Belgian Strong ale recipes

[The Carbonator]

Ive recently been into the belgians.......any i can find. I cant beleive how good they are, particularly Leffe Vieille Cuvee.

I also brewed a couple with WP550 Abbey Ale yeast starters......a bit stinky when bottling, not too good after 2-3 weeks on bottle ( but interesting ), and after 5 weeks, the best 2 brews i have done yet ( 26 brews to date ). They dont have that homebrew taste.

My only problem now is nothing else is good enough.............I need that weird Belgian taste. Its like heroin.

So, any ideas for my next couple of brews?

I have White Labs Trappist Yeast WLP500, and still have some starters of the Abbey Ale WLP550.

I read about making candy sugar......might give that a go soon too.

Thanks guys

[Ed]

Carb, just did an experiment with candy. Pours quite a head out of the fermenter. Had to try and flatten it out and wait about 5 minutes just to get a gravity reading A bit more here and a pic http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... php?t=2022
What recipes have you been using for your Belgian ales so far? I'd be keen to give some a go.

Cheers, Ed

[The Carbonator]

well, the first 2 i did at the same time, so they had the same temps and same time in fermenter. they were:

Coopers Pale Ale
1.5kg Liquid Malt
about 15g Cascade
starter of WLP550 Abbey ale.
no boil
1052 - 1010

Coopers Sparkling Ale
1.5kg Liquid Malt
1kg Brew enhancer 2
about 10g Hersbruker
about 10g Cascade
WLP550 Abbey ale Yeast starter
no boil
1062-1018


The Sparkling Ale is by far the better of the 2.

I can seem to drink anything else lately.

Im got a Wals Dry lager, and also a Wals Wheat in the fermenters now.
both with just Brew Enhancer 2, about 7g saaz, and both got a raging 1 Lt starter of wlp550 each.

Ill let you know how they go.

[Ed]

Thanks Carb, I'll give the Sparkling Ale a go but might add or substitute in some candy. I've only tried a couple of homebrew Belgian ales, they weren't my own but agreed, highly drinkable brews. One of them had a hint of banana flavour which seemed to sit quite nice.

Found some links for recipes last night. They look interesting.
Cheers, Ed

http://www.belgianstyle.com/mmguide/brew/recipes.html
http://www.homebrewmart.com/beerreci.ht ... n%20Double
http://www.beertools.com/html/recipe.ph ... none&text=
http://www.oregonbrewcrew.com/recipes/r ... trong.html
http://beerrecipes.org/findrecipe.cfm

[pharmaboy]

Ed, my fav belgian ale that i brew, is what i call a forbidden fruit;-
Brewcraft belgian ale 1.7kg
LME 1.5 kg (light if you want the right colour, amber for more complex sugars)
500gm English crystal malt steeped
200 grams brown sugar (or candy if you can be bothered)
tablespoon crushed coriander
zest of one mandarine
forbidden fruit yeast (can be got from bottle or wyeast forbidden fruit)

brew at 24 degrees

If you want to be real tricky, the sugar/candy can be added after krausen to give the yeast another shot.

make up to 21 litres.

[Ed]

Thanks pharm . When you add the candy or sugar, are you racking at the same time or is this topped into the same fermenter? I see your'e not adding any hops, I know Belgians are meant to be reasonably light-on with hops but would you think an addition would go well or detract?

Cheers, Ed

[pharmaboy]

G'day ed, the belgians do it at the equivalent of racking to secondary AFAIK, would be a good idea if you were brewing out to 8.5% or so, as that might be a tough job for the yeast to start and finish. I've never bothered with the 2 stage brew, except in a priming keg kinda way.

The style of forbidden fruit is on the low bitterness side and low aroma for hops - its about the yeast. Some of the other styles are a bit more hoppy, so I've steered clear of extra hops. The place where I built this recipe from is grain and grapes
http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/BeerOTM ... ffruit.htm

As you can see, mines been a little changed, half way between a kit and a partial.

[Ed]

Hi pharm, that's a bloody marvelous help, good link and well explained
I might go the racking but probably won't go for as much as 8.5%
Reckon I'll stick with basically what you've done there for the first one.
Thanks for the help.

Cheers, Ed

[Ed]

Went with this below, started today, will let you know how it turns out. Expecting around 1013 as a FG so should work out to around 7%. Found lots of useful info on Belgian recipes & brewing temps here http://www.realbeer.com/spencer/Belgian/

Thanks for the pointers,
Cheers, Ed

1.7 Coopers Sparkling
1.7 Amber Malt extract
500g candy sugar
250g Euro steep grains (crystal, wheat, hops)
15g coriander
5g citric acid
Wyeast 3463 (forbidden fruit), made into 0.5L starter, pitched @ 22C, aiming to brew @ 18C.

Qty: 22L

OG: 1.058 @ 22C

[yardglass]

sounds good Ed,
me knowing very little about the style, are you going to dry hop or rack onto any hop tea ?

what hops were in that steep ?

is the citric a substitute for the bitter orange ?

sorry for the interrogation.
i wouldn't mind trying this one.

cheers
yard

[Ed]

Yardy, don't know that much about the style myself but have tried a couple of my brothers HB's done in the style and they were bloody marvelous. Also like every description I've read and quite like the idea of having a light bodied but high alc/vol brew . Hence the liberal use of sugar in Belgian brews.

From what I gather, Belgians are low hopped, so I don't plan on any further additions. Aparently in this style, hop flavour is just used for balance and shouldn't be prominent. The guy at the HBS actually suggested I go for a draught instead of the sparking for the kit component. He reckoned the hop in the sparkling might be a little too bitter for the style

I don't actually know what hops were in the steep, bought it as a pre-mix and didn't think to ask about the hop component until I got home. It's a mix intended for European style brews.

Used the citric acid for sugar inversion as per the article http://oz.craftbrewer.org/Library/Metho ... andy.shtml
just added more than recommended as I thought it may be a substitute for the lack of using orange (probably completely off track but oh well )

I'm just as much in the dark as you, but will let you know how it turns out. I'm pretty keen on this one.

Cheers, Ed

[pharmaboy]

Ed, at 18 degrees, you are right on the edge of the temps for that yeast, (18-25) it was the temp that i was first recomended by the HBS when i got the yeast, as mentioned theres buggar all fruitiness at that temp, and quite a dry, almost london ale type of effect, the higher end of the scale is 25c where the most fruit is - so if you cant control the temp that well, nothing bad happens in my experience untill you 27c - bit tannic at that point for me - put it down to experience.


post how it goes.

[Ed]

Hi pharm, I can control the temp. I'll take your advice and up it a bit. I know you're using 24C, but how does 21C sound? If you have a look here http://www.realbeer.com/spencer/Belgian ... ewing.html , all the brews are being done in the high teens to avoid solvent flavours. Sounds as though you've had no problem with this though?

Cheers & thanks, Ed

[pharmaboy]

have had probs at 27c, which is what i was conned into believing was the fermentation temp at hoegaarden by another HBS (notice 2 letters contain BS!) . although I do understand it is high, i think 21c would be fine. It might be interesting to pitch at 25 and put in fridge at 21 or 22 - should take a day or 2 to get down to 21 with yeast activity, so you might get a bigger breadth of flavours from the yeast. at those temps you are right in the middle of the recomended range. My temp control isnt accurate enough to define between a couple of degrees, all I know is that 18 was little yeast charachter, 24 a lot, 27 acetone and lambic flavours requiring maturation before drinking - 21 'll be fine

[Ed]

Hi pharm, my fridge control isn't 100% accurate but is reasonably so. I have a simple set up where I just have a timer clicking in for 15 minutes at chosen intervals, I did a lager in there for 3 weeks and was able to keep it inside a 1C range so quite happy with that. I see what you mean about 18C being on the lower end of the scale, a variation there could halt the process. What I rely on is the temp strip and a simple thermometer that sits on top of the fermenter. You've talked me into the 21C ferment . Currently sitting exacly there.

Sounds like you're a full bottle on this style. Got any other goodies there?

Cheers, Ed

[The Carbonator]

ok guys. Ive got a wheat beer with belgian yeast bottled, but im still waiting for the other one to finish fermenting:

wals dry lager
1.5kg liquid malt
1kg dex
5g saaz
Belgian Ale yeast WLP550 1 litre raging starter
20.5L
OG - 1072


I used the dry enzyme that comes with the wals dry, and after 11days its still going
Its at 1012 now. If it gets down to 1010, it will be 8.5%

Tastes great out of the hydrometer - very strong. That warming, alcohol feeling. Promising.
Im thinking that its gonna take months to age......

Im gonna try Brewferm next. Very pricy thought......

[Ed]

Sounds nice carb, let us know when you crack the first one. Big alc/vol there . What temp did you go for? 11 days and still going seems a bit, would you atribute that to the enzyme?

Cheers, Ed

[The Carbonator]

i had it between 22 - 26 the whole time..........im at the mercy of nature.

I think it took so long because there was so much fermentables in there, and the dry enzyme helped the yeast ferment it all the way down to 1007

its 8.9%

I've never had a brew go down to 1007. Its the first time i have used it, so Im certain that it was the dry enzyme.

[Ed]

Carb, where's it going to stop. Would've tought your recipe should only get down to around 1012 to 1015. I guess you're correct and it's the enzyme allowing to keep converting. I have a lager that went down to 1006 and now in bottles, haven't cracked one yet but the temptation is there

Thanks for the info.

Cheers, Ed

[db]

the dry enzyme can get the gravity down below 1.000 (alcohol has a gravity lower than 1.000).. the one time i used it my brew got to 0.999.. on how low the FG will go depends on how much alcohol the yeast can handle IMO