belgian wit, and then some?

[ibrewdou]

i did a nrthrn brwr belgian wit w/ a two day starter w/ spin plate and liquid yeast, saaz hopps for the boil, and or added grains of paradise and an end of a lemon along w/ the coriander and bitter orange incl., in the kit. just before flame out i added TWO LBS. of orange blossom honey! neded a blowoff tube! that was three weeks ago! i just racked six gallons into two secondary fermenters, 5 gal in with 32oz of organic apple juice(pasturized) and the last gal,gal&half or so with a cup of pear juice. i had to already put a blowoff tube on the 5gal! both are off to a lovely secondary fermentation! i intend to rack them both into the cleaned and stearalized 6 1/2 gal carboy for a clearing and settling period then bottle with corn sugar and two oz. of raw sugar for the lovely commercial style of carbonation!! i dont think its going to be a wit anymore but i believe it will be very good. i'm going to dryhop with an oz. of hallertau, or tradition for the week or so in the third carboy. gonna bottle in 320z. blue flip tops for the dramatic presentation! wish me luck my friends i'll keep y'all abreast of the progress, any thoughts would of course be appreciated. thanks

 

[DeathBrewer]

good luck! not sure about the juices, but let us know how it turns out.

btw, the enter key is your friend using it will help your other friends read your post with less trouble

 

[EricCSU]

Interesting.

I have a headache.


Eric

 

[ibrewdou]

deathbrewer, you have seven beers in primarys at one time? i see you've also brewed belgians, how is your strong dark working out? gratefull for any tips pertaining to belgians, particularly the strong dark and dubbles. thanks.

 

[DeathBrewer]

nine in primary as of yesterday i need to keg the apfelwein and trasnfer my wheat, though.

and yes, i've been on a belgian kick ever since my LHBS got styrian goldings in stock

belgian advice...well, a high pitching rate is ideal. i usually make a 2L starter (stepped up from 1L) to get them started.

being patient is key. my last dubbel sat in primary for over a month and secondary for well over 2 months. it's been in the bottle for 5 months now, i think. DO NOT transfer to secondary until your beer is finished fermenting. no need to worry about autolysis.

i tried one the other day, pretty good, though i think i need to shake up the bottles a bit and let the yeast keep working on it...i can taste some residual sugars. those yeast get strained and don't want to do their job, lazy bastards. you may wish to also add more yeast just before bottling.

rouse the yeast often in primary. it needs to keep working and likes to flocculate out. i just give it a nice swirl when fermentation seems to be dwindling.

i stepped up my dark strong by adding the invert sugar at a later time. ideally, you would want to do it near the end of it's primary fermentation. i didn't have the opportunity, so i didn't add it until well over a week after initial fermentation was finished. i'll let it finish fermenting that sugar, then transfer to secondary and let it sit for a couple of months.

i actually have not tasted or sampled the dark strong since brew day, and it's really the first time i've done this style RIGHT. i've made a few belgian strongs that were ok, but i've learned from the mistakes i've made from them. my scarlet dragon is a belgian dark strong and was buried under my steps last october. i plan to open it up on halloween.

let's see, what else...if you're using extract, do all grain first, then add extract at a later time, then add sugar. just keep stepping up the fermentation in the primary.

hope that helps. PM me if you ever have any questions.