Working on a tripel/Brut type Belgian-y beer with pils malt and sugar, fermented with T-58. Went through primary at 60*F with only malt. After primary it hardly had any clove flavor. I read about a special mash schedule some Weizen brewers use to get a high percentage of glucose to promote clove phenol development.
During secondary fermentation, I was going to use table sugar, but instead I added plain dextrose. I kept the freezer at 60*. Now that it’s fermented out, it has a really strong clove aroma. Almost too much clove. Just an FYI for people looking to get more clove character out of their phenolic yeasts.
BTW recipe was 75% pils malt, 25% dextrose, and 25IBUs.
Thanks for the tip. I’ve been wanting to brew a hoppy Belgian Pale Ale, but my schedule lately hasn’t been conducive to making a starter with a liquid yeast. Its nice to know there’s a dry yeast option for me. I’m thinking the clove kick will be nice with either Chinook or Simcoe paired with something spicy like Saaz.
T-58 is the house strain for De Struise Brewery. They also use a mix of wild bugs and yeast too, but when the need to refresh their yeast they use T-58. So it does have a true “Belgian” application (for whatever THAT’S worth), but it’s not necessarily going to give you the same results as the liquid Belgian strains.
If you use it, it gets pretty solventy and weird (black peppery) at high temps. I try to ferment as close to 60* as I can for the first few days, then ramp up the temp after that. It’s a medium attenuator, but also a poor flocculator, so you need to take extra steps if you’re trying to get it to ferment dry and clear.
Also, it makes a great semi-dry cider, if you’re into that sort of thing. It usually stalls around 1.010 for me, but carbs up in the bottle fine, without bombs (so far, knock on wood).