Golden Strong, spicy citrus

[Pitbull-brewer]

Hope everyone is doing well. I just finished off my Belgian Golden Strong Ale I made in the fall. It turned out great, thanks to helps of yall on the forum. I had basic recipe with pale two row, belgian golden ale yeast and cech saaz. I got my og low after a weeks ferment then added sugar to up the octane. I tried to keep track of the development of the taste of the beer over the months and I realized I rather enjoyed the taste of my young BGS with the esters still strong. I am planning another and hoping to see what you guys think of the ideas. I am looking to get a slight citrus with my hops but I dont want it to overtake the crispness of the pale two row. I was thinking of combining Saaz with Centennial. The other idea was to combine a more spicy hop with a one with citrus overtones as an experiment, just to see what happens and how combining something like cascade with challenger would be like. I am only in my first year of brewing so I am still new to this but I have found that while I like the normal style based beers I have brewed; the anticipation of one of my experimental brews makes the process all the more fun. Hope to hear from yall soon.

 

[davekippen]

Share the original recipe?

 

[Pitbull-brewer]

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: WLP570
Yeast Starter: i didn't but you can
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.072
Final Gravity: 1.007
IBU: 32
Boiling Time (Minutes):90
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 3 weeks

10lbs Pale 2-row, 3 lbs cane sugar
2 oz Cech Saaz
Add .75lbs Cane sugar after OG drops to around 1.015 about a week
Mash at 159, 90 min rest,
Fermenting- fermentation should start at 64 and be slowly raised up to 75. I had good fruity easters keeping it at around 68 the whole time. but the book recipe called for the previous instructions.

 

[davekippen]

Interesting recipe! Simple, but different. High mash temp, multiple additions of cane sugar. Hmm! I may have to try this.

 

[2bluewagons]

Mash at 159, 90 min rest,

Is this a typo? I have a hard time believing you got this down to 1.007 (even with all that sugar) mashing at 159. Do you mean 149?

In regards to your spicy citrus question, I would be cautious when adding hops to this recipe that you already enjoy. They will quickly overwhelm those lovely yeast esters. I tried a hoppy saison a while back and it was too bitter even though it only calc'ed to 27 IBU. I am thinking that the combination of the low FG (1.006) and the late addition hops, I was perceiving much more bitterness than expected. Once it aged a bit and the hops faded, it was very nice, but I am thinking it would have been better with those young esters without all the hops to get in the way.

Instead of hops, maybe consider some citrus zest and/or peel at flameout or as a dry-"hop"? Orange or grapefruit might work well.

 

[Pitbull-brewer]

Sorry I wrote that from a new phone. Still getting used to a touch screen. Mash temp was 149.