Dry hop Belgian Strong

Hello All,

I apologize in advance but I have had too many HB and the gravity readings have now sent me over the egde. However, I still have a question or maybe its just a personal preference but my Belgian Stronge is too sweet. Is it in its nature to be sweet? I would prefer more hops or maybe a little more bitterness. Would dry hopping solve my preference problem or am I just not a Belgian person?... I am Irish! Here is my receipe. Before we dive into details I did miss the og 1.092 I got 1.080 but I did top off 1 gallon and I forgot to adj it on beersmith, and I am not sure if it matters. The receipe some times I just throw things together so here we go

3 lbs amber dme
6 lbs amber lme (late add)
3lbs candi sugar amber (1 min boil warmed candi in hot water before addition)
.50 Crystal 20
.25 Belgian pale
.25 carapils
2 oz centennial 9% @ 60 min
1.25 oz fuggles4.5% @ 15 min

Pitched on top of ESB cake. Can anyone say Mnt. Krakatoa:rockin:
So the long and the short... Will dry hopping help?
TIA

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm . . . . Is it still fermenting? What is the gravity now?

Belgian strong should be dryer or lighter than a tripel, so probably shouldn't be sweet, more hops would take it out of "style" but who cares if it's what you want.

Its probably not totally done fermenting its been in there for about 5 days now. I took a reading last night and it was at 1.020. I am not really worried about being out of style I just want to enjoy it. That is why I was wondering if dry hopping would balance out the sweetness. TIA

Yea, you need at least another couple of weeks in primary. Check the gravity then and consider bottling for another 3 weeks for conditioning.

slomo said:

I would prefer more hops or maybe a little more bitterness. Would dry hopping solve my preference problem

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Dry hopping will add no bitterness and very little flavor. It will increase hop aroma and little else. That really doesn't matter though because your judging your brew after only 5 days! A beer that big needs time. As previously mentioned, leave it alone for a couple weeks and let the yeasties do their job. Once you've bottled, I'd recommend leaving it alone for a few months. Belgians only get better with time.

I just brewed a belgian last monday and its coming up on racking to secondary and i was thinking of dry hopping with some lemon zest and maybe half an once of hops but i'm not positive what kind, any suggestions?

Slomo, dry hop the heck out of that baby. You don't have a Belgian Strong, you have an IPA.

There are a couple of issues with it being a BSA:

1) Yeast is completely out of character. Belgians are all about the yeast, and you are using an ESB (English) yeast.

2) I've not checked, but 2 ozs of Cent will give you a lot of IBUs. Way out of character for a BSA.

The ESB should take it down to about 1.014, which should be fine for an IPA.

I hope this isn't still in a fermentor, I think slomo's brew is done
HOLY THREAD RESURECTION!!!

COLObrewer said:

I hope this isn't still in a fermentor, I think slomo's brew is done
HOLY THREAD RESURECTION!!!

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LMAO! Belgian strongs on ESB cakes take considerably longer. He's probably just getting ready for tertiary transfer.