMunich
0.25# Caravienne
1.5# Belgian Candi Sugar – clear (add w/ 10 min left in boil)

Est. OG 1.083, 5.5 gallons

Single Infusion, 1.5qt/lb, 151*F

Add 5.5 gallons of H20 at 161*F, settled at ~152-151*F, mash 60 min

Sparge w/ 3 gallons at 175*F, pre-boil volume ~6.5 gallons

60 min boil

1.25 oz Styrian Goldings (~5%?) 60min
1.25 oz Styrian Goldings 10 min
1.75 oz Styrian Goldings 5min


OG 1.080
Pitched very large Wyeast 3787 Trappist high gravity yeast starter



I have about 4oz of Styrian Goldings pellets in my freezer from when my LHBS was going out of business, I should make something like this again soon!