Roger's Belgian Strong Dark Ale

Brewer: Roger Warner

Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale

Batch Size: 5 gals.

Malt Bill:

9 lbs. Marris Otter Pale Malt
12 oz. Cara Munich
3 oz. Special B
6 oz. Biscuit Malt
8 oz. Aromatic Malt
2 oz Chocolate Malt
2 lbs. M&F Light DME
1.5 lbs. Belgian Dark Candi Sugar

Hop Schedule

1/2 oz. Chinook Hop Pellets (12%) for 60 min.
1/2 oz. Chinook Hop Pellets (12%) for 30 min.
No finishing or dry hops

Yeast

White Labs Trappist Ale (#500) Yeast

Procedure

Mash for 90 min. @152°
Boil time: 60 min.

Readings

O.G.: 1.090
F.G.: 1.020

Notes

Used the 2 lbs. of DME in this because my mash tun was maxed out. If you have room for more grain, you could substitute an additional 3 lbs. of pale malt for the DME.

I purposely brewed this in the summer when my fermentation area is warmer than normal to boost ester production. Fermentation temp. was around 75 degrees, maybe slightly higher at the peak of activity.

For some reason, this took a LONG time to carbonate in the bottle, so it might be wise to give it a fresh dose of the same yeast at bottling along with the priming sugar.

This recipe took 1st place in the Belgian Strong Ale quaterly club competition.