Belgian Experiments: Big beer, little beer. What do I call this?

[luckybeagle]

I've been brewing Belgians since I started in the hobby (in fact, it's the sole reason I started brewing!) and am familiar with patersbiers, but have always shied away from them due to the extra long brewday (boiling and chilling the first runnings, cleaning the kettle, and then putting the patersbier wort into the kettle to repeat).

Then, last weekend I had the idea to scale up my Tripel to a 7 gallon batch (OG 1.080) wherein 5 gallons would go into one carboy and receive a pitch of WY3522 Belgian Ardennes, and the other 2 gallons would go into a carboy holding 2 gallons of boiled and chilled water, effectively making a 4 gallon batch of a 1.040 beer, all the while preserving the same BU:GU ratio. I pitched 3711 French Saison in that one, since their grists and hop schedules are so similar. Pretty awesome to get a big beer and a little beer from one boil without adding time to the brewday (the extra two gallons of water was boiled in my HLT while I was chilling the undiluted wort, to save time)!

Now I'm contemplating doing the same thing with a Quadrupel. The OG on that beer would be about 1.100, so its "offspring" would be a 1.050 beer if I dilute it down the same. I just can't figure out what category an OG 1.050 Belgian would fit into? It'll have a substantial amount of candisyrup (4 lbs of D-180 equivalent for the whole batch), but it's too low of an OG to really classify as a Dubbel. I mean, would it be a patersbier, only dark? I've always imagined patersbiers being blonde or straw colored. With Wy3787 I'm *assuming* I'll hit about 82% attenuation, which will put that one at around 5.3% ABV. Maybe it isn't important to categorize it? Or maybe I should just dilute it with 1 gallon to brew a proper dubbel?

The idea is to keg this second-running beer and bottle up the first. Dubbel isn't really a style that lends itself well to kegging, but maybe something malty, dark and sessionable will? Het origineel Patersbier Donker?

Thoughts? Experiences?

 

[hottpeper13]

It's not really a second runnings beer, rather a diluted first runnings,kinda how they make light beers. Maybe it's a Dunkel Duppel Lite.

 

[NTexBrewer]

For the Dubbel, you could dissolve DME in your dilution water which would boost the ABV into the Dubbel style guidelines.

 

[luckybeagle]

For the Dubbel, you could dissolve DME in your dilution water which would boost the ABV into the Dubbel style guidelines.

That's a good idea. I think I might just brew a slightly larger batch and dilute the smaller beer down to 1.065 or so instead. That should work, I'd think. DME would help accomplish the same but I rarely have it on hand--just sacks of grain and my mill.

Anyone out there brew both a Strong scotch ale and a lighter Scottish ale? Wondering how similar the grists are, and if a 1.100 Strong Scotch would taste good if diluted down to 1.050 for a light, little brother version of it? I'm trying to plan each brew day to have a big beer and little beer brewed simultaneously--big beer gets bottled and tucked away, little beer gets kegged and drank young. Thoughts on that method for a Scotch/Scottish 60/- split?

 

[NTexBrewer]

I once brewed a 5 gallon batch of Scottish Export. Halfway through the mash I had the idea to somehow get a Wee Heavy out of the brew day also. I usually keg in 2.5 and 1.5 gallon kegs. So at flameout I ran 3 gallons through my plate chiller for the Scottish Export. I then fired the kettle back up and boiled for 40 minutes adding 1lb of DME and adding .25 oz of English Promise hops at 10 minutes. Got 2 gallons of Wee Heavy. The bitterness was a little high for the Wee Heavy but over time that mellowed out. I’m guessing your brew big beer and dilute for second beer should work.

I’ve never done a dilution to make multiple beers but here are other split batches single brew day I have done.

Standard Hefeweizen Malt bill and hops. At flameout steep coriander and orange peel in 1 to 2 quarts or wort so you have a Hefe and Belgian wit.

Munich Helles Malt bill. After mash pull 1 to 2 quarts and steep carafa malt. You get a Munich Helles and a schwarzbier.

Amber or golden ale, use Saison yeast for half

Use Marzen grain bill. At flameout add brown sugar or candi syrup to half and Belgian Ardennes yeast for a Bier de Garde the other half traditional Marzen.

Breakfast/Blonde stout. Both fermented with Irish ale yeast. Half keg hopped with English hops for an english IPA. The other half I added a cocoa nib tincture and dry beaned with whole bean coffee for the breakfast/blonde stout.