My First Belgian- Need Opinions

[JeffoC6]

So for Valentine's Day, my best gal got me a $40 gift card to the LHBS. Additionally my dad told me he'd pay for a refrigerator thermostat, just as long as I "kept him in the beer." Hahaha, definitely a fair trade off in my opinion. So by the end of this coming week, I'll have my very first temperature controlled fermentation chamber (brother's old fridge from college hooked up to the thermostat) and some additional supplies from the LHBS.

I've wanted to brew a Belgian for some time now, but was worried because I only brew 1 gallon batches and use 1 gallon glass carboys. A lot of what I've read on here says that Belgian's need a lot of head space, so my plan is to use the gift card to my LHBS to purchase a 2 gallon plastic fermenter, along with ingredients for my first Belgian. I still plan on doing a 1 gallon batch, but will be using the 2 gallon bucket, thus, giving myself plenty of room for a healthy fermentation.

Now for the fun part...Picking a recipe. While this will be my 7th All Grain brew, I still don't feel that I'm ready to take on something too difficult, but at the same time, I don't want to sell myself short. My BIAB method has been working well lately, and I'm honing in on my process. With that said, I'm wondering if you all wouldn't mind suggesting some delicious Belgian recipes? I love ALL Chimay beers and most recently, Westmalle Dubbel and Duvel.

So...Any suggestions? I'd like to hit up the LHBS tomorrow for my supplies. Any help would be appreciated...Thanks!

 

[djbradle]

Rochefort 10 clone

http://www.homebrewchef.com/rochefort10clonerecipe.html

I've been wanting to try this one. There are a couple Blue and Red clones for Chimay around here as well. Not sure which ones are tried and true though.

 

[JeffoC6]

Rochefort 10 clone

http://www.homebrewchef.com/rochefort10clonerecipe.html

I've been wanting to try this one. There are a couple Blue and Red clones for Chimay around here as well. Not sure which ones are tried and true though.

While I certainly love Rochefort 10, I'm not so sure I'm ready for this one yet. I did a quick peak at the recipe and there's quite a bit going on. And a lot of things I may not be readily able to get at the LHBS.

 

[Seven]

Northern Brewer has a nice Belgian Dubbel recipe that is very easy to brew. You can check it out here for some recipe inspiration.

 

[teal]

Check out these recipes from Northern Brewer/Brewing TV -

Extract with grains

That one seems to be rather straight forward.

Dawson does a larger AG one - Here a bit more complicated.

They did a good video on Belgian Sours

Here as well....

 

[Calder]

If you just do 1 gallon batches, you will have a hard job keeping your Dad in beer and having some yourself. I have a hard job keeping up with just me doing 7 gallon batches.

 

[JeffoC6]

If you just do 1 gallon batches, you will have a hard job keeping your Dad in beer and having some yourself. I have a hard job keeping up with just me doing 7 gallon batches.

Ok

 

[JeffoC6]

What do you guys think of this one?

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator?group=22&item=10065

 

[JeffoC6]

Ok, I think I decided to give this recipe a try:

http://hopville.com/recipe/936577/belgian-dubbel-recipes/westmalle-dubbel-clone

Can someone help me out with the following questions in regards to this recipe:

1) Under "Misc." at the bottom where it says "Belgian Candi Sugar Soft Brown," can I simply use...Brown sugar?

2) Under "Yeast," it only states "Belgian Strong Ale." My LHBS only carries Wyeast, so can anyone recommend what Wyeast pack to use for this recipe?

Thank you everyone for your help!

 

[Calder]

Brown sugar will be fine. I believe most Belgian breweries just use cane sugar and not candi sugar anyway.

Westmalle uses WLP530/Wyeast 3787.

Any Belgian would do for a first try. They all have character.

 

[beergolf]

I would not use brown sugar... totally not to style. Wrong flavor for a Belgian.

Either use just plain table sugar, or even Turbinado. If you can get the true Candi Syrup it would be even better.

Belgian Strong yeast is 1388 http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=128. but 3787 is another good choice.

 

[JeffoC6]

I appreciate the posts so far guys, thanks.

I'm looking at this recipe currently:

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator?group=22&item=10065

Can anyone confirm that instead of Belgian Candi Sugar I can just use table sugar?
Further, there's no outline of how long fermentation/bottle conditioning should take. Any suggestions?

Any opinions on this recipe? It seems simple enough...

Thanks all...

 

[djbradle]

Belgian Candi sugar is simply Beet sugar and water, the sugar being carmelized to a distinct color and flavor profile. Because it's a tripel it's clear candi sugar since the srm is 5. Sugar in the US is refined from either sugar beets or sugar cane and have the same essential chemistry after refinement, 99.9% sucrose. I don't see the reason to buy belgian clear candi sugar, but if it's of a higher lovibond it does make a difference, ie, D-60, D-90, D-180.

Now for fermentation make sure you make a big starter and pitch it in the low to mid 60's. Let it ramp up and then move it to a warmer place so it hits the 70's, after the first couple days. A good idea is to save the 100% fermentables like the sucrose and glucose and pitch those after the first 2/3's of fermentation is done. This will allow the yeast to be strong enough after eating the long chain sugars to consume the easier short chain sucrose/glucose. Turbinado, Demererra, clear candi sugar/syrup, table sugar are all fine choices for this purpose as 100% fermentable sugars to boost gravity.

Brown sugar is simply table sugar and molasses and I would never put molasses in my belgians.

Conditioning takes a long time in bottles. If yer keggin I can't give ya any info on that except that the higher the gravity the longer the conditioning needed.

That recipe looks good to me, nice and simple for a tripel. Good base malt and the Belgian caramel malt.