Belgium Strong Ale

[hendog424]

Hello,

I'm new to the brewcommune community, and new to home brewing in general. I've learned from my mistakes from my first two batches, and my third batch, a Belgium Strong Ale, was just bottled 5 days ago. I had the beer in the glass carboy for 3 weeks, as the recipe called for, and I used 3/4 cup of priming sugar before bottling. I've been keeping the bottled beer in a warm, dark place, but when I opened a bottle it was not fully carbonated yet, and it seems that some esthers were present because there were some banana/bubble gum scents and flavors coming through.

So my questions are:
1) Is priming sugar (dextrose sugar) the best to use for carbonation? Because the banana scent wasn't there before I used it
2) How long should I expect the carbonation process to take?
3) Will the esthers always be there? Or will they die down with age?

Thanks a lot, if you need more details on the recipe I'll be glad to post them.

-Henry

[spkrtoy]

First off, Welcome to the BrewCommune. Where are you located? We've got members in OC, LA, San Bernadino, Riverside and Ventura counties here in So. Cal.

I did one in 02 that took literally 4 months to carbonate with the 3/4 cup of dextrose priming sugar so it may take a little longer to fully carbonate. It also depends on where the beer finished out too. If it finished too low there might not be enough yeast for the sugar to convert to co2 so did you get the starting and final gravity readings with a hydrometer? What was your yeast and what were the fermentation temp's?

The phenols will mellow out with age, usually, unless there's some issue with sanitization or infection (very rare).

I've got a Belgian Strong Golden that's just over 2 years and a strong dark that's a little over a year old now and they're just coming into their own. I entered both at AHA Nationals last year and they did OK and i've entered them again this year so we'll see what an extra year does!

I do mostly Belgian Strong Ales so if you're local, I'd be happy to give you a BJCP Recognized Judge's opinion on it. (All the other guy's will agree on this)

[hendog424]

Hello, and Thanks for your reply!

My starting gravity was 1.056 -- it was expected to be 1.062 but we weren't too far off. My finished gravity was 1.085, but I'm not sure if my hydrometer was reading correctly -- i may have bought a defective hydrometer. I called the store where I bought the ingredients, and the guy who designed the recipe said that a little over 3 weeks in the secondary would be fine to bottle.. It fermented at about 70 degrees, the yeast was pitched at 73 degrees and was at room temperature -- i used liquid trappiste yeast.. I'll have to check the exact name, but he said that it was very potent yeast.

The bottled beer is also in 70 degree room in a dark place. Was this right to do? Do you have any recipes that you could share for Belgium style ales? My Co-brewer and I are very interested in the strong ale type of beer and we'd really appreciate any tips! Unfortunately, I'm not local -- I'm in Boston, MA, but if you're ever in town I'd love to give you a bottle to try!

Thanks again,

Henry

[dhempy]

Did you mean 1.0085? at 1.085 your FG is higher than your OG!

Dan

[spkrtoy]

I've got one I call April Fuels and another called Oh My Gang Rocks that are extract Belgian Strong Dark Ales that've won and placed in many homebrew competitions. I'll try to dig them up and if they're in promash I'll post them, otherwise I'll try to write them out later this week.