NB Belgian Strong Golden Ale

Brewed in September, has been in the primary until last night.
Starting gravity 1.081, finished at 1.006 @60f (took the measurement last night before bottling)
Of course, I tasted it and its "hot" (alcohol) hard to taste much beyond that.
Color in the carboy is dark, but in the test tube, has a nice clean slightly darker than "golden" color to it.
Yeast and 99% of the particulate had settled
I really didnt detect anything unusual that would lead me to believe anything went awry.
Smell was strong (alcohol) -- couldn't detect much beyond that.

I'm wondering what the minimum length of time I should wait before trying one that has conditioned in the bottle, I'm thinking around end of April?

Any advise is appreciated especially from anyone who as brewed this specific style, or even just "Belgian" styles.

Extract or AG?

Extract, (with specialty ingredients)

I'm dumbfounded that you were able to ferment that dry using extract... Stunned. Depending on a lot of things such as fermentation temps it might take 8 months to be good. The alcohol needs a lot of time to mellow. Have you brewed this style before?

I'm dumbfounded that you were able to ferment that dry using extract... Stunned.

Click to expand...

That is not unusual. I have partial mash brews finish that low all the time. Saisons and Belgians, depending on the yeast and the amount of sugar, can easily finish that low.


To the OP. What temp did you ferment at.? The alcohol you are tasting may be fusels and if that is the case it may never fully go away. It may mellow some with time. In fact most Belgian brews really improve with age. I had one that the ferment temp got away from me and it fermented pretty hot. It had that alcohol taste. It did mellow after about 4 months in the bottle. The taste is still there but not as prominent, and is turning into a pretty good brew.

kinda late but,
fermentation was probably low-mid 70's, kids shut the closet door un-noticed, closet co-hab's the hot water tank.
I'm sure that was the problem.
Me and a buddy managed to choke them down, two in an hour results in drunkenness.
Interestingly these never really carbonated as I would have liked.. I drank the last one a couple weeks ago, and it was barely fizzy, no head, tasted mildly better, but still terrible.
Live and learn I guess.
I'll try a Belgian again when I have a better way to control fermentation, as I recall brew-day was hectic too, so who knows.
I'll be doing a pale ale, and some kind of wine.. maybe watermelon since those are still in season here soon.