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

[Mike Neilson]

Its a bit of a mission to work out on Beersmith but it can be done!!

[Mike Neilson]

Do it!! I done it and I reacon its suit a beer more like this than the RIS I done in this manor Im alittle to tired to explain how I done it but do it, It works!!

Edit;
I Just read a little further down and I think for the time it takes its worth it!! (Joking words to me are like gospel!!) but I think if you take your first runnings of the only the Base malt and boil them through out the whole time of doing the next mash and sparge you will get a nice caramlization like eg; belgian Candy Suger? I think it could be a little more complexity to your Strong? I could be wrong how ever!!

[denimglen]

Talking about Belgian candi sugar, saw a few bottles of different shades hidden away at Mike's BC, give him a call.

[Mike Neilson]

dry or liquid

[denimglen]

Liquid.

This range.

[Mike Neilson]

God bless Cryer malt!! will be on the phone tomorrow!! cheers for the heads up!! I used this brand in my dubbel!!

[Reviled]

Mike, check out this link.. http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing...7reiterated.mp3

Pretty much what you were talking about, mashing the second lot of grain with wort, very interesting.. I must admit im quite torn now between which method to use..

[Reviled]

So it seems a few of us were doing long boils in the weekend? ;oP

I ended up doing the 'reticulated mashing', the podcast said to do the same amount of grain twice, but only a 20 min mash first time in the thought that all the starch and enzymes make it into the 2nd mash, so I weighed up 2 3.55kg lots of grain, mixed really well in the hope that one half didnt have the whole 2kgs of rye lol, and proceeded to do a 20 min mash, stirred really really well, sparged, and removed the bag..

So this is where it gets interesting - I heated the wort up to strike temp, and added my other bag, along with the 2nd lot of grain, stirred and mashed for 60 mins.. I sparged this bag really well and put into a bucket, allthough I could have done better, the dregs in the bucket read 1060 so still plenty of sugars.. I ended up with about 26 litres at 1050 so I had to boil off 6 litres of wort - 2 hour boil ;o)

In the end I hit 1060 (without the brown sugar) at 21 litres, ive got my yeast (3787) fermenting at 18*c, im gonna have a warmer ferment when I add the sugar..

So yeah, pretty good experiment, means big beers can be done in the smallest of pots really, im going to do it again for sure, probably with 2 full mash's and better sparging, maybe more sparging?? BIAB barleywine here I come lol..

sorry for the speal :oP

[Mike Neilson]

Good Stuff!!! this is what brewings about experiments and thinking out side the square!!! love it!!

[Reviled]

Ive let the ferment temp for this creep up to 20*c for some phenol action.. Gonna be adding 800g Brown sugar either tomorrow or thursday, might ferment at 22*c when I add the sugar? Ive read that alot of Belgians have a higher temp ferment, like up to 25*c, what do you guys think about this?

[JoKing]

It should be fine. The ester and phenol formation occurs within the 1st 3 - 5 days depending on gravity. Denny Conn reckons that if you are around 22 degrees during this time (with 3787) you'll get nothing but banana.

I used 3787 for my Dubbel (thanks again Mike) and pitched it at 22 on Friday. I had it at 22 degrees till Sunday when I let it go to 23 degrees. It is at 24 degrees now as the attenuation has reached 60% and I want the fermentation to keep on truckin' and give me that magic 80%.

As far as phenolic and ester formation, I can pick up on a little bit of banana, a fair amount of prune / dates... like dried stone fruit. Phenolics are subdued - maybe a little bit of cough medacine, it is difficult to pick out at this stage. It smells quite malty - no sulphur... quite clean actually. Unusual to my brewing experience for the last 12 months - as I have only gone over 20 degrees once!

I'm confident to go this high, as I am still under the recommended temp range for this strain, and I also pitched quite a large amount of yeast too. I think that pitching the correct amount is important - especially when you intend to push the upper and lower limits of your fermentation temperatures.

Also - I read that gradual feeding is only necessary with this strain when the SG is above 1.080 - so you can chuck that sugar in whenever you want.

[Reviled]

Shit, I definately dont want much banana, a bit of bubblegum wouldnt go amiss tho :o) I also really like ths sound of the prune/dates esters, yum! I quite often go over 20*c with no adverse effects, but I rarely brew with really estery yeasts like this..

Starter was about 1 litre, should have been big enough seeing as my OG was low without the suga

Also, I read that adding simple sugars half way through ferment insures the yeast doesnt get lazy? I was willing to give it a go, wonder if it will do anything for my attenuation?