Finally got around to doing some brewing last night. This batch will hopefully taste like a Dubbel, which is a Belgian style Abbey Ale. For this beer I pretty much copied a recipe I found on ratebeer.com with ingredients purchased at Kirk's. Exceptions were that I doubled the amount of special B grains and used amber liquid malt extract instead of gold.
This recipe called for 2 things that were new to me: Belgian Candi Sugar and pitchable liquid yeast. The sugar is extracted from sugar beets and looks a lot like rock candy (although I didn't try any raw). Basically you add this during the boil and it is supposed to add to the beer's body along with providing some sweet-fruity flavors. The pitchable liquid yeast is a strain that is specifically made for Abbey Ale's and is supposed to add to the flavor profile. Until now I've used the dry stuff, which has always worked fine for me; although I must say that this stuff is pretty slick. All you do is pull the vial out of the fridge when you start, allow it to get to room temperature while you brew, shake it up and dump it in at the end.
So far so good. I would describe the color as almost a mahogany. My starting gravity was 1.064, which means that with any luck the alcohol content will be near 7%. The wort tasted really sweet, but I imagine that will mellow as it ferments. This one was definitely the most expensive recipe I've tried, so hopefully it pays off.
8 comments:
Great post. Can't wait to try some.
2 Abbeys is fermenting away! Last night the bubbles were popping to the tick of the clock. A sweet smell, almost like fresh compost, was eminating from the fermenter. It took about 1/2 a day longer than I thought it would to really get going, but I imagine that is because it is still a little bit cool in the house ~67F.
Awesome! Looks good. I'm about to join the brewing world. Went with Brian to get supplies this weekend, I am hoping to start this week with an American Nut Brown ale.
SWEET!!!
I figured it was only a matter of time. Browns are a great way to get started, plus they're fast.
How is the brew fermenting? Did you siphon to the carboy yet?
Anonymous is me. Sorry.
The brew is looking good! I ended up siphoning it over saturday morning. It was already finished fermenting at a FG of 1.013 and fairly clear, but I figured why not. I'm going to watch it this week and see if it clears up any more and then go ahead and bottle it.
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