Sugar Free Chimay or similar beer recipe

[JT101]

Is it possible to brew a dark malty beer such as a Belgian trapist without the candi sugar or brown sugar?

The reason being, I want to do this as part of self sufficiency. Sugar is not really sustainable in my opinion. Too much energy and time to make it.

Say this BlueChimay recipe. Could I just omit the candi sugar or brown sugar added? Would it still work? Any ideas in the difference in taste?

3kg light liquid malt
325g Leabrook Farms strawberry clover honey
500g soft brown sugar
40g crushed black malt
25g Goldings hop pellets
50g Hallertau hop pellets

Thanks so much

[daz c]

Your not going to achieve an abv of 9% with that grain bill.Assuming its for 23l batch you'd need at least 5kg of liquid malt. The sugar is to increase to alcohol without making it cloying or syrupy.I'd stick some special b and remove the black malt too.Using an unrefined sugar such as muscavdo will give it a nice flavour.I've just done a beglian strong dark ale using 500g muscavado and 500g dark brown sugar 6kg pale malt 300g special b 300g caramunich 300g biscuit. Had 2 weeks fermenting with whitelabs 540 abbey yeast. Gone from 1.090 to 10.015. Bottled it yesterday and its tasting amazing but its going to left hidden for a good few months to mature.

daz

[Rowang]

It would be pretty difficult to brew a belgian without sugar. They "thin" it out, and give the high ABV without it being too cloying in nature, its a fairly integral bit of the flavour profile.

In terms of ecological integrity, have you thought about using Jaggery? Far cruder as a product, will give perfectly satisfactory results. Only problem is the airmiles, since its generally made in south-asia. Perhaps if you could source fair trade that would do it?

[Befuddler]

You could always replace the sugar with honey...

[BrotherLogic]

I don't think you could make a high abv belgium beer without sugar but you could make an abbey singel with just pilsner malt and use the chimay yeast.

[boingy]

I also thought of honey. It's local, and (arguably) sustainable. It's less fermentable than sugar so you would need to adjust the quantities a tad. Not cheap though, unless you barter for it.

Thinking more leftfield, I wonder if you could use raw unprocessed sugar beet (would that count as sustainable?). They are about one-fifth sugar. I have no idea how you would go about using beet or successful it would be. You could maybe mince it, boil it, strain it and measure the SG of the liquid.

[JT101]

Yeah, honey is fine if I can get it cheap enough, or get it at all (my local suppliers are out due to the dying bees). But what quantities. In baking, you use 2/3 cup honey to replace 1 cup of sugar. Maybe I could try that.

Jaggery is from sugar cane which can't be grown here so I won't use that.

So it's either honey (I did find a Chimay recipe using honey here: http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/ourhomebrews.html) or I switch to an alternative such as Russian Imperial Stout, Baltic Porter e.g.

http://www.brew-dudes.com/baltic-porter-recipe/315
12.5 lbs. English 2-row Pale Malt
0.25 lbs. English Chocolate Malt
1 lbs. Crystal Malt 60°L
1 lbs. Crystal Malt 120°L
0.25 lbs. British Black Patent
1.5 oz. Fuggle (Pellets, 4.75 %AA) boiled 60 min.
0.50 oz. Fuggle (Pellets, 4.75 %AA) boiled 15 min.
0.50 oz. Fuggle (Pellets, 4.75 %AA) boiled 1 min.
Yeast: Wyeast 2112 California Lager

...............which doesn't appear to use any sugar.

Then I use the wort to carbonate.

Does that sound like a plan Stan?

[De-Geert]

If you want to be sustainable, quit homebrewing immediately . You are far less efficient in using water or energy compared to large commercial brewers.

And why is sugar costing more energy than malt? First you have to soak the barley in water at a relatively high temperature, rinse them with more water. Dry them by using heat.
I think malt costs a lot more energy and water to make than sugar. So use more sugar and less malt.

Another option: just make your best beer and drive the car less and eat less meat.

BTW: I agree, no Belgian beer styles withouth sugar

[bosium]

I couldn't comment on the whole sustainability thing, but I agree with other members that sugar is an integral part of most Belgian ales as it dries the beer out and lightens the body and in dark Belgian ales, dark candi sugar (syrup) adds a unique flavour too and there really is no substitution for this.

You could brew a singel / patersbier to about 5% without sugar, and I reckon you could just about get away with a blonde to around 6% but any more and you'd need some sugar to dry the beer out (plain white super cheap supermarket stuff is FINE). You can forget dubbels or strong darks though without the dark candi syrup (in my experience, this is not something you can really manufacture at home and have it taste like the real deal but ymmv).

[Dr. Dextrin]

Sugar is as sustainable as anything else we use in brewing. The beet is grown in the UK, hoiked out of the ground, minced up, strained and boiled down (basically). That's pretty much what happens when you make beer with grain. I can't see the problem.

If you want to go all hair-shirt, why not try making beer without the internet? That uses loads of energy and isn't even a traditional beer ingredient.

[JT101]

Well it seems quite clear what the verdict is, no Chimay dark belgian beer without sugar. Thanks for all your comments.

De-Geert & Dr Dextrin make some really good points, especially drive the car less, eat less meat and use the internet less. I can see your switched on But as you De-Geert says, you "think" malt uses more energy than sugar to make. Well, that's what I want to find out.

Trust me, I'm very stubborn and I will do this regardless of points to the contrary

So I found this recipe, which I will give a try

1.5 kg Black Rock Amber malt extract
1kg light dried malt extract
250g honey
50g black grain crushed
50g Hallertau hop pellets
25g Goldings hop pellets Safale S-04 yeast

Once I've done it, if it works, I will have proved I can make my favourite beer using honey and no sugar, and I will decide then if it uses too much energy for my liking to extract the malt enzymes. Trust me, if it does I will drop it. Maybe I'll brew it once in a blue moon.

I'll try it and report back

Cheers

[Spud395]

You will need to use a Belgian yeast strain, S04 will give you.

To be honest that recipe looks more like a bitter than a chimay clone.
If thats a 23L brew, you're looking at a 4% beer

[JT101]

Yep. that seems about right

[Befuddler]

That looks exactly like a bitter and nothing like anything Belgian.

The flavours of Belgian beers come primarily from the yeast strain and the way you treat it. After that the main factors are the Pilsner malt base, the Belgian speciality malts and in some darker beers, the caramelised sugars. You have precisely none of those components in your recipe.

[mshergold]

Unfortunately, brewing also takes up a lot of space growing barley and hops (well, maybe not so much the hops) that could better be used to feed the world's hungry.