I know a Belgian Quintupel doesn’t officially exist, but this is what I envision it would be like. I would especially appreciate any critique on the specialty grains to get me to the flavor profile I’m looking for.
I am going for strong malt backbone perfectly balanced with hops aroma and bitterness. Just enough bitterness to balance the malt and not one iota more. A bit of caramel sweetness with a hint of rye spice with a nice honey nose to pull it all together.
My logic for light color is as follows: Dubbels are dark; Trippels are light; Quads are dark. I imagine a quintuple to be light again.
Thanks for any advice in advanced !
Belgian Quintupel
5 gallons - Partial Mash
1.114OG → 1.020FG
12.3%ABV
40 IBU (Balance 0.88)
7.4°L SRM
Specialty Grains
8 oz Crystal 20L
8 oz Rye
4 oz Aromatic
4 oz Special Roast
-Mash at 150 F for 30 minutes; Sparge and discard.
Fermentables
12 pounds Pilsen LME
3 pounds Honey (at flameout)
-Boil for 1 hour with the following hop schedule.
Hops
Sterling hops - 1 ounce at 60 min.
Fuggles hops - 1 ounce at 30 min.
Sterling hops - 1 ounce at 30 min.
Whirlfloc Tablet - 15 minutes
Wort Chiller - 15 minutes
Fuggles hops - 1 ounce at 10 min.
Fuggles hops- 2 ounces at Flameout
Sterling hops - 1 ounce at Flameout
Yeast
Wyeast 1388 - 2 liter starter
Ferment to FG of 1.02.
Use prime dose for carbonation.
Of course I could be wrong, but I’d be shocked it you could get all that extract to finish at 1.020. I haven’t brewed an extract batch in quite a few years, but I remember having trouble getting average to above average gravity beers to finish much lower than that. I know the honey will help with the FG, but that is a TON of extract. Do you have the ability to mash, even if only a small amount… a few lbs of base malt?
You may want to consider adding the honey at the tail end of fermentation in steps (add 1# one day, one # the next, and the next). It may help with dobe’s point above as will not have the most fermentable wort with extract. The thought being that the yeast will eat the complex stuff first. Some are not in favor of this method, but your wort will need all the help it can get as far as fermentability goes.
I would also invest in some oak spirals and a lot of patience/restraint (if you don’t have either/both already), as this sucker will need some age!
I think it’ll be tough to get down to the FG you’re hoping for. That Wyeast 1388 seems to have a bit of a rep for fermenting to a relatively high FG, not the mention the super high OG puts you at a disadvantage to begin with. I might recommend 3787 for your yeast, it has a reputation for fininshing a bit more on the dry side and might help you get your FG down a bit.
Ha! I have the exact opposite experience. I’ve previously done many recipes with this much malt. Everything I use 3787 I get FG 1.02ish while 1388 gets me in the 1.015 range.
I think step feeding the honey is wise but may not be necessary. I routinely ferment mead with 1388 and go from SG 1.12 to FG 1.000 in a few weeks. Obviously, 1.000 is not possible in beer due to unfermentables, but I think 1.02 is reasonable. Perhaps some base malt for enzymes is a good idea just to be sure conversion is as high as possible.
[quote=“dobe12”]Or you could just ignore all the advice given.
Good luck.[/quote]
I already stated the ideas here are valid. To be fair, I only asked for help dialing in specialty grains to fit the desired flavor profile.
I have a system down for hitting my FGs through years of making big beers and bigger meads. I appreciate the concerns here and have taken them into consideration. I likely will step feed and used some base malt. No need to be rude.
Thanks everyone for you input here. I just wanted to update the thread. I took many suggestions here and things worked out well.
I increased the IBU to 50 for aging purposes.
After some research, I discovered that rye has a very high diastatic rating and used 1/2 lbs of that in the steep at 148 F to covert as many unfermentable sugars as possible. I also reduced the crystal malt to 4 oz. I added the LME towards the end of the steep to convert all I could of it.
I did add the honey upfront which could have been bad (but turned out ok this time). The sugar content was higher than I thought.
SG was 1.124! I checked with 2 hydrometers because I didn’t believe it!
Didn’t matter. I oxygenated well the first several days and roused the yeast. Gravity at Day 2 of fermentation was 1.05 and by Day 7 it was 1.02. Now it is slightly lower.
13.6 ABV! That will put hair on yer chest!
Oops, didn’t realize you already brewed it! Interested to hear how “blonde” it comes out. I’m guessing this is going to be like a very strong belgian amber.
True enough. I use only pilsen malt and plain sugar in my tripels, along with 3787, and I get all sorts of character in the resulting brew…[/quote]
Not a Tripel. I have no desire to make a Tripel. I DO love some 3787, but I’m going for something very different here. A new beer style. The fun of that is I get to decide what it should taste like!
