Critique my Belgian dark strong recipe (extract)

10lbs light LME
0.5lbs belgian special b
0.5lbs belgian biscuit
0.5lbs crystal 40L
2oz light roast barley

1lb dark belgian candi sugar

1.75oz magnum hops @ 60min
1oz saaz hops @ 15min

2 packs of wyeast 1388 belgian strong yeast in a quart starter with 1 capsule servomyces for 48 hours (long enough?)

Thoughts on recipe?

You'd be better off making a larger starter, possibly a little sooner. I like to make starters on Wednesday evening for a Saturday brewday...this gives them about 60 hrs to ferment, then I cold-crash for about 6 hours before decanting and pitching. If you have good, fresh yeast you should have no problem even with a single smack pack. How to Brew by Palmer has good pitching rates - you're looking at a 3-qt starter.

Hop selection is fairly standard. A lot of Belgian beers use Styrian Goldings but Saaz is nice too. Depending on your boil volume you could get the IBU's up there with almost 2 oz of bittering hops.

Is there anything in specific you are looking to achieve?

Scotty_g said:

Is there anything in specific you are looking to achieve?

Click to expand...

I'm not really sure as this is my third homebrew attempt, first was an ipa and just started drinking it the other day.. Second is an all Brett mo betta bretta clone that I massively under pitched so its going to be sitting in primary for awhile.

I've only had a few commercial Belgians too, so I'm sort of a noob in all aspects of this right now lol

A couple of things.

Depending on the AA of the hops your BU:GU ratio may be way too high.

For a BDSA you want to have a BU:GU ratio of about .297 (this average for the style)

A big starter for this brew is a good idea. Also temp control is very important. I like to pitch at about 65 degrees, hold it in the high 60 for a couple of days and then ramp the temp up to get it to finish. Do not get it too hot too fast or it will produce fusels. Once it starts keep an eye on the temp and do not let it drop.

Give it plenty of time to finish.

beergolf said:

A couple of things.

Depending on the AA of the hops your BU:GU ratio may be way too high.

For a BDSA you want to have a BU:GU ratio of about .297 (this average for the style)

A big starter for this brew is a good idea. Also temp control is very important. I like to pitch at about 65 degrees, hold it in the high 60 for a couple of days and then ramp the temp up to get it to finish. Do not get it too hot too fast or it will produce fusels. Once it starts keep an eye on the temp and do not let it drop.

Give it plenty of time to finish.

Click to expand...

whoops, i mistyped on my orig post, only had 0.75oz magnum at 60min then 1oz saaz at 15min, BU:GU dropped to 0.92 instead of 1.92 or whatever, which seems much more ideal

its been about 2 weeks fermenting, so only time will tell