I make a strong ale with around 50% wheat, and I decided to use it as a starting point for a Christmas Ale inspired by St. Bernardus. Not a clone. Just a very dark, strong ale with a lot of raisiny fruitcaky flavor. I added extra table sugar to beef up the ABV, and I replaced 60L crystal with Special B. I intended to use 1.5 pounds of Special B, but my HBS blew it, so I ended up with about 17 ounces. This new beer is around 40% wheat, not counting table sugar.
I use Beersmith. I shot for 1.100 and got 1.104. In 4 days, the beer has gone from 1.104 to 1.011, slightly past Beersmith’s guess. Beersmith’s refractometer tool thinks I have 12.62% ABV.
I have sampled the beer, and it’s sweet, so I believe the Special B did its thing. It’s the only crystal in the beer. But the beer is amber, and I expected something portery-looking. I don’t taste any raisiny flavors.
When I dumped the grain, I noticed there were some concentrated areas of Special B, but everything was wet, so I don’t think I had doughballs. Also, the beer is sweet, and the gravity hit the target, and I don’t think those things could have happened with doughballs. Am I wrong?
Easiest way to answer this is to enter your recipe into a recipe formulation software, website, or spreadsheet. Any of them should be pretty good at estimating the SRM. You didn’t mention any roasted malts- hard to get a dark color without one!
A pound and a half of Special B is quite a lot, especially when you have such a high starting gravity; the beer was destined to be sweet. If it’s too sweet, you can always blend this batch with a lower gravity highly attenuated beer. You could even make the blend darker if you wanted to.
Thanks for the response. It’s helpful. Beersmith estimated 20.6 SRM, but I just go by the little cartoon glass in the software. The glass is brown.
It never occurred to me that I couldn’t rely on the little cartoon glass until now. I am looking at a color chart, and the 20 SRM patch looks pretty close to my beer. I guess the Special B worked, but I was hoping for raisins and fruitcakes I don’t think I got.
I wanted the beer to be somewhat sweet, so that’s not a problem, but if I had gone with the original 1.5 pounds of Special B, it would be too sweet.
I am considering replacing some of the wheat with roasted wheat, adding aromatic malt to replace some of the pale malt, cutting the Sabro with Magnum to reduce the pina colada flavor, and using 12 ounces of Special B.
I’m not sure the sensitivity of the person you are brewing GF for, but Clarity Ferm is labelled as being able to reduce the gluten in finished beer. And from a few interviews I’ve heard, it actually reduces gluten down to undetectable levels. Depending on the person’s sensitivity/tolerance and willingness to try this out, Clarity Ferm may be sufficient to manage gluten in your beer.
