DMA BDSA

When we decided to go back to school for our doctoral degrees, I thought a great corresponding project would be to brew a few batches of beer that we could age until we finished our dissertation defenses. Considering what would improve over that time, I settled on a quadrupel/Belgian dark strong ale, a barleywine, and a Flanders red.  The plan was to brew them before we started back at school and give them the full three year school years to age.  Of course, we've now finished the first year and I have only just brewed the first of these.  Better late than never, at any rate; the Flanders will hopefully be brewed before we make our summer trip back east so it can start its long, long primary, and the barleywine by early fall.

I go back and forth on Belgian beers; many times the yeast phenolics don't agree with me.  Belgian dark strongs, though, are often a treat; when I come across St. Bernardus Abt 12 on draft (back in Chicago, anyway), there's nothing quite like it.  To allow this very big beer to be as "digestible" as possible, the grist is simple, unclouded by lots of dextrinous malts, and mashed low; to get a maltier quality, the base is Vienna instead of the more traditional pils.  The grist also includes nearly 10% sugar for increased fermentability.  While I've experimented with making my own candi sugar before, I was curious to try some of the commercial dark candi sugar available; some have said that though it's just plain cane sugar (and/or sometimes beet sugar) the flavour can be very different from homemade iterations.  There are a couple pounds of D-180 picked up at NB Milwaukee last summer just waiting to spring into action; one pound is for this beer, while the other is for another upcoming batch.  The rest was originally going to be simple table sugar, but when I found turbinado for a decent price, it seemed right to go with the more characterful choice.

WY3787, purportedly Westmalle's (and Westvleteren's, Achel's, and quite likely St. Bernardus's) yeast, produces some fine Trappist and abbey ales.  I've used it to make a nice dubbel, but the follow-up BDSA did not do as well, sputtering out at 1.050.  Unfortunately I haven't had an aeration system to get the proper amount of oxygen into the wort for big beers like this, which may be a major factor in the yeast failing to finish; I actually just acquired an aeration stone and an inline air filter, but not in time for this most recent batch.  To give the yeast a better chance at finishing out this time, though, I reserved the sugars for incremental additions during primary, along with some yeast energizer to keep the little guys up and moving.

The mash-in for this batch was so large (6 1/2 gallons of liquor) that there was only pre-boil volume enough left for a single batch sparge, as opposed to my normal double.  Thus, there was a significant dropoff in efficiency; next time I'll plan for a larger volume and increase the boil time.  It also took an inordinate amount to lauter, which I wasn't expecting from a mash that included no rye, wheat, or oats to stop up the works.  Coming off a smallish starter, the 3787 got right to work, requiring a blowoff tube in the first couple days.  Fermentation temps have been kept relatively moderate, coming up from the mid 60s into the low 70s only after most of the activity had finished; this should keep phenolic production while still keeping the yeast at work.

At the end of the first week, fermentation had slacked off significantly, so I added the first sugar addition.  The gravity was at 1.030, which doesn't seem too bad in under a week; if it hasn't dropped within a couple weeks of the final sugar addition, I'll get a fighting starter of the very attenuative Wyeast French Saison yeast on the stirplate and see if that will finish the job.

DMA BDSA
Batch size: 5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.101
Projected SRM: 24.2
Projected IBU: 28.6
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 58%

Grains/Fermentables
80.0% - 18 lb Weyermann Organic Vienna
9.0% - 2 lb Weyermann Organic Munich I
2.2% - 8 oz Dingemans Cara 45
4.4% - 1 lb D-180 Belgian candi syrup (primary)
4.4% - 1 lb Turbinado sugar (primary)

Hops
.7 oz Warrior (16.7%) (60 min)

Yeast
WY3787 Trappist High Gravity (2-qt starter)

Extras
1 tbsp Yeast nutrient

Water additions (mash)
20 qts distilled water
2 g Epsom salts
1 g Salt
1 g CaCl2
1 g Chalk

Brewday: 5 May 2012
Mash: 148F for 90 minutes
Pre-boil volume: 5.8 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 17.0P (1.070)
Post-boil OG (w/o sugars): 20.2P (1.085)

Ferment started in swamp cooler at 62F ambient
Activity took off in under 12 hours; by 36 hours had to replace the airlock with a blowoff tube

Sugar addition #1: 11 May 2012
8 oz turbinado with yeast energizer (boiled & cooled with enough water to dissolve)
SG: 1.030 - may need 3711 to finish the job
Bumped up temp over the last couple days to a high of 74F ambient as activity slowed.  Fermentation put out ~800 ml of blowoff by that time; replaced blowoff tube with an airlock when activity slowed and gave the fermenter a good spin to rouse the yeast.  Activity took off again, so dropped the temp back into the mid 60s.  Activity was slacking again before the sugar addition.

Sugar addition #2: 15 May 2012
D-180

Sugar addition #3: 20 May 2012
D-180

Sugar addition #4: 25 May 2012
Turbinado with yeast energizer

Secondary: 5 June 2012
SG: 1.022
Pitched rehydrated champagne yeast to encourage the gravity down into the teens, hopefully.

4 August 2012
SG: 1.016

Bottled: 10 August 2012
FG: 1.015
ABV: 11.3%

Bottled with 4.8 oz table sugar.

Tasting: Substantial with lots of fruit.  Belgian yeast character as all get-out, generally complemented by the residual sweetness.  A very decent sipper; I don't know how much will make it all the way to the end of this degree.

2nd Place, Belgian Strong Ale: 2014 Beehive Brew-Off