Belgian Christmas Ale

[DanZarrella]

I'm trying to do a quad/dark strong belgian style xmas ale (to be given as gifts this year, drunk next year).

I've listed my recipe below, but I'm wondering if I need to add extra enzymes to the partial mash. Thoughts?

4 Gallon Batch:

Partial Mash:
1lb Caramunich 3
1lb Flaked Barley
1/2lb Pilsner Malt
1/2lb Special B

6lb Dark Liquid Extract
3.3lbs Pilsner Extract
1lb Honey
1lb Dark Candi Sugar Syrup

@60 Mins: 1/2oz Styrian Goldings
@30 Mins 1oz Hallertauer

@Flameout: xmas spice mixture

WLP500

 

[Nateo]

You need sugar in that beer. For an extract batch, I would do sugar for 20% of the grist. Turbinado works well as a character sugar, but plain table sugar will do the job. You can't control the fermentability of your extract, so you'll need a lot of simple sugars to get the FG down to a point it's not cloying.

You're really gonna be fighting attenuation issues with that recipe. I'd ditch the caramunich, flaked barley, and pilsner, and cut the special B in half.

Use Dark Candi syrup, D2 candi syrup, turbinado, or all three for your complex flavors. A lot of commercial belgian dark strongs are just pale/pils malt, a touch of special b, light sugars for fermentability and dark sugars/syrups for flavor.

Also I'd switch to all pale/pils extract, because those dark sugars will provide all your color.

 

[DanZarrella]

I actually had two lbs of sugar for 16% in the beer, I forgot to add them.
I'm planning to brew on sat and I already have the 6lbs of dark extract.
I can cut some of the malts and increase the sugar percentage...

I have some turbinado, do you think it's better to use that than the honey in this beer?

 

[Nateo]

Ah I see the sugar now. That makes a lot more sense.

http://beerdujour.com/Howtobrewabigbeer.htm

That site has a lot of good tips.

In that recipe, I think the honey will be overwhelmed. Either ingredient should make good beer, but if you have both already, the turbinado would provide a lot of good rummy character.

If you have them, it'd be a good idea to use some yeast nutrients and pitch a ton of yeast. Like, more than you think you'd ever need. You'll want over 80% attenuation, which won't be easy. I made a quadruple that went from 101 to 24 points, and it was cloyingly sweet.

I've talked to some of the dudes at Avery Brewing about their quadruple, and they pitch an insane amount of yeast (like a whole yeast cake from another beer), and let the fermentation temps climb really high. They also use turbinado in a lot of their big beers. Their quad has an attenuation of about 82%.

 

[alecoholic]

I'd use as many lbs of pilsner as you are using non-enzymatic specialty malts, which all of them you mentioned are.

 

[DanZarrella]

Nateo: I don't have a cake from a previous beer (at least not one who's sanitation I trust...) But I do have an older starter of WLP530 than I'll reactivate and use alongside a big starter of the WLP500.

I normally use DAP and Wyeast Nutrient and don't have too many issues with attentuation, though my previous beers have been in the 7%-9% range.

alecoholic: I'll use all the pils I have, and I'll add in some amalyase and beano in the mash to convert down the carbs into as many simple sugars as possible to stave off attentuation issues.