Big belgian quad! Came in around 10% abv. I was inspired to brew this by my homebrew club, Foam Blowers of Indiana (FBI). We do a monthly style meeting, and we went over belgian beers. I was reminded of what I knew about the style and learned a bunch more. One of my main takeaways was how to add the candi sugar in a homebrew batch. Typically, you add the syrup at the end of the boil – although it was recommended that it be added after fermentation has kicked off. I think it might have made a difference. In my view, I think i’m asking the yeast to do a lot of work, I’m giving it a lot of different sugars to ferment. I like the idea of making sure the yeast is already fermenting the malt sugars before adding in the candi sugars. For one, the yeast has already gone though it’s lag phase and growth phase (or at least though most of it), and if it’s already strong enough to ferment the complex malt sugars, it’ll easily eat up the simple candi sugars. In my mind, I think the yeast will take the path of least resistance and if I add the simple sugars first, it might have a hard time going onto the complex sugars.
Got some great feedback from my club, and I’ll enter this beer into the spring beer competitions. Stay tuned for the score sheets!
The following recipe is for a 6 gallon batch
Grain/Fermentables
- 20lb Pilsen Dingemans
- 2lb Torrified Wheat
- 2lb Caramunich
- .5lb Special B
- 2lb Candi Sugar D-45
Hops
- 3oz Saaz (3.8%) First Wort
- 2oz Mittlefrueh (2.3%) 20 Minute
Water
- 2ml Phosphoric Acid 85%
- 4.73g Gypsum (mash)
- 3.98g Calcium Chloride (mash)
- 3.2g Baking Soda (mash)
- 3.22g Gypsum (sparge)
- 2.7g Calcium Chloride (sparge)
- 2.18g Baking Soda
Yeast
- White Labs Trappist/Monastery Ale WLP500
Mash
- 7.88 gallons
- Steep at 148f
- Soarge with 5.15 gallons at 170f
Boil
- 3oz Saaz (3.8%) First Wort
- 2oz Mittlefrueh (2.3%) 20 Minute
- do not add belgian candy sugar until fermentation has started
Fermentation
- 2 liter yeast starter
- Oxygenate wort with pure O2
- Ferment at 68f
- Add 2lb of candi sugar after main fermentation has started
- wait 2 to 3 weeks and crash to 35f
Instagram clip of my adding the candi sugar
https://www.instagram.com/p/DCNCWOPys45
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