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Belgian Strong Ale
I've been reading a fairly new book called "Brew Like A Monk", and I'm attempting a recipe that follows the guidelines outlined in the book. I think that most of us formulate recipes the wrong way, mistaking complexity of flavor with complexity of recipe, which appears to be the opposite of Belgian Tradition. I'm not sure how the color calculator made this seem so dark. I can't imagine how pils, 150 crystal, and dark candy sugar could achieve this. Of course this recipe might not be completely finalized yet.
| Brewer: | Steve | Email: | - | |||||
| Beer: | Belgian Strong Ale | Style: | Belgian Strong Ale | |||||
| Type: | All grain | Size: | 5 gallons | |||||
| Color: |
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Bitterness: | 19 IBU | |||||
| OG: | 1.119 | FG: | 1.015 | |||||
| Alcohol: | 13.4% v/v (10.5% w/w) | |||||||
| Water: | I've begun to use pH stabilizer. It seems to be pretty good stuff. For specific water choice, I use bottled spring water of a fairly soft variety. Adjust if you must. | |||||||
| Grain: | 16.0 lb. Belgian Pilsner .5 lb. British crystal 135-165L |
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| Mash: | 75% efficiency | |||||||
| Low temperature for longer period of time ~ 146F. Remember that we're going for maximum attenuation. Don't worry about a perfect mash out. The book recommends not letting the sparge temperature get above 163. See the abovementioned book for details. Single step is sufficient for well modified malts. Go for 2 hours if you can maintain the temperature. | ||||||||
| Boil: | 60+ minutes | SG 1.089 | 6.68 gallons | |||||
| 3 lb. Belgian candi sugar (dark) | ||||||||
| Boil down for a target 5g in the fermenter (and keep in mind the volume lost during cooling). As always, use Irish Moss at the last 15 minutes.. | ||||||||
| Hops: | .5 oz. Hallertauer (4.25% AA, 60 min.) .5 oz. Styrian Goldings (5.5% AA, 60 min.) .5 oz. Hallertauer (4.25% AA, 30 min.) .5 oz. Styrian Goldings (5.5% AA, 30 min.) |
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| Yeast: | A White Labs or Wyeast variety that has Westmalle as the origin would be good. WLP530 or Wyeast 3787. Make a hefty starter for attenuation's sake! Try for a lower temperature in the range indicated on the package during a primary fermentation of a week or two, and go for a long and cold secondary fermentation if possible. If not, then don't worry, but temperature affects phenolic and ester profile. Since this takes so long to ferment, try to crop some yeast and store it for use in bottling. If not, this stuff will take a long time to carbonate. | |||||||
| Log: | TBB - to be brewed. | |||||||
| Carbonation: | Bottle condition with high volumes of co2 to stay close to style. Be careful of exploding bottles! | |||||||
Recipe posted 10/26/05.
