Will this work?

[lboucher77]

Very new to this --- on fourth kit batch and have played around with a recipe builder wanting to make a Strong Belgian Dark Ale with Holiday flavoring.

No clue if I'm missing something or if this will work. Any critiques/feedback appreciated.


Estimates 5 gallons at 75% efficiency
OG 1.094
FG 1.023
IBU 24.4
SRM 17.72
ABV 9.3%

9 lbs. Munton's Extra Light Dry Extract
1 lb. Belgian Pale Ale
6 oz Simpsons Chocolate
1.5 oz Tettnang, German Pellets (60 minutes)
1 lb candi sugar (40 minutes)
1.5 oz Kent Goldings, UK Pellets (15 minutes)
1 tsp Irish Moss (15 minutes)

1.5 Fuggles Pellets, UK (Dry)
1 White Labs Trappist Ale Yeast

Spice Mixture -- 6 cloves, 1 oz grated ginger, zest of 1 orange, 3 cinnamon sticks

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

6 cloves and 3 cinnamon sticks may be getting a bit extreme. I think you'll be overpowered with that amount. Just my opinion though. And at 1.094, it may work out well. I've never tried a spiced beer with a gravity that high.

 

[Oldsock]

I would drop the pound of pale malt, unless you are mashing it will just add starch, and in such a complex beer you aren't going to notice 1 lb of base malt. In its place I would add some crystal malt (particuarly something dark like special B for that dark fruit character). I would also back down on the chocolate if you want a traditional belgian strong (they are very light with their dark grains).

What sort of candi sugar are you using? I can't reccomend the syrup highly enough, much better flavor than the rocks.

I would probably drop the dry hops, I think you have enough going on already with the spices/malt/yeast.

I'll second the reduced spicing, you can always add more in secondary if it needs it.

 

[lboucher77]

Thanks Suthrncomfrt1884 and Oldsock for your quick replies. This board looks like a great community and I appreciate your willingness to help out a rookie.

Have taken your advice and switched to crystal, dropping pale and chocolate, and will scale back the spice concoction.

Ordered the ingredients today, suspect to begin sometime next week.

Will post results.

thanks again!

 

[Yooper]

Also, change your efficiency to 100%. The 75% is realistic for all-grain, but you get all of the sugars out of the extract, since it's already converted before you use it.

That should bump up your OG quite a bit, so you may have to adjust the amount of extract you're using.

 

[Oldsock]

Also, change your efficiency to 100%. The 75% is realistic for all-grain, but you get all of the sugars out of the extract, since it's already converted before you use it.

That should bump up your OG quite a bit, so you may have to adjust the amount of extract you're using.

The efficiency should only impact the steeping grains, the software would already caclulate the sugar/extract at 100% if anything steeping will probably only get ~50% efficiency, but it depends on the grain. How to Brew has a great little chart: http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/chapter13-2.html