Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

Belgian Dark Strong Ale Recipe

On January 10, 2014

I had a dream of brewing a Grand Cru the other night. Truthfully. It was a good dream, by the way. This style would be another one to brew strong and let condition over a period of a few months. Bottling it up in bomber bottles, the finished beer would make a nice gift. Here is my recipe the Grand Cru style of beer – the Belgian Dark Strong ale.

Boil Size: 7 gallons
Batch Size: 5 gallons

Ingredients

14 lbs Belgian Pale
.5 lbs Belgian Special B malt
3 lbs Belgian Munich malt
1 lbs Amber Candi Sugar
1.25 oz Styrian Goldings Pellets (~5 %AA) boiled for 60 minutes
0.50 oz Styrian Goldings Pellets (~5 %AA) boiled for 15 minutes

Yeast: White Labs WLP545 Belgian Strong Ale

Instructions

Create a mighty yeast starter a few days before you brew session. Mash malts for one hour at 150 degrees F. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops at the specified times left in the boil.

You can add the candi sugar at 15 minutes left in the boil if you want. You don’t have to boil it for the full hour. Cool down the wort to 68 degrees F and pitch yeast. Ferment until final gravity is reached. If you bottle, prime with enough sugar for a high carbonation. For the keggers, force carbonate to 3.5 volumes of CO2.

Predictions

Original Gravity: 1.097
Terminal Gravity: 1.017
Color: 20.86 °SRM
Bitterness: 31.6 IBU
Alcohol percentage by volume: 10.7%

The style guidelines for this beer call for a rich, complex Belgian ale. Interestingly enough, classic examples of the style have simple malt bills and the complexity in the flavor comes from the addition of simple sugars. I am using candi sugar in this recipe, but I have seen some other ones online that call for honey or plain table sugar. The bitterness of this beer should not overwhelm the maltiness. Although in my recipe the IBUs are on the high range of the style, I always feel like I have to add more hops in my beers.

Brew On!

Small Batch Brewing

By Mike

On January 8, 2014

In Videos

Last month I winter set it and I wasn’t prepared. Some of my equipment literally froze solid. As part of that experience I started thinking of small batch brewing. I am defining small batches here as being a gallon or less.

I got the chance to give the small batch brewing approach a try. My wife was out and I had some ingredients on hand that I decided to string together into a simple dark lager of sorts. Shooting for a 1.050 or so gravity I used a little over 2 lbs of malt and a thin mash for a fermentable wort.

The first thing I noticed in the process was the speed. I am used to spending about 30 minutes or more heating up mash water. With the small batch on the kitchen stove it only took about 10 minutes to heat the water AND dough in! So there was an immediate gain in time there. I also ended up with a pretty concentrated wort from just the first runnings. I had to reconsider how I was going to proceed and ended up doing a no sparge brew.

For a first attempt I learned a little about what to expect out of the numbers for brewing. Things I can better incorporate into a second small batch hopefully in another week or so.

The best thing about this batch (that’s still fermenting BTW) is that I’ll get a good slug of fresh Bock yeast to put into my Yule lager full size batch soon enough.

Watch the video and let us know if you’ve experimented with small batch brewing.
BREW ON!

What’s Brewing With You In 2014?

By John Krochune

On January 6, 2014

In General

I like Brew Year’s resolutions. At least, I like the thought of them. It forces you to put down on paper (or on a computer screen) what you want to do in terms of your homebrewing hobby in the new year.

You should be challenging yourself with your brewing. You should be pushing yourself to get better and improve your craft.

Right now, I am in a good place to build on what I have done over the past twelve months. I have two beers lagering right now and a cider will be good to bottle once it clears. I feel pretty good about what in the carboys right now.

The bottled beer is a different story. I am about to pour down the drain all the saison, pilsner, braggot, and dopplebock I still have on hand down the drain. I am tired of all those beers and their flaws, and I would rather get rid of the past so I can focus on the future.

So that brings me to my resolutions. I think the focus will be and has always been to brew excellent beer. Here are some things that will help me to do that.

1. Equipment upgrades – As I wrote in a previous post, I am going to purchase a grain mill and later on, a refractometer. Obtaining a kegging system will be a stretch goal.

2. Brew beers I want to perfect – I have a few styles that I would like to get down. I don’t think I have brewed a quality stout or Belgian white ever. I would like to brew one that I was proud to share.

3. Smooth out process – Sometimes, I feel like I am rushing through the process of brewing without feeling confident that I am doing everything I can to make excellent beer. Beyond rushing it, sometimes I feel like I lose focus on getting temperatures right or going the extra mile to make sure everything I need to use for brewing is cleaned properly. If I smooth out my process to make sure I do all the things I need to do, I think I can fix these little nagging issues quickly.

So that is what I am doing – what’s brewing with you in 2014?

Dreaming of Stouts

By Mike

On January 3, 2014

In General

Just finished snow blowing the driveway. Now I am dreaming of stouts. Dry stouts, sweet stouts, flavored stouts and Oatmeal stout of course. What beer style best satisfies your winter weather day dreams?

I also have a real itch for porter lately. I collected a sampling of porters to get a baseline for what I like and don’t like. Using these commercial beers for some baseline inspiration.

Brew On!

Happy New Years 2014

By Mike

On January 1, 2014

In Videos

Making it to a full year of beer related videos we offer this video as we move into the new year. A special thanks to all our readers of the blog. Extra special thanks to everyone that’s subscribed to our YouTube channel.

We are presently hashing out our plans for 2014. Beers, technique, equipment and whatever else we can dig up.

As we plan our 2014 video endeavors give us your feedback. Good, bad or indifferent; we can take it. Let us know if there is something more you want. (Or maybe something less!)

We hope your New Year becomes shiny and bright like a copper wort chiller emerging from the chilled wort!

BREW ON 2014!