Belgium strong ale

[EatWell]

I'm brewing a Belgium strong ale next week and I'm wondering if there are anything I should be on the look out for? I am also thinking about adding raspberry in secondary and wanted to know the best process...first, fresh or frozen raspberry ...second should I put them into a hop bag or right into the brew? I do have some experience in brewing this will be my 8 brew. Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[duboman]

To start: AG or Extract or PM? Please provide recipe, starting OG, FG, Partial boil or full boil, type of yeast. All this information will enable us to help you out more with the process and things you may not be aware of in brewing a big beer.

As for the fruit, there are numerous threads on adding fruit in the Recipe/Ingredients forum from people that have a lot of experience in that dept. Just run a search and do some research on it

 

[EatWell]

Ok, sorry for the delay in response...it is going to be a partial mash. OG 1.085 FG 1.014, 5.5gal boiled volume, 5gal batch,

Recipe is as follows:
6lb English 2-row Pils
5.5lb Belgian Pils
1lb Belgian Caravienne
1lb American 6-row Pale
3lb Dry Extra Light; Muntons
1lb Honey
.5oz Chinook @60
.5oz Chinook @15
.375oz Chinook @1
Yeast; White Labs WLP410 Belgian Wit II Ale

Thanks

 

[Maddoghoek]

For higher gravity beers, I would recommend doing a starter. My last one started at 1.092 and with a 2l starter it only took about 8/9 hours to get going. There's a good pitch/starter calculator on mrmalty.com. The FAQ sticky at the top of this section has some good info on making starters.

Also I would recommend using either fermcap-s or a blow off tube on your fermenter instead of the regular airlock. If the airlock gets clogged from kraussen you could pop the lid off the bucket from CO2 pressure. Doesn't need to be elaborate or anything, I used a pickle jar full of starsan with a tube and a stopper. Drilled holes in the lid for gasses to escape and for the stopper. Ghetto but it did the job.

 

[helibrewer]

Belgians challenges are 1) They have high OG's and 2) They usually use a decent amount of simple fermentables.

The readings I have done, including a great article in the latest BYO on brewing Tripels, says to really manage fermentation...the recipe is generally pretty simple.

It is recommended to under-pitch by about 1/3 so a 2L starter is probably just right...the under-pitching causes yeast stress which accentuates the fruity ester characteristics. Starting on the low side and ramping the temp up to about 70 as fermentation is finishing is also something that I have seen recommended.

Grab that latest BYO article and read about the Tripel brewing, it is very applicable to Strong's as well.

 

[helibrewer]

Ok, sorry for the delay in response...it is going to be a partial mash. OG 1.085 FG 1.014, 5.5gal boiled volume, 5gal batch,

Recipe is as follows:
6lb English 2-row Pils
5.5lb Belgian Pils
1lb Belgian Caravienne
1lb American 6-row Pale
3lb Dry Extra Light; Muntons
1lb Honey
.5oz Chinook @60
.5oz Chinook @15
.375oz Chinook @1
Yeast; White Labs WLP410 Belgian Wit II Ale

Thanks

You might think about an Abbey or Trappist High Gravity yeast instead of a Wit.

12.5 Lbs is a big partial mash. You might also get rid of the 6-row and go with an additional pound of the Pils, maybe French or Belgian. Belgians are pretty dry so you don't need the dextrinous 6-row and the Pils will have plenty of enzyme on its own.

 

[EatWell]

In primary for about two weeks I went with Trappist worked great! I took a reading today and it is at 1.008, I will check again in a couple of days. But a couple of question, first question is would it be possible for it to drop any more? Second, I had a low original gravity reading of 1.072 why was it so low?

 

[Yooper]

In primary for about two weeks I went with Trappist worked great! I took a reading today and it is at 1.008, I will check again in a couple of days. But a couple of question, first question is would it be possible for it to drop any more? Second, I had a low original gravity reading of 1.072 why was it so low?

It's possible that it could drop more, but probably not.

If the OG was 1.072, but you were expecting it to be higher, your mash efficiency was lower than you planned.

 

[signpost]

I've been working on a belgian strong ale recipe myself. Plan on brewing it over the summer, then doing some aging so it is ready for the holidays.

I'm curious why you chose to use honey. I'm planning on using some candy syrup in my recipe, and I guess the honey could take the place of that in a belgian ale. Was the purpose to avoid adding color to darken it? Is this a golden strong ale?

Mine is going to be a dark strong ale.

Just curious.

 

[iambeer]

I am a total noob but I have no idea why would you would go through the trouble of making your first strong belgian ale into a fruit beer.

 

[Ramitt]

I messed with blow off tubes once, now I just leave the lid loose until the krausen starts to drop, so far so good.

 

[EatWell]

I've been working on a belgian strong ale recipe myself. Plan on brewing it over the summer, then doing some aging so it is ready for the holidays.

I'm curious why you chose to use honey. I'm planning on using some candy syrup in my recipe, and I guess the honey could take the place of that in a belgian ale. Was the purpose to avoid adding color to darken it? Is this a golden strong ale?

Mine is going to be a dark strong ale.

Just curious.

Yes, I wanted to keep it on the light and the original recipe called for candi, and they said it was a little too dark. So I switched that out. Good luck with yours! Cheers!

 

[EatWell]

I am a total noob but I have no idea why would you would go through the trouble of making your first strong belgian ale into a fruit beer.

There is a beer made by Berkshire Brewery in MA, raspberry strong ale. And I carry it at my restaurant, so I want to see if I can compare to the big boys. Maybe do a blind taste test with the brewer and see which one he chooses! I probably will only rack half the batch into raspberries