Belgian Golden Ale w/Rosemary, Thyme, & Parsley

Brewing a belgian golden ale or basically a tripel (whatever you prefer to call it). Anyway, brewing this as my Holiday ale and plan to do half the batch as is and the other half dry hopped with fresh rosemary, thyme, and parsley from my herb garden. If anyone has suggestions on how much rosemary, thyme and parsley to add to a 5 gal. batch as dry hop, please let me know. Otherwise I'm winging it. Plan to brew this on Sunday. As follows:

Kettle Volume: 14.0 gal
Final Volume: 10.56 gal

13 lb (50.0%) Belgian Pale - added during mash
8 lb (30.8%) Belgian Pils - added during mash
1 lb (3.8%) Belgian Munich - added during mash
1 lb (3.8%) Belgian Wheat Malt - added during mash
1 lb (3.8%) Oats Flaked - added during mash
.5 oz (16.7%) Magnum (14.5%) - added first wort, boiled 90 m
.5 oz (16.7%) Magnum (14.5%) - added during boil, boiled 30 m
1 oz (33.3%) Styrian Goldings (6.0%) - added during boil, boiled 15 m
2 lb (7.7%) Candi Sugar Clear - added during boil, boiled 15 m
2 oz (33.3%) Amarillo® (8.5%) - added after boil, steeped 30 m

WLP 500 Trappist Ale yeast (2 ea) - 5 gal
WLP 570 Belgian Golden Ale (2 ea) - 5 gal

Mash at 148 for 90m - mashout 168F - 90 min.

Dry hop 5 gal batch secondary for 7-10 days with Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley mix

OG: 1.080
Terminal Gravity: 1.012
Color: 6.51 SRM
ABV: 8.96%
IBU: 35 (approx)


Was thinking of doing 0.50 oz. of parsley, 0.25oz. of rosemary and 0.25oz. of thyme. Was also considering dry hopping the non herb batch and herb batch with some citra or mosaic whole leaf hops. only 1 oz. per 5 gal. Wasn't sure. Will play that by ear. Any suggestion on the herb additions, please let me know.

I would pull a small batch say 1gal and dry hop that with the herbs before I batch the whole thing.

No suggestions on herb additions, but I'd say you can skip the mashout for this beer (since you want it as fermentable as you can), and if it were me I'd at least double the sugar and use cheap table sugar instead of the clear candi sugar, which is generally considered a waste of money.

I've had one or two herbed saisons, I remember they were tasty when paired with food but the "savory" quality seemed rather out of place otherwise. So I'd agree to just do it with a small portion of the batch to test it out.

Didn't end up having time to brew this last weekend. Will be on deck for this Saturday for sure.

Was reading up on rosemary, parsley and thyme additions. For a 5.5 gal batch I found an article noting to add 1/2 oz. of fresh rosemary:
http://www.examiner.com/article/homebrewed-delirium-rosemary-oat-pale-ale-recipe

and 0.10oz of parsley and 0.10 oz. of thyme but this comments about tossing it into the boil:
http://blog.stonebrew.com/index.php/dogfish-head-victory-stone-saison-du-buff-homebrew-recipe/

So, with all of this up for consideration, for half the batch (5 gal.), I'm going to toss 0.50 oz. of fresh rosemary, 0.50oz of fresh parsley, and 0.50 oz. of fresh thyme into the dry hop and will likely consider throwing in an ounce of mosaic whole leaf hops

Brewing is underway. Protein rest headed to 148f starch conversion.

Whirlpooling 2oz Amarillo at 183f for 30m before chilling and transferring to primary ferment.

how did this come out i am making a white ale tomorow with some sage and im curious

cliffy said:

how did this come out i am making a white ale tomorow with some sage and im curious

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Am going to add the herbs to the secondary. Want it to be more of an herbal aroma than flavor. About to run through the CFC at the moment But will keep you updated as this progresses

cliffy said:

how did this come out i am making a white ale tomorow with some sage and im curious

Click to expand...

Btwif I redid my white ipa recipe I would totally add in lemongrass and sage at flameout. By itself it's a great white ipa. But being from kc and having access to the original white IPA, you gotta add the lemongrass and sage at flameout. Wish I would have done that. Don't be conservative with lemongrass additions.

Cut my boil to 75m since I had no starter and only two vials of wlp500 and 570 each. Got worried a gravity above 1.070 would cause issues since I didn't have enough yeast cells to proper ferment. So locked it in at 1.067. I think this will be better anyway.

Brew sounds tasty! Am waiting to hear your tasting comments in a few weeks!

I brewed a Belgian Golden Strong with Marsh Rosemary, Yarrow, Meadowsweet & Sweet Gale earlier this year. Its got a lot to love, and a few parts that need some tweeking. Seeing what amounts others have used and when is always helpful. Especially with the taste eval a months later.

--LexusChris

kchomebrew I really want to try this when you get it finished. Maybe we can work out a trade after you finish it? Please say yes!

landshark said:

kchomebrew I really want to try this when you get it finished. Maybe we can work out a trade after you finish it? Please say yes!

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Sure thing. I'll reach out to you when it's done.

started to see some bubbling from the fermenter for the 570 batch yesterday morning. have blowoff tubes attached for both batches and the 500 batch isn't bubbling. I checked the krausen by shining a flashlight through on the top of the plastic bucket cover and I can see that both batches have the same level of krausen forming. I guess, for whatever reason, the WLP500 yeast isn't as strong a fermentation as the 570. Anyway, plan to transfer both to secondary glass carboys this coming Sunday.

Question for anyone that might know. So I'm planning to add the rosemary, parsley time as dry hop additions to the WLP500 batch and leaving the 570 as is. I'll be kegging the 570 batch and bottle conditioning the 500 batch. For time spent in the secondary, I've seen a variety of suggestions. Anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months conditioning time in the secondary. I also read on a post that secondary fermentation isn't even necessary if you are going to bottle condition and the suggestion was to primary ferment it out for 10 days, add in herbs for 4-5 days, cold crash for 3 days, and then bottle it. Any truth to this and if so I'll probably follow that method for the WLP500 batch. For the 570, since I'm kegging, I'll probably do a couple weeks in the secondary and then keg and let carbonate/cold condition for a month in the keg before serving. Thoughts ?

Forgot to mention that LHBS was out of Magnum for bittering hops so I went with Nugget. Probably should have used a noble hop like saaz. Anyway, it was added at 75and 45m instead of 90 and 30. So I'm sure the bitterness I got out of it will work just fine.

Transferred to secondary 570 batch was at 1.020 and 500 batch was at 1.014. Had them both at 68f. Ramping up to 72F and will hold there for a week and hopefully both get down to 1.014 or less. After that I'll cold crash and then keg the 570 and bottle condition the 500.

Transferred the 570 batch to the keg and FG was at 1.011. Should be ready by next weekend. Sampled a bit from the secondary and this one should be awesome ! Photos and tasting notes will be posted soon.

Sample off the keg last night of the 570 batch. The color is hazy dark gold - still not totally carbonated up to where it needs to be so the head doesn't show up immediately on the pour. That said, it's pretty close (another week cold conditioning in the keg and this will be perfect and will also probably clear the haze). The aroma and taste on this are incredible, if I do say so myself !! I'll say this right now....this one will win gold medals if I enter it into competitions (unfortunately there's nothing coming up in my local area for quite some time and I know I'll kill this keg off quick). I have a colonna capper and corks and cages so I'll probably bottle a couple off this keg and also probably bottle a 6 pack (for competition purposes) and drop in a couple t-58 dry yeast granules and let these age for several months. I'll post some tasting notes and photos after another week or 2. I want to give this enough time to condition (I only kegged this last Sunday). This beer really reminds me of 3 beers all blended together. Duvel, Boulevard Long Strange Triple, and Russian River Damnation. I had Damnation once in my life (was in San Fran at the Toronado and they happened to have it on tap) but I very specifically remember how it tasted and consider it to be one of the best beers I've ever had. So, with that in mind, this is easily one of the top 3 beers I've ever made. I can call it right now. I will say that I did take a dive into how all 3 were made, so it's real exciting to now see the final product.

On another note, the WLP 500 batch is still in the secondary and has some yeast in suspension but they've almost all floc'd out. Once that happens, I'm going to toss in the rosemary, parsley, and thyme and let it sit for a week and then bottle condition all of it.

That's it for now.

Awesome news! Sounds excellent.

Check this one out:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/scarborough-fair-saison-saison-du-buff-clone-all-grain-445388/

Turned out really well. I'd probably up the white sage in it a little bit the next time I brew because I personally like the flavor a lot. Reminds me of Thanksgiving, stuffing, etc.

FYI.

I made a Rosemary IPA previously and put about 1oz of rosemary in the boil in the last 15 minutes which gave it a solid but not over powering rosemary flavor. Rosemary is tough b/c it can take over the flavor of anything, so I think a possibility for this recipe would have been to do a late boil addition of the rosemary and throw the other herbs in the secondary. This might help to let the other herbs stand out a bit more.

WLP500 batch yeast has finally started floc'ing out. Thought it was a good time to add in the herbs. I added .50oz (or 3 tsp) of fresh parsley and .25oz (or 1.5 tsp) of fresh rosemary, thyme, and also decided to go ahead and add sage too. I'll let this dry hop for about a week and then I will bottle condition this one.

570 batch

How's the taste?

SavoryChef said:

How's the taste?

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Pretty much one of the best beers I've ever made. The photo is the non herbed batch. Pretty similar to Damnation actually.

Took a reading off the 500 batch today that has been dry hopped with rosemary , parsley, thyme and sage. Oddly enough I am getting hardly any aroma or flavor off of it. So I added in another ounce of all herbs and will let it soak for another week. All that said, the beer by itself tastes fantastic and reading is now at 1.011.

Bottled the 500 batch with herbs today. Will likely be ready for tasting in a month.

Couples baby showers suck, but this one was for my brother and his wife and my future nephew Colin. So with that in mind I gave bottles away of the Belgian Tripel as party favors. Ripped off the Goose Island (Sofie, Matilda, etc) theme for the label. Due date for the baby is the same date this bottle should be fully conditioned and carbed so it's a "drink on...." dated bottle.

Was drinking a Goose Island Matilda today and noticed it was highly similar to the 570 golden batch I brewed. So I poured one of mine and did a side by side. They look the same, smell the same, and taste darn near identical. Not intentional but seems like I must have stumbled on a potential clone. Mine was more crisp and carbonated. Only major difference. Anyway thought Id share for anyone looking for a Matilda clone. I fermented this at around 68f.

Getting close to the end of the 570 keg ( sad to see this one go and will be brewing again soon). I did bottle a few of these off the keg that will get entered into some competitions this year...so I'll post results when I have those back.

Still waiting on the 500 batch w/herbs to bottle carb. Probably a week to two weeks out from that being ready.

I have a 5gal batch of lemon rosemary Belgian wit that I originally planned to rack off a gallon and experiment with a Scarborough fair blend. How did you dry hop the leafy herbs? I planned of just scouring the fresh herbs and racking beer on top of it. Did you dry hop loose herbs or in a hop bag?


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Hey man,

I just dry-hop them loose, myself. Hope yours turns out well!

Any updates on the herbed batch? How's the taste?

kchomebrew said:

Brewing a belgian golden ale or basically a tripel (whatever you prefer to call it). Anyway, brewing this as my Holiday ale and plan to do half the batch as is and the other half dry hopped with fresh rosemary, thyme, and parsley from my herb garden. If anyone has suggestions on how much rosemary, thyme and parsley to add to a 5 gal. batch as dry hop, please let me know. Otherwise I'm winging it. Plan to brew this on Sunday. As follows:

Kettle Volume: 14.0 gal
Final Volume: 10.56 gal

13 lb (50.0%) Belgian Pale - added during mash
8 lb (30.8%) Belgian Pils - added during mash
1 lb (3.8%) Belgian Munich - added during mash
1 lb (3.8%) Belgian Wheat Malt - added during mash
1 lb (3.8%) Oats Flaked - added during mash
.5 oz (16.7%) Magnum (14.5%) - added first wort, boiled 90 m
.5 oz (16.7%) Magnum (14.5%) - added during boil, boiled 30 m
1 oz (33.3%) Styrian Goldings (6.0%) - added during boil, boiled 15 m
2 lb (7.7%) Candi Sugar Clear - added during boil, boiled 15 m
2 oz (33.3%) Amarillo® (8.5%) - added after boil, steeped 30 m

WLP 500 Trappist Ale yeast (2 ea) - 5 gal
WLP 570 Belgian Golden Ale (2 ea) - 5 gal

Mash at 148 for 90m - mashout 168F - 90 min.

Dry hop 5 gal batch secondary for 7-10 days with Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley mix

OG: 1.080
Terminal Gravity: 1.012
Color: 6.51 SRM
ABV: 8.96%
IBU: 35 (approx)


Was thinking of doing 0.50 oz. of parsley, 0.25oz. of rosemary and 0.25oz. of thyme. Was also considering dry hopping the non herb batch and herb batch with some citra or mosaic whole leaf hops. only 1 oz. per 5 gal. Wasn't sure. Will play that by ear. Any suggestion on the herb additions, please let me know.

Click to expand...

Just add sage and you have Scarborough Fair. JK sounds lovely

The herbed batch is drinkable and quite good. I will post some photos soon and I did end up adding white sage. I dry hop loose and there is a photo of the carboy on this thread. Anyway. The aroma and taste are awesome. I think I hit additions perfectly.


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Crock_it_out said:

I have a 5gal batch of lemon rosemary Belgian wit that I originally planned to rack off a gallon and experiment with a Scarborough fair blend. How did you dry hop the leafy herbs? I planned of just scouring the fresh herbs and racking beer on top of it. Did you dry hop loose herbs or in a hop bag? View attachment 177489


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Click to expand...

I did 2oz of all herbs and briefly soaked all in vodka before adding to the fermenter. Added them without a hop bag. I also used all fresh herbs. No dried herbs or powders.


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kchomebrew said:

The herbed batch is drinkable and quite good. I will post some photos soon and I did end up adding white sage. I dry hop loose and there is a photo if the carboy on this thread. Anyway. The aroma and taste are awesome. I think I hit additions perfectly.


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Click to expand...

Definitely going to have to give this a try.