BeerSmith™ Recipe Cloud

Notes

4/24/16. Could not add all the strike water in at once. Mash tun too small. Only got in about 40 quarts when it called for 55. Less hot water means cooler mash. Mash temp came in at 139 degF. Had to decoct about 8 quarts to boil and add back to the mash. Got it up to 152 degF. Mashed total time about 90 minutes. 30 at 139 and 60 at 152. Efficientcy was low at 65%. Everything else seemed to work well. Thick, sweet, rich wort. The bitterness is a bit more pronounced than I was expecting. Chilled wort down to 68 degF with CFC. Rehydrated both packs of yeast in 2 cups of room temperature boiled and chilled water and pitched at 68 degF. Set fermentation chamber at 68 degF after pitching the rehydrated yeast. Fermenting in stainless 15.5 gallon keg. 4/25/16. 24 hours after pitch. Vigorous fermentation activity in airlock. This thing is jamming. Soft fruits in the aroma. Trying to keep the banana genie from coming out a bit. Fermentation holding at 68.8 degF. 4/27/16. Fermentation starting to slow down. Raised temperature to 70degF. 4/30/16. Fermentation still rolling. Slow. Fruity smells, juicy pears, banana. 5/9/16. Fermentation appears to have stopped. Measured FG at 1.007. Works out to 10.1% (!) Tastes and smells great with nice Belgian spice, caramel, toffee, pepper, clove, juicy fruits and banana. Bitterness seems to be just enough to balance the rich flavor. Actually very nice. Even though this fermented pretty dry, the flavor is perceived to be sweet. Color is a little lighter than I was hoping for, but not much. Set fermentation temp down to 30degF. 5/11/16. Added 1 tsp gelatin dissolved in 1 pint of warm water. Opened fermenter and poured in. Lightly swirled fermenter around to distribute gelatin. Replaced airlock. 5/14/16. Pulled fermenter out of the chamber. It was sitting at 29.7 degF. Had to make room for more beer to ferment. Left it outside at around 50-60 degF. 5/15/16. Bottled. Primed 9.25 gallons of beer with 10.6oz granulated cane sugar. Nice day today. 6/3/16. Placed 2 bottles in the fridge. 6/4/16. Opened one bottle. Nice high carbonation and good clarity. Color was a nice deep dark red. Darker than originally thought. Flavor was very complex. Dark fruits, plum, raisin, clove, brown sugar, toffee, banana, toasted grain. Plesant alcohol warming. Had a little more hop bitterness in the finish than I wanted. It will be nice to see how this beer evolves over the next few months. Delicious now.