Chop & Brew - Episode 12: Belgian Dark Strong Ales

Chop & Brew is joined once again by Wyeast brand manager Michael Dawson for a backyard brew session. The goal: a high-gravity Belgian Dark Strong Ale. We discuss what it takes to create a successful "big beer" while sampling a high-octane brew from Dawson's homebrew cellar. Brewers, we'd love to hear your tips and techniques to high-gravity brewing. Leave a comment below this video. [Original postdate: September 4, 2013]
If you'd like to make a contribution to the Chop & Brew efforts, you can now do so at this link:
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Related Links:
Dawson's Belgian Dark Strong Ale 2013 [What we're brewing.]
chopandbrew.com...
Dawson's Belgian Dark Strong Ale 2011 [What we're drinking.]
chopandbrew.com...
Wyeast Private Collection (changes quarterly)
www.wyeastlab.c...

[@mylkmouth]

I really liked the editing on this video. The cutting back and forth between brewing set to good music and interesting dialogue makes it one of my favorites.

[@Bush6800]

This is the right way to do it. Information and people having a good time.

[@BBurt775]

Its been long enough now Im going back and rewatching episodes, forgot how good and how funny they are 👍good job.

[@ChopAndBrew]

Brody Burt Appreciate it!

[@TheBabbage78]

Glad that Chop & Brew is starting to take off now, I love the content, I was already an avid brewer when I started watching Brewing TV but you guys really helped expand my knowledge and entertained the hell out of me at the same time. Hope to see more from you guys!

[@23yroldfox]

The only KZbin homebrewers I would actually want to brew with....oh and Don O! Good chit fellas!

[@johngg86]

Hey Chop and Brew! I just want to let you guys know that Y'all are a real refreshing beer channel. Been searching for something normal and fun. Y'all are just what I was looking for! I'm a homebrewer with barely 4 batches under my belt and the way Y'all explain things, makes it easy for to understand. Whenever Y'all come to Houston for anything let me know.

[@23yroldfox]

That's how we do in the Midwest son! I'm keepin it Belgian today, brewing a saison with the wlp 566 right now. Chop 4 chop.... Brew 4 brew!!!!!!!

[@MrDymes99]

Dawson welcome back to you tube. You brew knowledge is amazing and you have pretty good camera presence.

[@ChopAndBrew]

Best comment ever! Thanks. This is why we do it, too.

[@erokbrewmeister9231]

Dawson being back never hurts the ratings ! :)

[@mattf108]

I love this video. Wish myself and my beer brewing buds at work could do this all the time!! Thanks guys! Cheers!!

[@roknich75]

Another fantastic episode guys! Please keep 'em coming!

[@davidronneberg]

Two thumbs up on the stylish apparel Ted, way to represent Canadian home brewing!

[@ASXL41]

Awesome looking brewday guys!

[@MrSparty1995]

Nice brew day, look forward to seeing all the results, very cool. Cheers.

[@neil1786]

Keep them coming!

[@neil1786]

I watched enough BTV to know where that 15g pot came from and the Quad from 2 yrs ago! I really enjoy your work Chip

[@peligro28]

I've pitched 1056 into 1.088 adding no O2 or any other off the wall aeration techniques....1056 does work!!! I know it's not a Belgian strain but none the less, an awesome strain!!!!

[@Jono257]

Sweet! Thanks for the reply. I'll try this next time I make a Belgian strong, dark or otherwise.

[@davensteve]

Another AWESOME episode! Thanks Chip!

[@ChopAndBrew]

Per Dawson: The main purpose of this technique as I was trying to describe it is to maximize attenuation; so except when using some specific strains where phenolic character increases with gravity, and except where the character of the sugar would be left more intact vs. adding it to the boil (eg, honey), the flavor shouldn't be affected significantly.

[@sirchopz]

AWESOME EPISODE...LOVE THE PRIMATE CONCEPT...OUGA-OUGA

[@AndJusTIceForRob]

D-180 makes everything it touches delicious. What's driving me crazy at the moment is trying to learn how to make something resembling it closely enough on my own (to save on the $7/lb.).

[@ChopAndBrew]

You figure it out, you let us know for real!!!

[@Nick-no1ke]

So excited to give it a whirl. I'll be doing a Dark Strong with 1lb D-180 and 1lb Blackstrap Molasses this weekend. Blackstrap can be bought for $6 a gallon on webstaurantstore so there's a bit of a savings there, but I have no idea if it's a fair substitute or just a compliment adjunct. Josh Weikert recommends this approach in his "Make Your Best Dark Strong Ale" on BeerandBrewing.com for some burnt sugar flavors. So I guess if you're doing 2 pounds of Candisyrup like some of the Quad recipes call for, there could be a small savings with subbing in 50% with Blackstrap. Would be curious to hear if the Chop and Brew guys have ever used it. Side plug, the "Make your Best" series by Weikert is fantastic.

[@MrNormandaniel]

I am so stoked about how well you guys are doin at Chop and Brew Chop Chop and Brew. I almost don't even miss Brewing TV. BTW wuzzup wit KEELER? Where he at?

[@stig458]

Another great ep Chip, keep 'em coming!

[@mkhanson1440]

I dig the NHC glassware. That was a lot of fun, Chipsquatch!

[@jasong7175]

Sweet! Brewing and Brats! Dawson!

[@jonathanlunneberg1722]

Totally awesome episode, Chap!

[@bosshawg910]

Keep on keep'n on ya'll cheers

[@ChopAndBrew]

That's getting it done!

[@meltroha]

Fantastic man! Cheers

[@tupfish]

aw shit i love u chip, keep bringing me the dawson

[@pzanello]

Silent Ted rocks man....keep him on the show!!

[@tupfish]

I think using oak chips or 'sticks' previously inoculated with bacteria/yeast to funk up the quad. Sounds good to me!

[@Ogdenstormcrow]

Belgian beers especially triples, dubbels and Abdje styles have pronounced malt characters yet finish with a clean palate. This is as a result of using particular Belgian strains of yeast. Belgian high strength beer= high malt level with additional sugars and particular yeasts= highly drinkable, highly alcoholic speciality brews👍

[@JimEllisEducation]

most sugar in an episode yet! get the blow off tube ready for the excitement.

[@raiderrob672]

You guy's have me cracking up.

[@Nick-no1ke]

Sorry if I missed this detail, but are you using a HERMS system? Or do you find that a big grain bill such as this does not see a significant drop in temperature over the mash duration?

[@ChopAndBrew]

Dawson doesn't generally use a recirculating mash unless it's more frigid here in MN. In this case, it was a hot summer day, so the temp held strong. He has been known to hit it with a bit of heat and stir well to raise temp if need be.

[@Goofyboots17]

AWWWWWW YEAH MY FAVORITE STYLE SON!!!!

[@jafarym77]

I almost bought those glasses at 9:40 from high gravity today. It is my local home brew shop...

[@donosborn]

My God. *some beer was harmed during the making of this episode* Great outtakes. Cool stuff. I assume you will do a tasting at some point. I liked the mash temp talk. That is the kind of thing that is confusing at first but the more you hear it the more it make sense. Also: Abstract Artimus rocks.

[@rmm305]

Belgian Strong Golden Ale would be amazing

[@ericdante222]

I know yeast count is a very important variable. Don't know if you guys mentioned the OG. U guys rock. One idea for a future episode could be one how to invert sugar/ make your own Belgian candi. Cheers dudes

[@ChopAndBrew]

I seriously appreciate if Fifteen Ten!!!!!!!

[@ChopAndBrew]

Truth!

[@williammikula3090]

nice experiment

[@adamsammy2540]

Excellent video as usual Chip! Had a few too many brats and brews that day huh? What did you end up doing with your 2.5?

[@vitusjbering2724]

I would love to know about the health benefits of fermented beverages, just mentioning it would be awesome.

[@ChopAndBrew]

Ha! Thanks, SMIFF! The 'stache looks familiar, too. Hmmmmmm.

[@Endogaming-u8i]

I call "Bad Things" being creative! haha

[@Jono257]

QUESTION: Would adding the sugar at high krausen ( which reduces the stress on the yeast as mentioned by MD ) result in a less phenolic beer or just less potential for off-flavors?? Choppy choppy!

[@nathanhassey4724]

Is the beer you are drinking from the "Guess that beer" BrewingTV episode?

[@ChopAndBrew]

Sure is! chopandbrew.com/recipes/dawsons-belgian-dark-strong-ale-2011-homebrew-recipe/

[@MrButterpantz]

Brewing a Westvleteren 12 clone next week with 3787 and 3lbs of D-180 so this is definitely on my mind at the moment. Are you guys crafting your recipes to a personal taste, general style or clone of a famous trappist selection?

[@thelongslowgoodbye]

Where did you get those bottles? They look like the same bottles Chimay use for their Grand Reserve.

[@UniversalLove4Life]

What were the results of the second phase, the second fermentation?

[@ChopAndBrew]

Repost from above: Dawson ended up keeping all of the batches b/c the rest of us are lazy. LULZ. One batch on cherries, one batch left as a control, one batch was infused with Wu Ling Mountain tea and one was pitched with Consecration yeast dregs. We plan on shooting a Tasting Notes & Update before or around Christmas -- for the people!

[@ChopAndBrew]

Donjuan Jones Did you see the follow up?

[@michaelphillips3658]

This episode makes me feel inadequate, i'm still producing IPAs about 75% of the time!

[@ChopAndBrew]

Sadly, Resa passed a while back, during the time Dawson and I were still at Northern Brewer. It was a very sad time, but she was an awesome dog and had a long, happy life of brew days, walks in the woods, hanging out near streams and getting huge love from the family. RIP, sweet Resa!

[@crowtservo]

I like how Dawson says something taste leathery. You eating a lot of leather there Mike?

[@fifteenten4460]

Just clicked the donate button on chop and brew dot com to say thanks. Don't you be buying no Boilermakers with my credit card number. Actually, you'll be able to buy about 5 lbs of grain with my donation, provided it's US grain and Elsa doesn't need new flip flops.

[@ChopAndBrew]

Stalker Alert! :)

[@Xjames14X]

i harvested yeast out of a bottle of Scuttlebutt 10 below beer. i used this yeast to make a imperial esb which is totally off style because i read that this yeast is a blend through wyeast..weizen??? i roused the yeast before transfer to secondary....is this ok? please dawson have some input on this if you know anything about this yeast. Thank you hope to hear from you soon

[@XTheSonofTheSunX]

chop for chop

[@geoffebner640]

I want Dawson's wyeast shirt :)

[@peligro28]

Chip, you should get together with Craig from CraigTube....He has a big fan base also, you two would benefit from each other. Just a though....

[@RobertSeviour1]

I like the outdoor brew-rig what is it? Details please.

[@ChopAndBrew]

It's a Blichmann TopTier with three shelves and two burners.

[@bframsted]

I just brewed a very similar belgian dark strong. OG was 1.078 and it just now has calmed down after a fierce week of primary fermenation. I wasn't planning on putting it in corked bottles mostly because I don't have a corker yet. Do you think regular bottles will be alright with this type of beer?

[@ChopAndBrew]

Dawson says that common crown should work just fine.

[@KeithChristofferson]

What crazy things did you guys do for the fermentation? I'm really curious to know.

[@ChopAndBrew]

Keith Christofferson Dawson ended up keeping all of the batches b/c the rest of us are lazy. LULZ. One batch on cherries, one batch left as a control, one batch was infused with Wu Ling Mountain tea and one was pitched with Consecration yeast dregs. We plan on shooting a Tasting Notes & Update before or around Christmas -- for the people!

[@KeithChristofferson]

ChopAndBrew Cool, looking forward to hearing the results. You're the second person I've heard infusing with cherries... sounds delicious.

[@ChopAndBrew]

Dawson's recipe is at chopandbrew (dot) com. Click Recipes. The 'make your own Belgian candi' idea is awesome. Have you done that before?

[@PlasmaGus]

Any updates on this one yet guys? I've got 2 Belgian Dark Strong Ales going now and plan to brew another this weekend. Thinking of going with the "quasi-open" fermentation as well. Cheers!

[@chipwalton5238]

We shot an update on two of them, but sadly we believe we may have lost that footage. Which sucks b/c it was Chip's birthday and ate steak in the middle of it!

[@PlasmaGus]

Chip Walton Boo! That sucks bud! Steak and brews. That's a perfect example of Chop and Brew!

[@chipwalton5238]

Gus Addkison My fingers are still crossed that the footage shows up on a misplaced SD card or external hard drive somewhere. Dawson was in awesome form!

[@ChopAndBrew]

Gus Addkison Never found that footage. But, Dawson ended up keeping all of the batches b/c the rest of us are lazy. LULZ. One batch on cherries, one batch left as a control, one batch was infused with Wu Ling Mountain tea and one was pitched with Consecration yeast dregs. We plan on shooting a Tasting Notes & Update before or around Christmas -- for the people!

[@ramblingsofthethurmondator1657]

Do you purposely misspell "Speical" in the credits?

[@ChopAndBrew]

Nope. Just careless mistake.

[@sergiovillanueva1432]

Hello, I know this is an old video but I’m brewing my own Belgian Dark Strong ale, the thing is I don’t know when to add the sucrose ? Can you give me a little more detail on what sugars to add, when, how much and why? Thanks from Tirano Brewers @tiranobrewing. Mexicali, Baja California Mexico

[@ChopAndBrew]

+Ing. Sergio Villanueva Some of those details are covered in the recipe page: chopandbrew.com/recipes/dawsons-belgian-dark-strong-ale-2013-homebrew-recipe/

[@ChopAndBrew]

+Ing. Sergio Villanueva Dawson also passed this along: Looks like we used a mix of dark (for color & flavor) soft and syrup candi in the boiler at shutdown. Timing of that addition was mainly to improve hop utilization; wouldn't necessarily hurt to add to kettle earlier, but wouldn't necessarily gain much either. I know for the 2011 version the candi was added at high krausen to try and postpone preferential fermentation of sucrose, but that beer was a good bit bigger. Depending on wort composition and yeast strain, probably not required for this version.

[@wessfeldt]

Tod is going to ghettobox it!

[@ENOCK360]

Ok. I was imagining sticks with ants in them or something. That might work to come to think about it. Thanks.

[@ENOCK360]

I gotta know. What are "Buggy wood sticks?"

[@iamfugazi1969]

Do you ever use White Labs? If not, why?

[@ChopAndBrew]

+iamfugazi1969 I used to when I first started brewing b/c my original homebrew shop Austin Homebrew Supply used to prioritize it in kits and during ordering ingredients. When I shop at (then worked at) Northern Brewer, they prioritized and highlighted Wyeast so I got to know their line-up better. The only White Labs I use with any frequency is Zurich Lager at wintertime to brew Samichlaus clone since that is THE yeast from the actual brewery and Wyeast doesn't have an equivalent. I'm not opposed to White Labs at all, I just got in the groove of using Wyeast. Plus, when Dawson used to work at Wyeast, I wanted to support him above everything else.

[@iamfugazi1969]

+ChopAndBrew That's pretty cool that you worked at both of those locations. I have ordered from both. The reason I asked if I am going to brew my first Dubbel within a week or so. My local shop only carries White Labs becasuse according to them, they have experienced some issues with Wyeast smack packs self inflating during shipping. Anyway, for this brew I am looking at White Labs. Hoping their Abbey Ale will do the trick. I enjoy the vids..keep em coming! Cheers!!

[@HeartPumper]

LFMAO Waltoin & Dawsoin :p

[@newengland72]

13:27 Malty-tasking

[@marshallrt]

Buggy Wood Sticks!

[@agentPLINY]

Where is Resa?

[@ChopAndBrew]

Getting high on your own supply! Well, getting drunk on the stuff you thunk, anyway.

[@Aaron_Higgins]

when I drink while I brew, bad things tend to happen

[@ChopAndBrew]

Nah. We love us some IPAs, too.

[@georgetempest9627]

such slim guys and they all look SO Belgian...

[@nichr6]

Ha ha. Was that your line?

[@agentPLINY]

Oh man, that's really sad :-(

[@outbuggin3011]

Hey guys, I dig the videos! You should tell me what you think of my beer review videos if you have a moment to stop by my channel. Thanks!

[@tupfish]

malty tasking

[@ChopAndBrew]

Just to appease Dawson's own wicked notions.

[@DontStopBrent]

Liked the technical info. Hated the music. You lost me.

[@ChopAndBrew]

Sorry, we like to have a bit of fun in editing to set the pace. Hope you still got some good info on the style.

[@TheBabbage78]

Glad that Chop & Brew is starting to take off now, I love the content, I was already an avid brewer when I started watching Brewing TV but you guys really helped expand my knowledge and entertained the hell out of me at the same time. Hope to see more from you guys!