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So this is what I did (10 lbs of pils)

Wildrover

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I figured keeping everyone informed of my recipe decision makes better sense here than the all grain forum where I first asked what I should do with 10lbs of pils I received that was already milled.  As a reminder, I hadn't planned on brewing anything with the pils and thus, didn't really know what to do with it and being relatively far from a homebrew store but close to a health food store that has a small selection of hops, I had some limited options as to what I could do with it, but I did have options none the less. 

Anyway, I decided to attempt either a strong golden or a Belgian blonde.  I figured I'd let the finishing gravity dictate style since there seems to be a bit of overlap between the high end of one style and the low end of the other.  Ultimately, it ended up being a Belgian Blonde but I looked pretty hard at strong golden recipes as well as leaning on Brewing Classic Styles and Brew Like a Monk.  I don't have a lot of experience with strong Belgian Ales so I was a little nervous.  here is what I did:

Type: All Grain
Date: 9/8/2013
Boil Size: 8.13 gal Asst Brewer: 
Boil Time: 90 min  Equipment: My Equipment 
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0  Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00

Amount Item Type % or IBU
10 lbs 8.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 77.78 %  (I had some left over from a previous batch.  I added the extra half pound to boost the gravity (and get rid of the pils))
12.0 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 5.56 % (I originally modeled this after the strong golden that Vinnie Cilurzo offers in Brew Like a Monk, there he says 2.5-5% Munich is a good option)
12.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 5.56 % (see note above about VC's suggestion for his strong Golden)
4.8 oz Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 2.22 % (I kind of messed up here I think, I didn't notice until after I put the grains together that aromatic malts and munich malts make for a good experiment but turns out its an or kind of decision, not an and kind of thing
3.2 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 1.48 % (this is because I didn't have enough aromatic to make a half pound.  I figured using just a hint of a light crystal would be okay)
1.00 oz Spalter [6.80 %] (65 min) Hops 20.0 IBU (happened to have it, people say use Nobel hops for bittering so why not?  Although I've never seen this in any of the Belgian Blonde or Strong Golden recipes I looked at, I figured it was better to use these and see what happens, since its a bittering addition, how much of a negative impact could it really have)
0.25 oz Saaz [8.10 %] (25 min) Hops 4.1 IBU
0.25 oz Hallertauer [4.30 %] (25 min) Hops 2.2 IBU
0.50 oz Saaz [8.10 %] (0 min) Hops -  (I really went back and forth with the hop additions, I didn't know if I wanted an aroma and flavor addition but since Randy Mosher and Vinnie's Golden and even blonde recipes all had both I figured why not.  Keep in mind the Saaz and Hallertauer happened to be what I had on hand. 
12.0 oz Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 5.56 %
4.0 oz Turbinado (10.0 SRM) Sugar 1.85 % (I wanted all Turbinado but only had a quarter of a lb left after a big brown ale i made on Friday, thus the bulk being table sugar. 
1 Pkgs Trappist High Gravity (Wyeast Labs #3787) Yeast-Wheat (The health food store just happened to get yeast in on Saturday and this happened to be one of them (you never know what they're going to have). 

I started the ferment somewhere between 65-66 and it seems to be going strong now around 70-74 We'll see

Any thoughts or input is appreciated

thanks

WR
 
My only thought is to put a wet towel around your fermenter and put a fan on it and try to get your fermentation temperature down below 70F, to avoid creating off flavors.  You might get too much of a banana-y flavor if you ferment in the 70F+ range.
 
Wildrover said:
1.00 oz Spalter [6.80 %] (65 min) Hops 20.0 IBU (happened to have it, people say use Nobel hops for bittering so why not?  Although I've never seen this in any of the Belgian Blonde or Strong Golden recipes I looked at, I figured it was better to use these and see what happens, since its a bittering addition, how much of a negative impact could it really have)

Spalter has a spicy characteristic that is usually minimized in a German style recipe. Not a popular taste. To compound the issue, your using another spicy hop, Saaz.  Well, good luck, you won't know how it will taste for a while yet. The malt bill is fine.
Taste is subjective. Only you can determine if you like it.
 
Scott Ickes said:
My only thought is to put a wet towel around your fermenter and put a fan on it and try to get your fermentation temperature down below 70F, to avoid creating off flavors.  You might get too much of a banana-y flavor if you ferment in the 70F+ range.

that's exactly what I did to start the fermentation.  I let it go though after some hours because so much of Brew Like a Monk and even in Gordon Strong's Brewing Better Beer do they say, let it rise to where ever it wants to go.  I guess at this point the horses are out of the stable since I've let it rise.  Something else they've mentioned a lot is not cooling the yeast since they have a tendency to crash.  We'll see but I'm not really scared of the higher temps since that seems to be an acceptable part of Belgian fermentation.

We'll see,  I'll report back when I move the beer and then again when I keg the beer.  Who knows, it may be great
 
RiverBrewer said:
Wildrover said:
1.00 oz Spalter [6.80 %] (65 min) Hops 20.0 IBU (happened to have it, people say use Nobel hops for bittering so why not?  Although I've never seen this in any of the Belgian Blonde or Strong Golden recipes I looked at, I figured it was better to use these and see what happens, since its a bittering addition, how much of a negative impact could it really have)

Spalter has a spicy characteristic that is usually minimized in a German style recipe. Not a popular taste. To compound the issue, your using another spicy hop, Saaz.  Well, good luck, you won't know how it will taste for a while yet. The malt bill is fine.
Taste is subjective. Only you can determine if you like it.

I hadn't actually thought of the spiciness of the bittering hop contrasting with the spiciness of the flavor and aroma hop addition.  Makes sense (now that I think about it after the fact.......damn it)  Who knows, maybe they come together in a good way? 
 
Spalt is (can be) spicy; it's typical in some German altbiers.  But when boiled for 60 mins, most hop flavors are eliminated.  A 20-25 minute (and shorter) addition would likely be spicy.

Good luck.
 
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