odds and ends tripel

[Peatbogbrewer]

Hello and happy new year brewers!
Got a few bits left over from last year so i'm bunging them together for an experimental tripel(ish) gallon brew:
0.5 kg bohemian pilsner
1kg wheat malt
22g Flaked wheat
22g flacked barley
mashed at 65degs for 1 hour
8g Target at 60
10g saaz at 5
6g coriander at 5
8g sweet orange peel at 5
Mangrove jacks belgian ale yeast
ABV 8.4% IBU 36

What do people think?
Cheers....

[DaveyT]

It looks OK to me. From I'm aware of about the style, though, you might get a bigger beer than the standard. I've always thought large amounts of sugar were used to create higher ABVs without creating big beers, esp in Belgium beers. Something like 15% sometimes. Is this something you've come across too?

[Barley Water]

Yeah, I would say that looks like an Imperial Wit to me although of course there is nothing wrong with that. I can't think of any of the bigger Belgian brews that doesn't have a fair amount of sugar in the grist for exactly the reason the previous poster mentioned. What you could do is drop a pound or so of orange blossom honey into the beer after primary fermentation calms down which will dry out the beer, thin it down a bit and also accentuate the orange deal you already have going.

[Peatbogbrewer]

Yes i agree DaveyT I've added 5% sugar to the recipe and it comes out now at 9% ABV. Am i write in thinking that the addition of sugar will do the same job as honey and reduce cloying? Thus not creating a BIG BEER?

[Barley Water]

Oh yeah, I pretty much look at honey like liquid sugar although I guess it is not quite as fermentable as straight sugar. Generally speaking, I don't like to add highly processed sugars to beer mostly because I see the addition of relatively unrefined sugar as a way to introduce unique flavors. Of course, all that depends of what effect you are trying to achieve but I see brewing Belgian ales as an opportunity to get really crazy and it's all big fun (to me anyhow).

[DaveyT]

If you want more honey flavour, you could put between ten and fifteen per cent in, after primary as Barley Water mentioned. If this makes the beer stronger than you are looking for, you could scale back on the pilsner malt. It'll then start looking like a honey beer. I've started using palm sugar when I don't want a honey beer.
It's all horses for courses, mind.