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Yesterday, I bottled my latest attempt at a Belgian golden strong, and at last, it has that lovely straw color that's characteristic of the breed. In case somebody should run across this old thread, looking for answers to why their wort is too dark, here are the things I've discovered that...

I think I've managed to contact everybody who requested and recieved a copy of BrewCalc and to provide them with an updated copy, but if not, there is a bug-fix version available. The hydrometer temperature correction on the second page was giving incorrect values. The lastest (fixed) version is...

For those perusing this ancient thread, I'd like to add that the above-given formula has since been incorported into my brew calculator software, which is available for free, along with the source code, to anybody who would like a copy. For a couple of screenshots and testimonials, see my thread...

Mike, I'm mighty pleased to hear that you like it and that it's given you good results. I've found it's usually spot-on, thanks to the use of Papazian's extract efficiencies that he gives in "Joy of Homebrewing", that are incorporated into the program. In my experience, the calculated gravity...

Yes, it's been in the bottle for about a month now. Aging out very nicely, if I may say so. I've also tried adding spices after the fact, just to give myself an idea what the actual brew would taste like. For example, to a glass of my last batch of rye stout, I added a couple of tablespoons of...

Thanks for the responses, everyone. I had a nagging suspicion that I had probably reinvented the wheel. Let me say that this particular batch did, in fact, clear up nicely despite being boiled. Recall that this was a kit, consisting of a can of concentrate. Almost certainly the juice had...

My son had been after me for some time to make a batch of cider, so last month, I made a batch using a can of Brewmaster concentrate. The can was ostensibly for 22 liters, I only made it up to 15, and added 300 g each of dextrose and beet sugar, for an OG of 1.045. For yeast, I used the yeast...

Great, Mike. I've sent you a private message containing my email address so we can get in touch.

To keep up my programming skills, I've written a program to calculate gravities and estimate final abv based on the ingredients. It works in either English or metric scales, and in SG units or degrees Plato. On a second page, it can also do hydrometer reading temperature corrections for...

BigEd's recipe looks spot-on to me: well-balanced, and with plenty of diastatic activity to convert those rice flakes. I calculate that those ingredients, in a 5-gal batch with average extraction efficiency should give you an OG of 1.053, good for a bit over 5% a.b.v., assuming an FG around 1.010.

It looks to me like there's something very wrong with this recipe - you're using a starch source, rice flakes, but there is nothing containing diastase activity to convert that starch to fermentable sugars. Caramel malts don't normally have any enzyme activity, and neither does malt extract. I'd...

A couple of comments here. First, I'd question whether the yeast cultured from a Duvel bottle is the yeast actually used to ferment the beer, and not simply a strain added for bottle conditioning. "Brew Like a Monk" states that Moortgat uses different yeasts for fermentation and conditioning...

I've just ground my grain (Weyermann extra-pale Pilsner, dash of aroma) and am getting ready to brew my Duvel clone tomorrow. Though not Belgian (expat Texan), I've lived in Belgium for the last 25 years, a mere 13 km from the Moortgat brewery in Breendonk, so Duvel is of special interest to me...

Yes, I'm talking about the color the beer presents in the glass. As I note in the original post, the pH was checked with pH paper (mid-fives), but at any rate, the tbsp or so of gypsum should buffer the pH to within an acceptable range. Obviously, the first possibility is...

I just did a quick search of keywords "Nottingham", "yeast", "smell" and found a number of posts on various homebrew forums noting that this particular yeast produced a sulphurous smell. I've also noticed this myself with Koelsch yeast, in a recipe which perhaps not coincidentally also contained...

I'm aware of that extracts, even dry, give darker brews than all-grain, but as I mentioned, even the all-grainers seems overly dark. I use brew software, but not a program that calculates color, only SG. Here are the ingredients for one of the grain recipes. It's a variation on Papazian's...

As T.S. Elliot put it, "Dark, dark dark. They all go into the dark." I've brewed over 20 batches now, including extract, partial-mash and all-grain, and they all have one thing in common: they're all amber or darker, even those consisting almost entirely of 3 EBC Pilsner malt - such that...

About using lower-than-boiling temperatures: This should work, but it'll take longer. The rate of isomerization, as with any chemical reaction, will roughly double for each 10 deg Celsius that you raise the temperature. So, if you lower the "boil" temperature to 195 deg Fahrenheit, you'll need...

Just a thought - did you perhaps pitch your yeast from a single container? Could it be that the first fermenter got a relatively sparse yeast suspension while the second got the yeast-rich sediment in the bottom of propagation vessel?