Belgian Brown Ale - Winter Homebrew Contest Recipe

[keanex]

Hey guys, my homebrew group is doing a Winter beer contest and I was thinking of doing a dubbel but I decided a Belgian brown ale might be a bit more interesting. I'm going for something that has a light cocoa flavor with sweet caramel, and light Christmas spices. I came up with this recipe and I think it looks pretty decent. One thing I have reservations about is the yeast, I want something that will give light warming alcohol notes and maybe some dark fruit esters.

I'm new to formulating recipes so any input would be great!

 

[AndrewD]

I don't have any yeast input, but I think the concept sounds great. I look forward to following your progress on this one.

 

[keanex]

I'm so very sorry that I posted this into this sub-forum. I meant to post this into the recipe. Thanks for the input though!

 

[badlee]

Looks like a good chewy brown ale.
Maybe up the spices? Add some clove? ORANGE ZEST!

 

[TNGabe]

With 2 lbs of sugar, I'd expect it to finish much dryer than 1.017. You might also want to consier using grains that are traditionally used in Belgian-style beers, instead of Marris use a continental Pale or Pils, etc.

 

[keanex]

With 2 lbs of sugar, I'd expect it to finish much dryer than 1.017. You might also want to consier using grains that are traditionally used in Belgian-style beers, instead of Marris use a continental Pale or Pils, etc.

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to change the recipe to Belgian Pils then.

Looks like a good chewy brown ale.
Maybe up the spices? Add some clove? ORANGE ZEST!

I wanted to go light on the spices because I'm not sure how it will play with the profile yet, I figure I can always add more in the secondary. For cloves I plan on fermenting around 68 to get some nice cloves and alcohol profiles from it.

 

[ktraver97ss]

Yeah, im not sure on christmas style spices with belgian yeast..might be weird.

 

[Obliviousbrew]

Please someone correct me if I´m wrong but historically is not a dubbel the belgian reinterpretation of a strong brown ale?
Edit: Also won´t that be a belgian christmas beer then?

 

[keanex]

So this would classify as a dubbel then? I'm so new at this I feel dumb sometimes, but at least you guys are friendly! I'm not so much concerned about style, I mostly just want a lightly spiced "Winter" beer.