Beneficial Blunder Belgian
I set out to make a belgian ale that was light, true to the style, and a slightly high alcohol content. What ensued was a serious of mistakes that ended up with me brewing a belgian strong ale.
Brewer: | Adam Johnson | Email: | adamjohnson182@gmail.com | |||||
Beer: | Beneficial Blunder Belgian | Style: | Belgian Strong Ale | |||||
Type: | Extract w/grain | Size: | 5 gallons | |||||
Color: |
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Bitterness: | 29 IBU | |||||
OG: | 1.090 | FG: | 1.013 | |||||
Alcohol: | 10.0% v/v (7.8% w/w) | |||||||
Water: | Just tap water, forgot the Irish Moss that I'd bought (mistake #3) | |||||||
Grain: | 1 lb. 15 oz. Belgian pale 1 oz. Belgian Pilsner 8 oz. Belgian aromatic 8 oz. Belgian CaraVienne |
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Steep: | I have no idea how I managed to get what this website refers to as 100% efficiency. I can only describe the serious of events that led to it. So first I added the grain directly to the brew pot (forgetting to put it into the grain bag). At this point, it was cold tap water. I raised the temp to 120 degrees for 30 minutes, and then had a series of blunders that had the grain at 145 degrees for about 45 minutes, then 158 degrees for 20 minutes, then on to 165 degrees, at which point I fumbled around and got all of the grain out, and preceeded on to boil. | |||||||
Boil: | 60 minutes | SG 1.180 | 2.5 gallons | |||||
8 lb. Light malt extract 0 lb. Brown sugar 1 lb. Belgian candi sugar |
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Added the extract and candi-sugar and boiled for 60 minutes, and then proceeded to add the hops at various intrevals. | ||||||||
Hops: | 2 oz. Perle (8% AA, 60 min.) 1 oz. Hallertauer (4.25% AA, 45 min.) 1 oz. Tettnanger (4.5% AA, 45 min.) 1 oz. Hallertauer (4.25% AA, 30 min.) .5 oz. Tettnanger (4.5% AA, 30 min.) .5 oz. Tettnanger (4.5% AA, 15 min.) 0 oz. Hallertauer (aroma) 0 oz. Perle (aroma) .5 oz. Tettnanger (aroma) |
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Yeast: | Wyeast belgian ale yeast. | |||||||
Log: | Primary ferment was 3 1/2 weeks at 68-72 degrees, then secondary at 70 degrees for 1 1/2 weeks. | |||||||
Carbonation: | 3/4 cup of priming sugar with 4 cups of water. | |||||||
Tasting: | Well, I just bottled it. It has a very light color, and tasted the beer used for the hydrometer reading. Very tasty, slightly bitter, light, with quite a kick. By all indications, this will be an excellent beer, worthy of competition. If you decide to go with this recipie, please email me your thoughts/results. Or email me if you have an opinion about my brew process. I think next time, maybe another 1/2oz of hops in the boil, because I didn't expect to extract so much goodness from the grain. Will report back when I've tasted the good stuff. |
Recipe posted 07/17/08.