Belgian Golden Strong Ale Pink Elephant (Delirium Tremens clone)

[AviatorTroy]

I'm thinking about doing this next. I like the original recipe, but I had been thinking I'm going to follow it except...

So as to not shock my yeast, I'm planning on starting with just the wort from the mash. At first sign of fermentation, Ill throw in 1/4 lb of corn sugar, and then continue that once a day for four days, therefore spreading out the shock of sucrose additions to the yeasties. Anyone see a flaw in my thinking?

 

[jkarp]

Nope. I do think the double-yeast pitch (effectively over-pitching) means the yeast won't have any issues chewing through all that sugar at once, but I also see no downside to your plan.

 

[HuRRiC4Ne]

Wow, this stuff is good! Drinking it now on the keg!

 

[Retroviridae]

Update on how this one turned out for me:

I did a partial mash adaptation of jkarp's recipe. At first, hydrometer samples tasted awful - boozy with ketone/aldehyde flavors - but that is normal and it mellowed out after a couple weeks in the primary. Next problem was that the ferment stopped at 1.020, and it tasted obviously too sweet. I added Lalvin 1118 champagne yeast, which knocked off a couple of points. I let this one sit in the primary a long time (6 weeks?) trying to get the gravity to come down, but didn't notice any autolysis flavors or aromas.

Once bottled, it carbonated very fast, indicating that the yeast was active, so the high FG must have been due to the fermentability of my wort rather than the yeast. High carbonation and being served cold cuts the residual sweetness a lot, so it turned out much more balanced than I feared.

There is a clear alcohol presence, but not boozy, not unlike commercial examples of strong goldens and tripels I've tasted. The spices and Belgian yeast flavors play together well. Overall, to my tastes, it is less like Delirium and more like a spiced version of Duvel, or a less hoppy version of Piraat. A bit different from the Delirium I was shooting for, but nonetheless, I'm enjoying it. Thanks, jkarp.

 

[Bard]

Okay, I'm 48 hrs in and the krausen has started to fall. I forgot to add the S-04. Should I pitch it now, or is it too late? Thanks, B

 

[markhagan]

Okay, I'm 48 hrs in and the krausen has started to fall. I forgot to add the S-04. Should I pitch it now, or is it too late? Thanks, B

I don't have a direct answer for that, but I can tell you that I too forgot the S-04 when I first brewed this beer and it still turned out to be great. So, either way, you should find yourself in good shape.

 

[Bard]

Thanks for the response, MarkH. Guess the worst that could happen is S-04 falls to the bottom. Btw, I helped open the Galyan's Trading Co *RIP* in Louisville, KY. Made some good friends there. Cheers!

 

[Gofastr1]

jkarp - thanks for all the info you've provided. I'm gonna try brewing this in a month or so (it'll be my fifth brew overall, and my first Belgian), and I have a few questions:

1) Do you rack to a secondary after the original 7d, for the 14d lager? Or are you lagering in the primary on all that yeast?
2) This one's a little off topic. I can bottle, but I'm fully set up to keg and prefer to do so. Do you forsee any problems with racking to kegs after lagering, hitting it with about 25# CO2 to seal the keg, and conditioning for the 3 weeks (or more?) at ~ 75F. Also, since I do 10g batches, any concern if one of my kegs of this sits at basement temps (~60F) for 3 months or more while I drink the other keg (yes, a long time, but I'll generally have 3 or 4 different kegs/beers on tap at one time).
3) How'd your DT do in the LHBS competition?

Thanks and cheers.

 

[jkarp]

1) Do you rack to a secondary after the original 7d, for the 14d lager? Or are you lagering in the primary on all that yeast?

I do everything in the primary. I never use secondaries except for barleywines and lambics.

2) This one's a little off topic. I can bottle, but I'm fully set up to keg and prefer to do so. Do you forsee any problems with racking to kegs after lagering, hitting it with about 25# CO2 to seal the keg, and conditioning for the 3 weeks (or more?) at ~ 75F. Also, since I do 10g batches, any concern if one of my kegs of this sits at basement temps (~60F) for 3 months or more while I drink the other keg (yes, a long time, but I'll generally have 3 or 4 different kegs/beers on tap at one time).

I don't see a problem with any of this. DT ages quite well, I think.

3) How'd your DT do in the LHBS competition?

Judges all gave it rave comments but scored it mid-pack as they thought it should have been in 18C instead of 18D. I chalked it up to inexperienced judges.

 

[Gofastr1]

Thanks for the lightening response, jkarp. As you were responding, I was creating my recipe, which led to one more question.

I'm AG, and have not yet made a batch with additional extract/sugar in the kettle, so as a noob to this, I'm not sure how to scale your 3g to my 10g. Should I just directly scale up the beet (or corn) sugar to 3.33 lb., and then scale up the Belgian Pilsener to give me the 1.072 target OG at my mash efficiency?

Thanks again!

 

[jkarp]

Thanks for the lightening response, jkarp. As you were responding, I was creating my recipe, which led to one more question.

I'm AG, and have not yet made a batch with additional extract/sugar in the kettle, so as a noob to this, I'm not sure how to scale your 3g to my 10g. Should I just directly scale up the beet (or corn) sugar to 3.33 lb., and then scale up the Belgian Pilsener to give me the 1.072 target OG at my mash efficiency?

Thanks again!

Yup, everything scales linearly. Just multiply everything by 3.33 for 10 gal.

 

[AviatorTroy]

Here ya go, scaled by BeerToolsPro...

Pink Elephant
18-D Belgian Golden Strong Ale

Size: 10 gal
Efficiency: 93%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 273.87 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.082 (1.070 - 1.095)
Terminal Gravity: 1.020 (1.005 - 1.016)
Color: 2.17 (3.0 - 6.0)
Alcohol: 8.1% (7.5% - 10.5%)
Bitterness: 35.6 (22.0 - 35.0)

Ingredients:
21.67 lb Pilsen Malt
3.33 lb Corn Sugar
2.5 oz Styrian Goldings (6.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.67 oz Saaz (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

So I've converted this recipe to 5 gallons as follows:

Recipe: Delirium Tremens
Style: Belgian Golden Strong Ale
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.41 gal
Estimated OG: 1.072 SG
Estimated Color: 4.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 26.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
11 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 86.27 %
1.25 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] (60 min) Hops 20.9 IBU
0.83 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (15 min) Hops 5.1 IBU
0.15 oz Ginger Root (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
0.15 oz Seeds of Paradise (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
0.42 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 lbs 12.0 oz Cane (Beet) Sugar (0.0 SRM) Sugar 13.73 %
1 Pkgs Belgian Golden Ale (White Labs #WLP570)
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04)


Mash 90 min at 149






My question is, doesn't this recipe call for quite a bit of Seeds of Paradise? In the 5 gallon version I'll be using .15oz/4g however most resources I've read say that it's a very potent spice and 1g for a 5 gallon batch is enough.

Also I've seen in multiple sources that you only need to boil for 5 minutes. Thoughts?

 

[jkarp]

I don't find GoP any more potent than coriander. 4g in 5 gal seems minor to me...

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

Cool, thanks for confirming.

DT is one of my faves and I can't wait to brew this. All of the ingredients come tomorrow!

 

[Phunhog]

I just racked this into the keg and......damn it tastes good!! I will have to compare them side by side but it tastes like I how I remember DT tasting. My OG was 1.075 and FG was 1.010. I primaried for 3 weeks and cold crashed for 2 weeks. Came out really clear!! Thanks for the recipe!! Al

 

[Phunhog]

Just an update......I kegged and force carbed this beer. I served it at a party when the beer was almost 6 weeks old. It was AMAZING!!! It is definetly one of the best beers I have brewed. I will have to get a bottle of DT to see how it compares.

 

[jkarp]

Very cool Phunhog. It's definitely a fun brew.

 

[Swig_A_Bedder_Brew]

Brewed this yesterday for a 5 gallon batch. We over sparged and ended up with a 6 gallon batch but some how we over achieved our efficiency and still nailed the OG at 1072. Mashed for 90 min following the original mash sched posted in the thread. Pitched a huge starter with WL570 and cultured yeast from a DT bottle and Safeale 04. We immediately put a blow off tube on it and glad we did. Started to bubble 2 hours after pitching!

Can't wait to share this with friend on my BDAY in April. More notes to come as well as final Picts.
Thanks for the great recipe and tips in the thread.

 

[wadeo]

Swig,

Be sure to let us know how it turns out and if you had and troubles during your brew session with this great beer...

Very interested to trying this one

 

[HItransplant]

ill have to give this one a go

 

[Swig_A_Bedder_Brew]

Will keep you updated as things ferment. The actual brew session went very smoothly as the step up mash worked better then expected. We BIAB and have only done 6 beers so far this after extract brewing for the better half of a year. Very excited to see how this tastes and smells next week.

 

[Swig_A_Bedder_Brew]

Beer is going AWESOME. Tasted it when we took a gravity reading after only 8 days and it's almost dead on to the original. G down to 1014 in 8 days! Going to rack to secondary this weekend and lager outside in the very cold NYC. (it's been in the high 20's to low 30's here) Plan on 3 weeks or so in the cold and then will bottle it up.

Will report G and more notes soon.
If you're thinking about brewing this, do it.

CORRECTION: gravity down to 1012 after 8 days.

 

[KCBrewer]

On the ginger, is the weight of 2.4 grams if using dried ginger root or the weight of a fresh ginger root?

 

[jkarp]

On the ginger, is the weight of 2.4 grams if using dried ginger root or the weight of a fresh ginger root?

Fresh grated.

 

[KCBrewer]

Thanks jkarp.
I was going to pick up some dried ginger since thats what the lhbs has and I'm going there today. From my understanding the dried ginger is a little more potent. I plan to do a 10 gallon batch so I would need 8 grams of fresh grated. Does 6 grams of the dry sound about right?

 

[jkarp]

Man, I don't know. I definitely agree the dried would be stronger but I have no clue on the conversion. Maybe the LHBS can offer advice.

 

[KCBrewer]

Thanks again, I went ahead and picked up some fresh ginger from Nature's Pantry.

The lhbs didn't have paradise so I went there to see if they did, no luck. I also checked another natural foods store with no luck. What else is paradise used for? Both stores asked me and I had no clue. I need to order a few other things from NB so I'll probably get it there, but I was surprised that it wasn't available anywhere local. I've never heard of it before this recipe, so I don't know where else to look.

 

[Swig_A_Bedder_Brew]

I had to look hard to find Seeds of Paradise.
Not a common ingredient at my LHBS, I ended up going to Brooklyn Home Brew instead of The Brooklyn Kitchen.

Racking 6 gallons to secondary and lagering today!

 

[jkarp]

Grains of paradise is a pretty common spice for Belgian beers. If your LHBS doesn't carry it, they should be able to order it for you. Whole Foods can order them too.