Above picture was taken on a frosty November morning 11/23/2013.
Belgian beer in general needs to be aged properly for longer than your average, we recommend at least a good 3 months, you will noticed the beer get considerably better over time.
Belgian Abbey Ale – 5+ gallon batch (means you might end up with a little bit more than 5 gallons).
A darker and stronger Belgian beer, if you like a beer with a little kick, but one that still tastes great, this is it!
ABV 9~ 11% (depends on your brew setup/equipment/efficiencies and experience)
Standard mash at 152~154F for 60 minutes, boil for an additional 60 minutes, ferment below 70F.
Grain:
14 lb American 2-Row Malt
1 lb Munich Malt
2 oz. Chocolate Malt
Hops:
1 oz. Willamette @ 15 minutes (from start of boil)
1 oz. Willamette @ 60 minutes (at end of boil)
Use your house Belgian yeast or try: White Labs Belgian Ale (WLP550) or Abbey Ale (WLP530).
Note, we usually brew the 10 gallon version of this beer.. If you want a darker beer, double your Chocolate Malt, keep in mind that you are adding this using ounces (not pounds) unlike the other malt grains. We usually add 4 ounces for a 10 gallon batch, double the mentioned amount for the 5 gallon batch, here is a video of a Re-circulation of the Belgian Abbey, so you can get an idea of its color….
Additional Tips: Anytime you are brewing bigger batches, 10+ you need to be on the look out for stuck sparges, once the channel gets stuck in the sparging process, the beer will stop want to flow out of the mash tun. You can heat to 168 F, this will most likely unstuck it by reducing the viscosity of your wort, however be careful – too high of a temperature anything past 170F and extraction of unwanted tannins will happen.
Anyways with a few batches you will figure it out :- )
10 Gallon batch:
28 lb American 2-Row Malt
2 lb Munich Malt
4 oz. Chocolate Malt
Hops:
2 oz. Willamette @ 15 minutes (from start of boil)
2 oz. Willamette @ 60 minutes (at end of boil)
Here we actually used a little bit more water then intended and added also 1/2 lb of Belgian candi sugar – ended up with a OG of 1.058 (border line 1.060) and we actually ended up with about 15 gallons of beer, not 10 – LOL
FG was 1.013 – final alcohol ABV: 5.91% or 6% rounded ( keep in mind that we used the grain amount for a 10 gallon batch in a 15 gallon batch, so the ABV was diluted, to make it less strong )..
Yes – 15 gallons is heavy, you will need a pump to help you transfer the beer, unless you have a 3 stage all gravity system in place, good luck and cheers!