Planning first Belgian (golden strong ale)... what to do after fermentation?

[Dog House Brew]

I’ve had less than stellar results kegging any Belgian. I usually transfer to the keg with priming sugar. I mix it and then bottle with my bottling setup. I try to mitigate any O2 from the cold side, I purge and bottle. Bottle conditioning, IMO, is the only way to go when bottling Belgian beers. I follow the same process with Saison. I always cork and cage both, some of that is for the experience. All of these go into 750ml bottles. I’ve found that that makes the best specimen. Just me, I’ve brewed a lot in these styles. Kegging my triple was the worst of all! Just my $.02

 

[JohnDBrewer]

Your Chloride:Sulfate ratio is not ideal at 1.27. This is a "Belgian Pilsner", it's not a malty style. You need more gypsum and less CaCl2. I target only about 0.6

Is there a standard water profile you use, "Antwerp"?

 

[JohnDBrewer]

I’ve had less than stellar results kegging any Belgian.

I agree. Never been able to get the effervescent carb level with a keg. Or at least never been able to get it out of the keg that way .

 

[VTMongoose]

So overall, the timeline in the fermenter/warm conditioning/cold conditioning look good if you are going the kegging route?

I actually think your warm conditioning time is overkill. Personally I have been keg conditioning most of my Belgian ales (rather than force carbonating) and they go into the kegerator two weeks after priming and sitting at room temperature-ish.

I actually have changed my mind about the necessity of keg conditioning based on my recent experience with a witbier and am planning on skipping it with a Dubbel, Blonde, and Hefeweizen this weekend. It does make a difference, but I think if your transfer process is good, and you carbonate appropriately, that difference is marginal at best. I could be wrong. I'll find out tomorrow when I keg a Belgian Blonde and Dubbel that are done fermenting. I'll still be bottle conditioning comp entries and giveaways because bottling from a keg and achieving north of even 2.5 volumes of CO2ish is extremely hard to do.

I believe the reason European breweries keg condition their high carb ales is because 90+% of their sales are bottled and it doesn't make sense to develop an entirely different process of carbonating just for the few kegs they put out. Again, I could be wrong.

Serving styles like these from a keg requires a few modifications:

1. Higher dissolved CO2, 2.8 to 3.5 volumes depending on the style
2. Smaller diameter lines to the taps with a much longer run to prevent breakout
3. Manual agitation of the keg once in a while to resuspend yeast if applicable/desired (not applicable to BGS where I personally use gelatin). Dependent on yeast flocculation.

 

[DVCNick]

Thanks all.
Don't get me wrong, I like this beer a lot; if I was served it commercially I'd have absolutely no issue with it. Just looking to tweak/improve as we all are.

Agree that getting it into the glass from the keg at the proper carb level is a challenge/bordering on impossible.
I have long lines, low temps, and low serving pressure, about everything I know to do, and I imagine the bottle of Duvel is still going to have a higher carb level in the glass.

For bottle conditioning, I'd need to get appropriate bottles for this level of carb, then obviously the labor element; then you have the sediment from the bottle conditioning that you don't want in the glass with this style, etc, etc, we all know; but sounds like it might the only way to really get this beer "right".

 

[VTMongoose]

The Cary crown finish 375's can handle 4.0 volumes. Cary directly confirmed that themselves when I reached out to them. I and many others bottle Belgians in these.

https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/375-ml-belgian-style-beer-bottles-crown-finish

I stock up on these when they go on sale or when they offer free shipping. They're expensive but worth it.

 

[DVCNick]

The Cary crown finish 375's can handle 4.0 volumes. Cary directly confirmed that themselves when I reached out to them. I and many others bottle Belgians in these.

https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/375-ml-belgian-style-beer-bottles-crown-finish

I stock up on these when they go on sale or when they offer free shipping. They're expensive but worth it.

Whoa... I can get a bottle like that with Duvel in it for $13.xx around here!

 

[DuncB]

A dollar 30 a bottle, not so bad. Will last forever.

 

[ninkwood]

For what it's worth, I definitely think I prefer the bottling route over kegging for this particular style. I can't say for certain the quality of the bottled beer is better, but its just a better experience popping the cap on a bottle that's sat there for half a year vs a now half full keg that's been taking up space in my small keezer and that I never really want to attach a dedicated beer line to.

While I definitely prefer kegging overall, I do think bottling still has it's place. High ABV beers, and highly carbonated beers are better off bottled in my opinion.

 

[DVCNick]

A dollar 30 a bottle, not so bad. Will last forever.

Oh crap I somehow missed that was for a 12 pack... that's embarrassing.
Yeah, I will get those before the next batch and try bottling at least some of it.