Been tooling with a notion for a dark Belgian ale, sort of in between a Leffe Blonde and Brune, darkish but not heavy. Looked at lots of recipes. Most Belgians are too heavy or high in alcohol for my taste. I guess like a Belgian MG Hightail Ale. I like a Forbidden Fruit but struggle to finish a whole one (like cats really).
Anyway, I am thinking of doing this.
1 x Kit of Morgans Australian Pilsener (added at flameout)
1 Kg Dark DME
500g dark candy sugar
150g corn syrup
100g Golden Syrup
30g Saaz at flameout
Safale T-58
Does that sound like it would come out interesting to the nose and palate, but still balanced in a Belgian kind of way?
I have been playing with Beer Smith this arvo, (which is running under Linux btw yay) and have refined my recipe somewhat.
1.7 Kg Kit Morgans Pilsner
1 Kg Dark DME
250g Dark Candy Sugar
100g Corn Syrup
250g Caramunich steeped for 30 min
20g Chinook (or Galena) for 60 min
10g Pearle for 30
20g Saaz at flameout
T-58 yeast
But I'm not sure how much the hops from the kit will contribute to the result. What is the effect on the hops in the kit when boiled for an hour?
Hey, nice looking recipe, i'd recomend the whitelabs liquid belgian yeast, imparted that awesome peachy round ale flavour. Anyway, i have been putting mine away way to quickly, keg is pretty much empty
Thanks for the feedback Gibbo. Not getting much input on this recipe so was wondering if it is silly, or whatever.
I was planning on using the T-58 (isn't that a Russian tank?) for it's spicy notes. Thought that might help cut through any cloying sweetness or syrup-iness.
Unless someone points out it is fundamentally flawed I think I will put this one down next week-end.
pretty different to your recipe, but i had a wyeast 3944 trub that i wanted to re-use. i knew that the 3944 was *meant* for a belgian wit, but i threw together the following anyway:
23L Final Volume
2kg Light Liquid Malt
1.5kg Amber Liquid Malt
1kg Morgans Caramalt Extract
250g choc malt steeped
500g dextrose
30g Perle 8% 60 min
20g Tettnanger 4.5%, 10 minutes after flamout
20g Saaz Dry-hopped at racking
The yeast cake had bits of bitter orange peel in it too (previous brew was a bit hoegaarden-ish), but i soldiered on.
Today i bottled it after 58 days in primary and secondary, and my goodness, it is FANTASTIC. so balanced, so complex. It's got that slight phenolic warmth that comes with a highish alcohol belgian, it's pretty much like a darker version of leffe blonde to me (incidentally, what you mentioned in your first post). The brewcraft calculator says 8.6% with those fermentables - i don't have a reliable OG:FG calculation as the trub bumped up the OG reading to 1100 - which I'm sure isn't right. After the main fermentation the sediment settled and I racked it, it was at 1010. that's over 12% if it's correct - impossible with those fermentables.
but yeah, enough waffling on. i guess my point was, i tried something different, 'broke the rules' so to speak (used a wit yeast with a dark ale), and got something spectacular.
Thats great that it has turned out so well. Difficult to replicate - well you have to make a brew before just to get the trub Think I'll proceed with my own recipe and just see how it turns out. Someone has to be Magellan.
i wouldn't be surprised if it turned out very similar with a fresh wyeast 3944 starter and maybe 5 grams of bitter orange peel. the orange is basically undetectable as it is, it's very, very subtle. i was just stoked that a 'throw-together' non-wheat brew turned out so well with a wheat-designed yeast
I tried throwing a Spicy Ghost onto the same trub and it was terrible. Although I suspect that it got infected anyway. Some of my mates liked it anyway....
How did you go with your Hoegaarden clone? Mine is still a bit young ATM (after about 2-3 months). There's still too much bitterness in there for the style.
yeah, it still needs more ageing. i didn't follow the recipe, decided to make something stronger and a little darker of my own creation. it's not bad, but definitely needs more ageing.. cloyingly sweet at the moment, and a bit too tart.
Just been brewing my West Brunswick Belgian Brune tonight. Upped the Dark Candy to 500g on the spur of the moment. I figured it's the main ingredient thats contributing any Belgian character so I might as well be a little more generous.
Put this brew down on Friday the 13th - (Maybe I should call it Krueger Ale?)
Steeped 250g Caramunich #1
Boiled up:
100g Corn Syrup
1Kg DDME
20g Chinook 60 min
10g Perle 30 min
Near the end I added
500g G&G Dark Candy Sugar
1.7Kg Morgans Aust Pilsener
20g Saaz at flameout
Yeast is T-58
23 litre batch (approx 8 litre boil)
Beersmith estimates my OG at 1046, but I measured it at 1058. Beersmith estimates an FG of 1012.
I racked it off on the 20th (7 days on primary). Its now been 13 days and the gravity measures 1020. Its been 1020 for the last 8 days. Seems like its done. The temp has been 16 - 18 degrees. The fermenter next to it has the same yeast (Canadian Blonde in this one) and has been fermenting madly.
Anyway, 1020 seems pretty high, but what do you beer gnostics think?
1020 does seem a bit high for that... are you getting a lot of sediment in the hydrometer tube? might need to drain half a cup off before taking your test sample. also, give the fermenter a bit of a rock to get the yeast in suspension again and hopefully rouse it a bit.
Came home from work just now and it's bubbling out the airlock again. I gave it a very little rouse last night. (There is a yeast cake even though it was racked off. ) Not sure if that was it, or maybe the room is 1 degree warmer The mystery of beer !!
Think I'll proceed with my own recipe and just see how it turns out. Someone has to be Magellan. 
The mystery of beer !!