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Some buddies and I are getting together to brew a holiday beer and we've settled on Belgian strong dark as a general style. As the most experienced brewer I've been tasked with concocting the recipe. Only problem is.... I'm not that experienced! Here is the recipe that I've come up with, minus any spice additions.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 12.54 gal
Post Boil Volume: 10.66 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 10.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 9.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.092 SG
Estimated Color: 20.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 22.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 66.9 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
14.000 kg Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 84.3 %
0.650 kg Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.9 %
0.350 kg Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 3 2.1 %
0.250 kg Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 4 1.5 %
0.900 kg Candi Sugar, Dark (80.0 SRM) Sugar 5 5.4 %
0.450 kg Dememera Sugar (2.0 SRM) Sugar 6 2.7 %
40.00 g Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 7 18.8 IBUs
20.00 g Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 8 3.6 IBUs
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 9 -
1.0 pkg Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500) [35.49 Yeast 10 -


I've heard that when brewing higher ABV brews your efficiency can drop, so I've dropped mine in brewsmith around 10% to try to account for that. Also a significant starter will be used.

Now I'm willing to experiment all day long, but I don't want to make something gross or undrinkable for my friends. How does this look to you more experienced brewers? Suggestions are very welcome!

Iirc

Many if the Belgian strong recipes I seen in the book brew like a monk had 10-20% candi sugar.


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Definitely right to adjust the efficiency. I'll look at my old recipes.

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Thanks guys. I'll definitely check out that book.

Keep in mind that Belgian strong ales are generally well attenuated, so if you're starting with an OG of 1.092, you're probably going to end up at 10 - 11%. I'd bump the sugar up to at least 10%, maybe 15, and consider trying this - http://www.brewnosers.org/forums/viewto ... ilit=candi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; You get more control of the flavours you get out of the sugar, and it's cheaper too.

And feed the sugar late into fermentation, not in the boil.

Updated recipe based on suggestions:

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
12.000 kg Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 78.2 %
0.600 kg Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.9 %
0.300 kg Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 3 2.0 %
0.200 kg Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 4 1.3 %
30.00 g Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 5 16.8 IBUs
20.00 g Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 6 4.2 IBUs
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 7 -
1.0 pkg Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500) [35.49 Yeast 8 -
2.250 kg Candi Sugar, Dark (80.0 SRM) Sugar 9 14.7 %

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 12.54 gal
Post Boil Volume: 10.66 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 10.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 9.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.087 SG
Estimated Color: 25.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 66.6 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Looks like it will be nice and dry, not overly hoppy and sitting at around 10% abv. Homemade candi sugar is a great idea that I will tackle with the gf sometime soon! Thanks for the link!

Edit: With the special malts at such a low % should I even bother using them?

It's up to you. Most dubbels and dark strong ales have at least some specialty malts, of varying kinds, although I didn't use any in my last dubbel, just pilsener and munich malt and homemade candy syrup. You can get a lot of flavour with cooked sugars, but I've never used the store bought kinds, so I can't comment on them.

I think I will keep them in, it will be a nice place to start.

Keep the specialty malts in there. Even at low levels they will add some complexity in flavour and aromas.


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Another thing to consider is adding fresh yeast at bottling. 10+% is hard on even high grav yeast

Ps..I actually enjoy the brew I made with the extra runoff more than the actual BDS...

I used the Coopers carbonation drops in my Belgian Golden Ale, 8%. I used various sized bottles, some 600 ml, 700 ml, and up to 1 L bottles. I added 2 drops per bottle and got lots of carbonation. My FG was at 1.012, not particular dry so maybe that was why I managed to get lots of carbonation. No bottle bombs though, well yet.

Thought I would update this since the batch is being bottled tomorrow.

This pushed the limits of my 18g cooler mash tun and 15g kettle to the max! Mash eff was very low despite a 90 minute mash, approximately 45-50%. My tun was full to the brim and I don't believe that I performed an effective sparge due to the limited size of my kettle. Next time - 6 gallon batch.

The 90 min boil was uneventful thanks to fermcap and a friend equipped with a spray bottle of cold water. After the boil the batch was split into two 5 gal fermentation pails and fermented @20C with Wyeast 3787. One pail was spiced with french oak, half a vanilla bean, and a tsp of whole cloves. The other was unmodified. To make up for the poor efficiency an additional pound of amber candy syrup was added to the kettle, and 1kg of turbinado sugar was added to each pail after the initial krausen had dropped.

Fermentation was... violent with no strange smells. Both pails had krausen to the rim and afterwards it looked like something had died in there.

A week later the beers were racked into carboys. The gravity at this time was 1.008 for both, putting the beer at an ABV of approximately 10%. In the cylinder the beer was a clear dark brown (this yeast seems to flocc very well) despite Beersmiths prediction of it being darker. Although there is a lot of alcohol present on tasting there are no hot alcohol flavors. Very sweet initially followed by an alcohol finish. My tasting is not overly refined so I'll leave it at that. Although both beers were enjoyable at this stage I enjoyed the spiced version slightly more as I found that the alcohol flavor was more subtle. Hopefully this will mellow well in the bottle.

Do people typically add yeast when bottling a high abv beer? The yeast is rated to 11-12%, so it may still be able to carb. I've read that some people use champagne yeast, or T-58, on bottling. I plan to carb this fairly highly and would add champagne yeast but I'm concerned about creating bottle bombs if the new yeast is able to ferment any of the remaining sugars. Does anyone have any experience with this?