Leffe Blonde Clone questions

[tripppleP]

I am about to do the recipe bellow for the second time and have some questions to achieve my goals with flavor and ABV. The bellow recipe is supposed to be a Leffe Blonde Clone and the first batch turned out pretty well however I added a little too much water thinking it would boil down more and my 5 gallon recipe turned into 6 gallons. The final product seemed very similar to Leffe Blonde but the extra water made it seem like Leffe Blonde Lite...

I of course will not make the water mistake this round but still would like a more potent flavor and slightly higher ABV without effecting the flavor. I feel using the correct amount of water will fix the flavor potency. If I add 2x the Soft Blond Candi sugar (2lbs total) would this achieve higher ABV without effecting the flavor?

Edit: I have one more newbie question. I never seem to have the carbonation I want with 5oz of priming sugar in my last few batches of different recipes. How much should I add for adjustment? 1oz? 1/2oz? I don't want to add too much obviously.

FERMENTABLES
-- 3.15 lbs Pilsen malt syrup (60 min)
-- 3.15 lbs Pilsen malt syrup late addition (15 min)
-- 1 lb Soft Blond Candi Sugar late addition (15 min)
HOPS & FLAVORINGS
-- 1.5 oz Hersbrucker (60 min)
-- 0.5 oz Hersbrucker (5 min)
YEAST
-- WYEAST 1762 BELGIAN ABBEY II.

 

[rburrelli]

The added candi sugar will ferment out and would also make the beer a little drier and may add to the taste. It will raise the ABV but that alone will not affect taste.
The water adjustment is probably all you need at this point.

Use a priming sugar calculator for determining how much to use per style. Norther Brewer has a good one.

 

[Jayjay1976]

The yeast and candi sugar supply most of the characteristic flavor, and the rest of the recipe looks reasonable to me and I like the late addition of Hersbrucker. I like fermenting 1762 on the cool side to tame the Belgian yeast flavors and avoid the esters, like 62-63f. This used to be one of my favorite commercial brews but lately it tastes to me like its been dosed with imitation vanilla and a bitter, saccharine sort of sweetness that makes me cringe. Maybe they're using corn syrup in place of the candi sugar? Anyway, good luck and I hope your version turns out a bit drier and less cloying. Also, this needs a higher level of carbonation than standard ales to be on style, I would suggest ~3.3-3.5 volumes.

Oh hey, welcome to HBT!!

 

[thehaze]

Leffe blonde is definitely backsweeten ( this is my own opinion ). On the bottle you can read that they are using glucose syrup and the beer tastes like it. But syrup is 100% fermentable, so why is the beer so extremely cloyingly sweet? I don't like it and for me, it is not a good example of the style. If that particular taste is what you are looking for, the recipe above will not result in the beer you are trying to clone.

 

[McKnuckle]

"Definitely" but it's your "opinion." Alright.

Belgian beers are not back-sweetened; doing so would be contrary to their centuries old brewing tradition, which is nicely documented in Stan Hieronymous's Brew Like a Monk (among other resources). The sugars are added in the kettle and ferment completely, leading to a drier beer - not a sweeter one. I don't find Leffe blonde to be sweet. So I think it's just a matter of perception that leads to our disagreement.