Belgian Strong

[Reviled]

Hey guys, im piecing together a Belgian Rye recipe which is gonna be my next brew after another Pale Ale, but im not really sure about the hopping cos I never do Belgians :o( I know theyre not supposed to be very bitter, so what sort of IBU/OG ratio would I be looking at here? What hops are good? Ive got some Super Alpha??

This is what im considering for my grist, would love some feedback on it also :o) pretty simple really..

4kg NZ Pils
2kg Rye
500g-1kg Munich??? Not sure how much
500g Brown Sugar
Wyeast 3787
Beer recipator gives me a rough OG of about 1079?? But that may be wrong cos its pretty shit (but free) online software

[JoKing]

Well - that sounds like a lot of yeast! Do you know what generation it was, and what the date was of propogation? Another factor is pitching temperature - all of the literature suggests that one should pitch at or below the fermentation temperature...?

[Reviled]

Not sure, got it off Brett but it attenuated my starter really well so I assumed it would be all g..

"all of the literature suggests that one should pitch at or below the fermentation temperature...?" - I hardly ever do this, normally I pitch higher and bring the temp down by the time its fermenting, less lag time etc and I still get a clean ferment - This time round I pitched at 18* so maybe ill pitch warm in my next belgian and see if theres a diff..

[JoKing]

It's a tricky one - but I'm gonna stick my neck out and say that I bet the CO2 has a Bananary odor to it, but the beer itself *once properly conditioned* will be absolutely as to be expected for a Belgian Style Dubbel... apart from the Rye... and the dry hops. But the yeast profile will be spot on.

[Reviled]

Youre right to an extent I think, allthough this was definately phenolic, but im sure that it will condition out.. I reckon the Rye will work awesome with the dry hops and phenols, im drooling allready...

Was also good to taste Emersons Rye beer, confirmed what I was picking up in my beers to an extent..

[JoKing]

Stop rubbing your readily available craft brewed beer salt in my cant get any craft beer in New Plymouth wounds please. I dont think I can take much more of it.

[Reviled]

lol, im normally in the same boat, mate sent it to me from welly.. And I was actually thinking last night, I think after all of my jelousy im actually quite glad I dont live in wellington, otherwise id end up spending all of my brewing money at Regionals :oP hahaha

Hey Jo - What about Penbroke wines and spirits? They have craft beer yeh?

[Doublehoppy]

The yeast was generation 2.

Original manufacture was early 9/08. I made a starter and used it in a Belgian Pale Ale OG 1.051. That trub was bottled after primary fermentation on 24/11.

Good to know it's still very active as I have one more trub bottle left.

[Reviled]

Mean, im glad I split some off before I pitched, im happy with how its been working :o) Got it sitting at room temp now, ill dry hop in a cube tomorrow..

[JoKing]

Awesome!

I have some wlp300 that finished primary, then canned on 13-12-08... looks like she'll stil be plenty viable for my Roggenbier!

BTW Reviled - I had a taste of my Dubbel last night at 1.022... still a ways to go, but NO banana at all, it just smelled really awesome! Flavour was prunes / raisins / caramel / malt. No bad shit in there at all - which is good... 3787 had some faint banana during active primary. Good news for you, cos I bet yours will do the same!

[Reviled]

I was really happy with it, came out at 8.5% and had a good spicy rye character which worked well with the dry hopped styrians! Tasty