beer Passow Brews: Belgian Special Dark

Excellent. Belgium produces my favorite beer in the entire world. I love the spirit of their brewing! And your brew looks good, Jon. You did the right thing with your low mash temps and with your sugar addition. Do you have the "Brew Like A Monk" book by Stan Hieronymus? It sheds a lot of light on the mentality of brewing in Belgium.

Cheezydemon, it is important to use sugar while brewing this style so that you lighten the body and, believe it or not, add complexity. A dark strong ale is usually made from a very simple recipe of pilsner malt and dark candi sugar, with the possible addition of a small amount of debittered black malt for color and aging stability.

Now, I'm not a super big fan of the rock candy that they sell as dark brewing sugar. That stuff is usually just sucrose (table sugar) sold with an exotic price tag, so I see where cheezy is coming from. When you make your own sugar for brewing, you can add some acid and heat to invert the sugar, and get something closer to authenticity. But what's really exciting is that now brewing supply companies are importing the real deal! You can get syrup or soft sugar that is made from beet sugar:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/brewing-ingredients/sugars/belgian-candi-sugar

Excluding, of course, the 3rd and 4th products on the top row. I'm sure your beer will be awesome, though, with what you used.

More info on the sugar:

http://www.brewlikeamonk.com/2006/04/24/belgian-caramelized-syrup-now-available-in-america/
 
imaguitargod said:
My next one is fresh hop IPA with nothing but Cascade and Mt. Hood hops! Mmmmmm....citrusy....
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What are your thoughts on Amarillo hops? I prefer them over cascade. They are like a super-cascade with more flavor and citrus.
 
I do not own that book, but I'll keep my eye out for it, thanks!

As for Amarillo, I do like that as well!!! Actually, I like all hops. The reason I'm going with the Mt Hood and Cascade is because that's what I'm growing this year and they are ripe for a brew now. Off the vine and into the kettle they go!
 
imaguitargod said:
The reason I'm going with the Mt Hood and Cascade is because that's what I'm growing this year and they are ripe for a brew now. Off the vine and into the kettle they go!
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That is a truly perfect reason!
 
imaguitargod said:
I keep inviting you... :lol:
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One of these days...One of these days, I'll be there. You have to understand that I work 2 jobs and have a family. Scheduling is a major pain around my household. :lol: but, I will be up there one of these days. You can count on it!
 
Pepperfreak said:
One of these days...One of these days, I'll be there. You have to understand that I work 2 jobs and have a family. Scheduling is a major pain around my household. :lol: but, I will be up there one of these days. You can count on it!
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Just ditch the family and you won't have to work the second job and then you'll have more time for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!111 :lol:
 
imaguitargod said:
Just ditch the family and you won't have to work the second job and then you'll have more time for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!111 :lol:
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:lol: Errr.....Might be more tempting if you where a hot blond with a killer bod. :lol: j/k
 
OH...Okay...well as you pointed out you are of the wrong make and model. :P again j/k :lol:

I could never trade in my wife, she is the best and my best friend!
 
Pulled the trigger on my 1st harvest ale!!

4 cups or so of the brownish hop cones. They smelled awesome in my hands, NO hop aroma from the brewpot.;)

We'll see.
 
Have you thought about gradual feeding of these big belgian beers.

When you give yeast a really strong solution rich in simple surcrose sugars, it will go nuts to start with on the surcrose (candy sugar) and produce fusel alcahols. Its Fusel's that give the beer that hot alcahol feel and makes your head hurt a lot.

To avoid fusels, you need to pitch the yeast into the Maltose wort from your Mash and let it start cool. After a couple days when it starts to slow a bit add half the sugar and mix in. Let it go for a couple days and add the rest.... all the time slowly bumping the temperature up and let it finnish off warm.

This will make a much nicer beer in a 1.100 wort and should be smooth like was only 1.040.

cheers
 
Interesting Tony.

I gradually fed an imperial stout 2 years ago.

I brewed a fairly strong 3 gallons, and after 2 days added some concentrated wort, and again after 2 days, a gallon of concentrated wort.

I coaxed it up to about 13% ABV with white labs irish ale yeast.

OG was about impossible to calculate, but I did my best.

Stupid me though, the yeast were too pooped to bottle carb, and I was not kegging.;)
 
I dont think its such a problem with all malt beers. Its more when you have a lot of sugar to add like in a belgian with the candi sugar that is a prerequisite to the recipe.

I made an IIPA a while back and just mashed it cool and pitched US-05. It went from 1.090 to 1.008 for a bit over 11% and it was very smooth. But it was all malt.

With belgian beers and in particular the belgian yeast strains its a good idea to prigresivly feed it the simple sugars.

cheers
 
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