My attempt at a Belgian

MagooMan · Post by **MagooMan** » Saturday Jun 30, 2007 6:21 pm

1 x Coopers Dark Ale
1 x Coopers Bitter
500g amber candi sugar
Cultured Chimay Blue yeast

Anyone done anything similar?

davekate · Post by **davekate** » Monday Jul 02, 2007 12:34 pm

Looks pretty good to me!
You could add some blended honey - about 250g, hallertau 40g and goldings 20g, if you really wanted to.
But give your recipe ago first then start tweaking.

How did you go reculturing the yeast? Last time i tried that it failed miserably!

Cheers

MagooMan · Post by **MagooMan** » Monday Jul 02, 2007 4:37 pm

Yeah...ended up being pretty lazy and just ended up using 2 x Coopers dried yeast...I am such a underachiever

James L · Post by **James L** » Monday Jul 02, 2007 5:36 pm

reculturing the yeast is the best bit... get to drink the beer, and get the yeast out of it too..

James L · Post by **James L** » Monday Jul 02, 2007 5:41 pm

But i seriously reccomend using a decent yeast for the ol begian beers....

they are what give the beer its characteristics...

I'm brewing a brewferm Grand Cru with some yeast i recultured from a bottle of Hoegaarden Forbidden Fruit, and it smells terrific...

I figure, if you spend the money on the kit and candi sugar, whats a couple of extra bucks to buy some decent yeast, or buy a nice belgian beer you can reculture the yeast from.

James

nt · Post by nt » Monday Jul 02, 2007 9:04 pm

davekate wrote:Last time i tried that it failed miserably!

I failed twice...

MagooMan · Post by **MagooMan** » Monday Jul 02, 2007 9:50 pm

Anyone from you guys made a beer with homemade candi sugar. The stuff i made was so sticky, my stirring spoon (plastic ) snapped in half cos it was so thick at the bottom of the fermenter..eep

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Monday Jul 02, 2007 9:52 pm

Haha yeah, but I added it to my boil.

MagooMan · Post by **MagooMan** » Saturday Jul 07, 2007 7:49 pm

I just tried some of this straight from the fermenter....now i know as it was a two can brew that my face should look like a cats a*se from the bitterness but i wasn't getting any hint of the candi sugar...is that something that would come later when it has conditioned for a bit? FYI this was homemade dark candi sugar ( deep amber colour ) with one dark ale kit and a cooper bitter kit.

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Saturday Jul 07, 2007 8:00 pm

Im sure dark palm sugar would do the trick?

Try an asian grocery store.

MagooMan · Post by **MagooMan** » Saturday Jul 07, 2007 8:09 pm

Will bear it in mind....but have you had much luck with home made candi sugar

wildschwein · Post by **wildschwein** » Saturday Jul 07, 2007 8:51 pm

MagooMan wrote:Anyone from you guys made a beer with homemade candi sugar. The stuff i made was so sticky, my stirring spoon (plastic ) snapped in half cos it was so thick at the bottom of the fermenter..eep

I've seen some people in the forums who have made it and had trouble with it but I made some for a brew the other day and found it to be pretty easy to work with.

After I had cooked the sugar to deep amber (it was the colour of a brown beer bottle) and then taken it up 150c for hard crack, I poured it into a large plastic rectangular picnic container, let it cool, cracked it up and put it in an icecream container, and then put it in the freezer. When I made the brew I just chucked the candi sugar into 2L of cold water with 1kg of BE2 (which I was using as well for this particular brew). I then brought it up to the boil stirring continuosly. The candi first softened and wanted to stick to the bottom of the kettle but I just kept it moving with my mixing spoon. By the time the fermentable water mix came to the boil the candi had all dissolved.

The brew is fermenting so I don't know what the results will be but I didn't find homemade candi overly difficult to work with. I have read that some brewers make it and don't leave it to set, rather they just add to the boil while it is hot and still in syrup form.

MagooMan · Post by **MagooMan** » Sunday Jul 08, 2007 11:44 am

Cool thanks wildschwein...

James L, Was reculturing the Forbidden Fruit easy or did it take a bit of effort. Also do you reckon BWS or Liquorland carry this beer. My local Dan's/First Choice is a bit of a way from me...

James L · Post by **James L** » Monday Jul 09, 2007 10:40 am

reculturing yeast was easier than what i thought...

I poured about 270ml carefully into a glass, left 50ml in the bottom of the bottle, gave it a swirl, and then placed it into a sterile 750ml plastic bottle with some sterile malt/water mix (1:10 ratio) in this case i used wheat malt extract. I used lids that are used for oztops (they allow some of the pressure to be released if necessary) but you can either put glad wrap over the top of the bottle or use a modified lid with an ailock.

My main problem was keeping it at 24 degrees, so i wrapped it in a blanket or small towel and kept it near the heater for a few days. when the bottle started pressurising, i knew that the yeast was doing its thing, and after 3 days there was a nice layer of krausen.

Poured it straight into the brew when i made the wort. i know you can leave the yeast for a couple of days before putting it in the wort, but if you can get your timing right, its the best way to do it. My grand cru was bubbling in no time.

Now, as for getting the beer, i got it from International beer shop (perth) but thats just down the road from my work, but i'd reccomend looking in the more boutique liquor stores (vintage cellars maybe?), not the franchise ones, they tend to only sell the same types of beers. Alternatively you could see whether liqourland could order you in a couple of bottles...

Hope that helps

James

James L · Post by **James L** » Monday Jul 09, 2007 10:42 am

Sorry i should just clear something up after reading what i've just written, The 270ml was for me... the 50ml was for the reculturing.. Just swirl the 50ml and pour into the sterile bottle.

James