Strawberry Belgian with Candi Sugar

[chaps]

Im going to be attempting a strawberry blonde belgian with some clear Belgian Candi sugar for extra sweetness. The recipe is basically the Mill Pond kit from GFHB (Pale rice, Crystal and M41 belgian yeast). I am planning on adding some biscuit rice to the mash and 3lbs of the strawberry puree to the last 10 minutes of the boil so that there is a bit of strawberry flavor instead of adding it to the secondary so that it doesn't end up being a strawberry beer that happens to be a belgian.

I would like to add some candi sugar in to make it a bit sweeter and then over-carbonate slightly so that it is a bit champagney. I had planned on putting the candi sugar into the secondary but saw that others were using the candi sugar as the carbonation sugar at bottling time. Anyone with experience on this? What flavor/texture did you end up with by using the candi sugar at bottling time instead of adding during boil or to secondary?

Thanks for any thoughts,
Chaps

 

[IslandLizard]

Never boil fruit!

If they're cans, like Vintner's Harvest, just add to your fermenter when fermentation has slowed down. It will kick up a bit again, as the sugars will be fermented. It keeps more of the fruit flavors and aromas that way.
You could add your sugar/candi syrup at the same time.
No need for secondaries. Better to do everything in the primary.

with some clear Belgian Candi sugar for extra sweetness

You won't get any sweetness from added fruit and sugars, all sugars present will ferment out, effectively making your beer drier, thinner, and more alcoholic.

If you want extra residual sweetness you may need to add Lactose (if that's gluten free, of course) , and/or mash at higher temps to create more unfermentable dextrins, etc. Or pick a yeast that doesn't attenuate as much, although most Belgian strains are voracious.

When using candi sugar for priming when bottling, find out how much to use, weight wise. Although candi sugar contains some water, a whole pound maybe too much, even for 4 volumes. Better safe than sorry with potential bottle bombs.
If you're using clear candi syrup, flavor contribution is very minimal. You may as well add regular sugar or some GF raw sugar. Or make your own candi sugar on the stove. Now D-45 and up are very tasty, the lower ones can be homemade too, or something close to them.

 

[Still Brewn]

What he said. No sense in wasting money on a pale candi sugar when it will add none of the sweetness you are looking for. Mash at 154° - 156° you will get the sweetness you are looking for. I haven't read much on what exact temperature is optimum and I've never mashed above 154° so I can't explain the results you will get any further. For the home brewer a balance has to be struck between so many things and that balance lands in the upper 140's to mid 150's for drier beers and mid 150's to upper mid 150's for sweeter beers. I have yet to come across a recipe that calls for mashing above 157°, but then I'm only one guy and there are millions of combinations of ingredients and temperatures that I have yet to explore. I have also seen recipes that call for a step in there..... If I remember correctly it was 148° for so long and raise temperature to 156° for the remainder of the mash. I can't even remember what style of beer is was or what kind of results you would get from that but look around you can find a combination that will meet your needs.

 

[Still Brewn]

Found a Belgian that mashes at 158° without searching....
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/revvys-belgian-blonde-leffe-clone.202852/

 

[Still Brewn]

Read through that and you should get a lot of useful information.

 

[Still Brewn]

I just read part of it and there is a lot of useful information in there and worth the time.

 

[chaps]

Never boil fruit!

Why "Never boil fruit?" My understanding was that by boiling the fruit I would get less of the flavor+aroma, which is what I'm going for. Im aiming for a Belgian with some strawberry instead of a strawberry beer that is kind of Belgian.

You won't get any sweetness from added fruit and sugars, all sugars present will ferment out, effectively making your beer drier, thinner, and more alcoholic.

When using candi sugar for priming when bottling, find out how much to use, weight wise. Although candi sugar contains some water, a whole pound maybe too much, even for 4 volumes. Better safe than sorry with potential bottle bombs.
If you're using clear candi syrup, flavor contribution is very minimal.

So guess Im going to cancel the candi sugar then as GF beers tend to be kind of dry anyways. And if its not going to add much flavor at bottling either then it seems somewhat worthless for what I'm aiming for.

Thanks for all the thoughts @IslandLizard

 

[chaps]

Mash at 154° - 156° you will get the sweetness you are looking for. I haven't read much on what exact temperature is optimum and I've never mashed above 154° ...

Thanks for the thoughts but this is for a Gluten Free beer and unfortunately a lot of the mashing info out there doesn't really apply to us. I think I'm going to keep it simple and just follow a normal GF mash schedule since this is a new beer style for me.

 

[IslandLizard]

Why "Never boil fruit?" My understanding was that by boiling the fruit I would get less of the flavor+aroma, which is what I'm going for. Im aiming for a Belgian with some strawberry instead of a strawberry beer that is kind of Belgian.

So guess Im going to cancel the candi sugar then as GF beers tend to be kind of dry anyways. And if its not going to add much flavor at bottling either then it seems somewhat worthless for what I'm aiming for.

Thanks for all the thoughts @IslandLizard

Once fermented, even 2-3 pounds of strawberries (frozen fruit) or a 3 pound can of strawberry puree in a 5 gallon batch of beer leaves a very subtle flavor behind. What gives us the flavor in fruit is the associated sweetness it has, of which there isn't much left after fermentation turned the sugars into alcohol.

Boiling fruit removes the subtle fresh fruit flavor, and turns it into boiled fruit flavor, like a compote. Fermentation also blows off a lot of the aromas, that's why it's better to add fruit after most or all fermentation has finished. It will kick up a second fermentation which is slower.