Belgian Strong Dark Ale - Cloyingly Sweet out of Primary

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rpetrello

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Hello all,

As a new-ish homebrewer (~ a year) with a handful of good, but safe, experiences under my belt, I recently embarked on an "exciting" brew - a belgian strong dark ale.

I love St. Bernardus Prior 8, and found a "clone" of this from a reputable book/magazine. Brew day went well, and it's been in primary fermentation for ~ 5 weeks now. I decided to move it last night. I also decided to have a taste.

Wow. This stuff basically tastes like maple syrup. Now I know what you're thinking. This beer needs to age. It needs time. I'm jumping the gun. To set my mind at ease, though, and to be sure I don't end up with a few gallons of Aunt Jemimah's later this year, I'm just wondering if anybody else has had this type of experience with this style? I 100% won't be dumping this, and will wait it out (and probably it will taste awesome) - I'm just curious if anybody else has experienced this as well, or has any explanation for my experience.

For those who will ask, here's the recipe I used:

~ 5G Batch

Mash
------
12.25 lb Belgian Pilsen
.5 lb German Pilsner
.38 lb UK Medium Crystal
.38 lb Belgian Special B
.25 lb Belgian Biscuit
.13 lb UK Chocolate

90 Minute Boil
------
1 oz UK Target @ 70 Min
.25 oz Styrian Goldings @ 15 Min
.25 oz Styrian Goldings @ 5 Min

1 lb Dark Candi Syrup (End of Boil)
.25 lb Sucruse (End of Boil, LHBS' recommended substitute for a second $8 bottle of candi syrup, which I wouldn't have used much of)

Fermentation
------
Wyeast 1762 - Belgian Abbey II
Original Gravity: 1.082
Fermented ~70dF for 5 weeks
Final Gravity: 1.015

Right now it's sitting in secondary in my temp-controlled freezer around 68dF, where I'll keep it for a few months before bottling.:confused:

...any takers?
 
Have you checked gravity to see how close it is to the expected FG? Did you use a starter? I'm still a bit of a noob, so take this with a grain of noob salt, but you may have underpitched for a pretty big beer if you didn't use a starter.
 
@seabass - I did use a starter, and it fermented to 1.015, which is where I expected it to end up.

@Reverse - I'm hoping age does tone it down a bit, and I'm sure carbonation will help some, too. I was just put off by how incredibly sweet it was when I took a taste, especially considering that it fermented so completely - I did a double-take on my hydrometer reading, thinking it couldn't possibly be done fermenting.
 
What is the temperature of the freezer? You don't want it to be too cold, otherwise it'll stall fermentation. For an ale, you want it to be close to room temperature. If temperature isn't the problem, then it is the yeast -- and for the type of yeast you are using, it shouldn't be a problem. Try adjusting the temperature in the freezer, or take it out altogether. If it isn't the temperature, then pitch in some champaign yeast. Then after a few weeks, do a tertiary rack.
 
Well, fermentation's pretty much complete - the yeast's just cleaning things up now. I've got it sitting in the freezer around 68dF, because my home tends to get pretty warm in the summertime.
 
Well, fermentation's pretty much complete - the yeast's just cleaning things up now. I've got it sitting in the freezer around 68dF, because my home tends to get pretty warm in the summertime.

Yeah, temperature sounds fine. Try pitching some champaign yeast in. Although, that does sound like weird behaviour for the type of strain you are using.
 
I don't know the exact numbers for that beer but many/most of the Belgian beers have very high attenuation. It looks like you got about 82% apparent attenuation but some of the big Belgians are higher than that.

With such high attenuation, these big Belgians usually have a lower OG than expected (in order to hit the ABV). If you made a 1.070 OG beer and fermented it down to 1.008 then it would still be ~8% ABV but be closer to what I would expect in a big Belgian.

If you can get some, take a gravity reading from a bottle of it. Then you'll know the FG and the ABV and can calculate the OG from there.
 
FWIW, I plan to leave this in secondary for a few more months in case I can get any additional fermentation and cleanup out of it, but it seems fermentation has pretty much wound down. I suppose I'll just wait until later this year to see if the sweetness has subsided.
 
Here I am four months later, and I thought I'd follow up.

I've just bottled this, and the cloying sweetness has drastically dissolved and replaced itself with a fantastic dark raisin/fig flavor. I'm even more excited to open this up later this year after it's had a chance to carb up. Mmmmm...

Thanks for all of the advice - this one was worth holding out for!

Edited to mention: since May, the final gravity only lowered a point or so, so fermentation was definitely complete. The flavors definitely mellowed out, though, and have resulted in a very tasty brew.
 
Do you know what the temperature of you mash was? I had a problem early in my all grain brewing where my thermometer was reading lower than actual temp. This resulted in higher than desired mash temps. Once I fixed the temperature reading errors, i got better results.
 
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