Trying to make Belgium Golden Strong Ale? All help is appreciated

[mister704]

What: Trying to make Beligum Golden Strong Ale with hint of Honey and Orange.

So I did some research and right now I am just trying to understand the ingredients and how to purchase the correct amounts. New to brewing...my disclaimer.

So I found a recipe that sounds pretty good but seemed like a lot to make 5gal batch.

Grains/Fermentables

15lb of Belgium Pilsner
1.25lb of Corn Sugar

Hops

1.25 oz Styrian Goldings for 60 mins

Yeast

Special yeast from friend. From Lost rhino


What I feel like I am missing in this recipe is the orange and honey. So I found some BrewersBest orange peel on LabelPeelers but not sure as to how much I might need. As well, I am not sure how to get the correct honey taste.

What I am shooting for is a slight bitterness when it first hits the tongue but then was down with the honey and orange flavor and I chose the strong ale because I would like this to be in the 7-8% alc percentage. Its for the summer time so why not give it a little kick.


All help is greatly appreciated. All comment wills be taken into consideration.

 

[Copbrew133]

As far as the honey flavor goes, I've brewed a few beers using honey or maple syrup and found with the honey that once attentuated I ended up with no "honey flavor". It just dried the beer out. Whenever I look at wanting a honey flavor at this point I just honey malt. I think Gambrinus Maltsters makes it if I remember correctly. And it doesn't take much to get that honey like sweetness and flavor in a five gal. batch. If the honey malt puts your OG over what you want you could drop a little base malt or sugar to get into the ABV range your shooting for.

 

[mister704]

Thanks for the information. My question also is doesn't that seem like a lot of pilsner at 15 pounds? I will look for the honey malt. So you just add in the Honey malt in once you are in the 90 minute boiling after you have drained your wort and how much honey malt is necessary for a 5 gallon batch?

 

[rpkincaid]

Thanks for the information. My question also is doesn't that seem like a lot of pilsner at 15 pounds? I will look for the honey malt. So you just add in the Honey malt in once you are in the 90 minute boiling after you have drained your wort and how much honey malt is necessary for a 5 gallon batch?

That is probably too much if you are getting decent efficiency. You might want to reduce it to an amount that would give you a 1.065 to 1.070 OG (including the sugar) with your system.

 

[Copbrew133]

Is this an all grain recipe or is that pilsner a malt extract? The honey malt needs to be crushed, mashed if all grain or steeped if using it as an additive to an extract recipe. Also where did the recipe come from?

 

[Copbrew133]

Running this through BeerSmith as a 5 gallon batch and assuming 72% efficiency it is coming up with an original gravity of 1.095 which is the very upper limit of the style. That is including .5 lbs honey malt which would be plenty to get a good honey flavor. Mind you, this is not taking into account the equipment that you're using. I had it set as a ten gallon cooler and a single infusion mash at 152*F. The variables are obviously if this is an allgrain recipe (which it appears to be) and the equipment you use along with efficiency. If you brew this recipe as is you will need a nice large yeast starter.

 

[mister704]

So this is the recipe that I have came up with: Tell me what you all think

All grain boil. sorry I missed your responses, I was playing around with brewersfriend running through the numbers. I attached the results

90 minutes boil, single infusion at 150 degrees so we were close.

15lb - Belgium Pilsner
1.20oz - Styrian Goldings Hop Pellets - added after first 30 minutes
2oz - Brewers Best Bitter Orange Peel - added last 15 minutes
8oz - Gambrinus Honey Malt - added last 15 minues

Again I am shooting for a little bitterness when it first hits the tongue but end with a sweet honey orange zest. I thought it would be best to go with bitter orange because the sweetness of the honey would balance it out.

 

[rpkincaid]

So this is the recipe that I have came up with: Tell me what you all think

All grain boil. sorry I missed your responses, I was playing around with brewersfriend running through the numbers. I attached the results

90 minutes boil, single infusion at 150 degrees so we were close.

15lb - Belgium Pilsner
1.20oz - Styrian Goldings Hop Pellets - added after first 30 minutes
2oz - Brewers Best Bitter Orange Peel - added last 15 minutes
8oz - Gambrinus Honey Malt - added last 15 minues

Again I am shooting for a little bitterness when it first hits the tongue but end with a sweet honey orange zest. I thought it would be best to go with bitter orange because the sweetness of the honey would balance it out.

Honey malt should be mashed, not added to the boil. That beer will be way too sweet and have too high a FG for the style. It might be something that you enjoy but it will not be in the realm of a BGSA.

If you want it to be closer to BGSA style, I would suggest the following. Add back the sugar and remove a few pounds of pils malt to get the OG down to 1.070. Ferment with an attenuative yeast like WLP570 and let the temp rise as fermentation progresses to encourage high attenuation.

 

[mister704]

Sorry about that...yes it should be milled and be a part of the mash. Can you give a little more detail about the sugar. I don't remember seeing any sugar in the original recipe I found. Thanks for the information as well.

 

[rpkincaid]

Grains/Fermentables

15lb of Belgium Pilsner
1.25lb of Corn Sugar

Or you could sub sucrose (table sugar) for the corn sugar.

 

[mister704]

So re-calculated the math and brought the Pilsner down to 13lbs. That put the original gravity to 1.072. I am not wanting a major over powering of honey taste. Just want it to match the orange for a good crisp taste. So maybe drop that down to 5oz instead of 8oz.

 

[mister704]

Or you could sub sucrose (table sugar) for the corn sugar.

Dang...I totally didn't mean to leave that out. Got to add that in the calculation.

Thanks for the catch.

 

[rpkincaid]

So re-calculated the math and brought the Pilsner down to 13lbs. That put the original gravity to 1.072. I am not wanting a major over powering of honey taste. Just want it to match the orange for a good crisp taste. So maybe drop that down to 5oz instead of 8oz.

I don't have any experience with honey malt in BGSAs, but I have used too much in another recipe before. It can have an overpowering sweetness when too much is used. Maybe someone with more experience with it can chime in, but I think decreasing it would be a safe bet.

 

[StarrHill]

Brad from BeerSmith did a podcast recently on this style. Lots of general technique pointers for brewing the style. Really made me want a Duvel when I was finished listening to it, but my local place doesn't sell it!

Link here Good luck!

 

[mister704]

Thanks for all the help people. This is helping me get a great understanding of the actual ingredients.

This is the last mix I have came up with. Could drop the pilsner to 10lbs and that would give me about 1.070 gravity.

 

[mister704]

Went ahead and ordered everything since LabelPeelers has a 25% off deal right now.

Could not find Belgium pilsner malts so I went with a German which from reading the forum here should work fine. I ordered the Avangard Pilsner Malt which looks to be good and have good reviews from here as well. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/avangard-pilsner-malt-449690/

Went ahead and order a few other things that I needed like a bottle draining tree, Star San, another air lock, Corn sugar, and a bottle brush.

 

[rpkincaid]

Went ahead and ordered everything since LabelPeelers has a 25% off deal right now.

Could not find Belgium pilsner malts so I went with a German which from reading the forum here should work fine. I ordered the Avangard Pilsner Malt which looks to be good and have good reviews from here as well. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/avangard-pilsner-malt-449690/

Went ahead and order a few other things that I needed like a bottle draining tree, Star San, another air lock, Corn sugar, and a bottle brush.

Good luck with your brew. I noticed you have the mash time as 25 minutes. You might want to extend that since you are mashing in the lower temperature range to ensure good conversion.

 

[mister704]

yea thats already been updated to 148F for 90 minutes. Good eye in catching that though. Really appreciate the help everyone. Looks like my 1st brew has came out good. Just transferred into the secondary. Now I am hoping this one comes out just as good.

 

[Kee]

As someone else mentioned, that beer may be a little on the sweet side with just the 1.25 oz 60 minute addition of Styrian Goldings. Maybe you will be ok but I would be tempted to add the hops at the beginning of the 90 minute boil.

 

[mister704]

Thanks for the info. Will definitely keep that in consideration. Much appreciated