First belgian beer

[Nyrkki]

This will be my first belgian beer ever and I will brew this on Sunday. I've made seven batches of other beers before this, all of them being on the hoppy side. This time I would want the yeast to give more flavor. I'm using belgian trappist yeast (3787). So my problem is, how much hops should use and at which point should I add them to the pot?

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 3787
Yeast Starter: Yes
Batch Size (Gallons): 2,7 gal
Original Gravity: 1.083
Final Gravity: 1.020
IBU: 36,4
Color: 3,9
ABV: 8,2

Ingredients:
------------
6,2 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (1.5 SRM) Grain 82 %
1,3 lb Sugar (sucrose) 18 %
0,52 oz Williamette [5%] (60 min) Hops 15.9 IBU
0.75 oz Hersbrucker [3%] (60 min) Hops 12.8 IBU
0.75 oz Hersbrucker [3 %] (20 min) Hops 7.7 IBU
Wyeast 3787

I thought about mashing at 146 F (63 C) for a long time to get better attenuation. I'm also looking forward to getting a good head in this beer. I was wondering if the lower mash temperature would help.

 

[hopsalot]

Personally I like to use minimal hops in my Belgians, but a OG of 1.083 will need a little more.

With that gravity sounds like a Belgian Golden Strong Ale 18D

BJCP
Vital Statistics: OG: 1.070 – 1.095
IBUs: 22 – 35 FG: 1.005 – 1.016
SRM: 3 – 6 ABV: 7.5 – 10.5%

your recipe has 36.4 IBU's, maybe drop the 20 minute addition completely, or add at 5 min or flame out. I suggest you cut the addition

 

[Nyrkki]

Thanks for the reply!

BJCP guidelines on trippels is 1.075-1.085. So it is on the higher end of the scale. I was aiming for something like westmalle trippel, which has OG 1.081 and IBU 39. Maybe I should drop some sugar in order to lower the OG a bit?

It has a little bit less IBU than the BJCP guidelines would allow (25-38), so I don't think it has too much IBU. The flavour addition is what I was wondering about. Dropping the 20 min addition would drop my IBUs by 7,7, which might be a bit too much.

Maybe I should change it to 30 min, so that it will give just minimal flavour and drop a quater from it. The 5 min flameout sounds also good, but then I will have to add to the first addition to get about 35 IBU.

 

[hopsalot]

Maybe I should drop some sugar in order to lower the OG a bit?

I would brew it how it is, sounds great!

 

[arch1tect]

I think that much sugar is going to make it super dry and with no specialty grains you're going to have a thin and dry taste to it. I'd definitely cut back the sugar and add some specialty grains like cara-pils(head retention) and maybe some belgium aromatic. Then switch the plain sugar to candi-sugar.

 

[hopsalot]

I think that much sugar is going to make it super dry and with no specialty grains you're going to have a thin and dry taste to it. I'd definitely cut back the sugar and add some specialty grains like cara-pils(head retention) and maybe some belgium aromatic. Then switch the plain sugar to candi-sugar.

good call, CaraBelge works great if you can find it

 

[Nyrkki]

I really want to keep it simple. I'm also aiming for a very dry beer, but I'm also a bit worried about using sugar, since I have never added it to beer. Only in some meads have I used sugar, and not even in them sucrose. 18% sounds a lot, but most of the recepies in "Brew like a monk" have 15-20% sugar or other adjuncts.

I thought about using some cara, and I even have some at home. I also thought about using something like 3 to 5 % wheat in order to get a good head.

I want the color to be really pale, something like duvel or westmalle tripel, both of which have only pilsner malts in them. Wouldn't cara give way too much colour? And how much do you think I should if I end up using it? Would 5 % be enough?