gravity of belgian?

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Whisler85

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i attended my first brew club meeting thursday night, and my belgian golden strong ale came into question

i measured the OG at 1.094, and the FG at 1.010

the more refined palates seemed to think it was under attenuated, and brought the accuracy of my hydrometer into question

after testing the hydrometer in water, i found that it actually was lying to me- but not in the way i thought- it was telling me that the water was 1.002, meaning my beer would actually have a LOWER final gravity than i thought

is 89% attenuation good enough? i know some belgians get as high as 95...

also, promash told me that one ounce of sterling would be enough for bittering, but now beersmith tells me that its not- could this insufficient bittering be responsible for the cloying sweet taste of the BGSA?
 
Take a sample of your beer , de-gas it (shake the snot out of it and then again until you have no bubbles) then take a hydrometer reading at 60 degrees

If its 1.010 or lower the "refined" paletes are FAIL
 
What was your recipe? If you used specialty malts or an all malt grist, then it can lead to more sweetness perceived in the final product.
 
i used 14 pounds of castle pils, 3 pounds of corn sugar, 80% efficiency...

could this sweet taste be a phenolics profile from the yeast? i used wyeast 1388

beersmith tells me my IBU's are only 17.5, considerably lower than the 22 IBU minimum for the style- is this where my sweetness comes in?
 
Could be - I am assuming you took the recipe from BCS - where he is shooting for 70% eff. Could just be you have the same attenuation, but he's starting at a lower gravity than you were.

You have any hot alcohol/fusels coming through? In my opinion, the aftertaste of hot alcohol can be perceived as sweet.
 
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