Belgian ale questions

[motorneuron]

Hi guys--

First post, first time brewing!

A buddy (who has brewed a few times) and I just put together what is my first batch of homebrew. It's a Belgian-style ale (supposedly a Duvel clone), and it's now in the carboy. 24 hours in, I'm seeing a good bit of bubbling and a lot of krausen, so I assume we didn't do anything too terrible.

I have basically two questions.

The first one is this: the recipe was supposed to make 5 gallons, and we had 5 gallons of wort in the brew kettle after adding all the sugars, malts, hops, etc. during the boil. But after a lot of boiling the wort with hops (75 minutes total) and chilling, we had a fairly sediment-filled wort. Whether because of the boiling or because the sediment dragged a lot of water with it, the total wort that went into the carboy with the yeast was more like 3.5 to 4 gallons. We didn't have any boiled water to top it off and didn't want to leave the carboy open to the air in the time it would take to boil and then cool to 70 degrees another 1.5 gallons of water. So we just put it in the carboy.

That means that what should have been an OG of something like 1.07 is now more like 1.09. My hydrometer also suggests that my initial potential alcohol is 12%--holy moly!

The first question is, should I try to dilute the wort during primary fermentation or right before bottling, or not bother? I don't mind a high-alcohol, more intense flavor beer. But there may be reasons not to do this, and I have no idea.

The second question, relatedly, is this: do I need to get Belgian-style bottles and caps? Is it true that a high-alcohol beer (OG 1.09!) could shatter mere mortal bottles? I'm not averse to doing that if I have to, but of course if I can stick to 12oz ordinary bottles, that's my preference.

Thanks!!

 

[ChessRockwell]

The second question, relatedly, is this: do I need to get Belgian-style bottles and caps? Is it true that a high-alcohol beer (OG 1.09!) could shatter mere mortal bottles? I'm not averse to doing that if I have to, but of course if I can stick to 12oz ordinary bottles, that's my preference.

Thanks!!

It's not the level of alcohol that's dangerous to the bottles, it's the level of carbonation. Unless you decide to carbonate to a higher than usual level, you don't need any different bottles or caps.

 

[duboman]

I personally would have topped it off with water from my tap if its already fermenting then I wouldn't do anything.

Lots of people top off with regular tap water, not boiled and have no issues.

 

[ChessRockwell]

I personally would have topped it off with water from my tap if its already fermenting then I wouldn't do anything.

Lots of people top off with regular tap water, not boiled and have no issues.

Same here, I've never bothered to pre-boil top off water, haven't had a problem yet. Not that it couldn't happen, but I don't worry about it.

 

[DuckiesRevenge]

I just use store bought water for topping off. Probably could use tap as suggested, but that's just what I do.

 

[louie0202]

Same here, just top off with tap water, assuming your tap water doesn't suck

 

[motorneuron]

That is great to know for the future--thanks.

So for this batch, should I leave it alone and stick with 10%+? Or should I add some water at the bucket/bottling stage to dilute it?

 

[Calder]

So for this batch, should I leave it alone and stick with 10%+? Or should I add some water at the bucket/bottling stage to dilute it?

The gravity will probably end somewhere around 1.020. If it ends up there, it will be a 9% beer.

I would leave it be. If you do decide to add water, make sure you boil it for at least 10 minutes before adding; you need to boil off the entrained O2 that is naturally in the water. It is OK pre-fermentation, but once fermentation has started, you need to minimize any O2 getting in the beer. If you decide to add water, you can add it at any time