what happens when.....?

[ibrewdou]

so it was later in the day and i should have waited to brew but i was home and wanted to get it done. so the kit was a strong dark belgian ale w/ an og of 1084. add the candy sugar and the corn sugar at the END of the boil?... ooops! if all else fails read the directions. so i added the candy sugar and 10 of the 15oz. of corn sugar with the dme and lme. WOW!, its sweet. added the last 5oz. at the end of the boil and added the hopps correctly. so its in the carboy at an og of1092! w/ an expected abv of +/- 13%!!! yee-haw! now, the question is, how do we think it will taste? have i made a barley wine by mistake, and will i need to dry hopp this to tone down the sweetness? and, if so,.. how much hopps and what kind and when. should i use the same kind as was in the kit??? any help would be appreciated.

 

[Dr_Deathweed]

recipie would help.

 

[Iordz]

Which yeast strain are you using? If you control the fermentation temperature properly, you could reach +80% attenuation with a Belgian strain. Most Belgian strong ales are strong in alcohol and flavor, but light in body with minimal sweetness, so that one could drink them over and over. Maintain a steady 68F untill fermentation begins to slow down, then allow the beer to warm up, naturally, to around 72-72F. This should give you maximum yeast performance and good attenuation so that the beer doesn't end up sweet.

 

[ibrewdou]

im using wyeast 1762 belgian abbey 2. its right at 68* and fermenting away! i made a starter and spun it on my home made stir plate,(which im quite proud of, if the beer turns out as well as the stir plate i'll be very happy!) the kit says two months to finish, so i'm thinking probably two weeks in the primary. i'm sure it will be drinkable, i'm just not sure what kind of difference it will make having boiled the sugar for an hour with the fermentables instead of after the flame-out.

 

[Iordz]

Boiling the sugar for longer could give the beer a slight caramel undertone, it should be interesting, but the beer should still be quite dry.

 

[Poindexter]

Having the sugars in there during the boil increased the gravity of you stuff in your kettle, so you hop U (utilization) is a little bit lower than the recipe designer was planning on.

Honestly you may not notice. When you rack from 1-2 take a good sized sample and spend some time drinking it. Belgian hop rates are all over the map anyway, it is probably fine. It will definitely be beer, and if you must you could dry hop it later.

If the hydro sample tastes OK just bottle it and move on.

M2c,
P

 

[Iordz]

If you are going for authenticity, I would not recomend dry hopping. Belgian yeast strains create very complex aromas that might clash with dry hopping. Of course, there are some good dry hopped Belgian brews, like Iris by Cantillio. They go very light on the dry hops, allowing the esters to combine with hop aroma, this creates a wonderful balance.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I agree with a couple of previous posters that the recipe that you used would greatly aid in us being able to help you.

 

[ibrewdou]

all right fellas, i'm back from working all week, sorry about the delay in responding to your responses. the recipe is as follows, 1.5lbs of caramunich malt, 6lbs pilsen malt syrup 60 mins boil, 2 lbs dme 60 mins boil, 2 lbs belgian soft candi sugar, end of boil(OOOPS!) 15oz. corn sugar, end of boil. ( caught the mistake after10 0z.) 10oz tradition hops 60 min, 0.5 oz. hallertau 30min, 0.5 0z hallertau 5 min. og1084apprx. its still burping away and the burps smell good. im planning on racking next weekend. ill take that sample and see where the og is and how it tastes. its definitly lightned in color. im really very curios to see whats gonna happen. i thank you fellas for your kind responses and will update when i rack and get a sampl to taste. has anyone read stan heironymus' book ... brew like a monk? any reviews or opinions, what say you? thanks

 

[Iordz]

has anyone read stan heironymus' book ... brew like a monk? any reviews or opinions, what say you?

It offers great information on the history and brewing of the style of beers. I like is because Stan balances the artistic and technical sides of brewing. I would highly recomend this book to any brewer who is interested in Belgian abbey ales.

 

[ibrewdou]

thanks for review, does he offer recipes in the book also? the #8 i brewed and added the sugar early was one of his he did for northern brewer.