Belgian Strong (Harvest Moon Ale)

I will apologize up-front. This is the point in my brewing history where I made the smart decision to not really record many notes of the beers I made, opting instead to simply remember everything about all the beers I brewed. The memorable beers, sure, I remember a lot about. It is the recipes in-between, the ones that -even when great- fail to fire the neurons of my memory. I also want to note that up to this point in my brewing hobby, I have made exactly zero beers of my own innovation. If not from Dry Dock or a kit, the recipes up to this point were found online in brewing forums and recipe databases. I wish I could give the creators of these recipes due credit but the time is past.

Now for the Belgian Strong Ale. Continuing my fascination of all beers Belgian, this beer was another fun Belgian style to try out. Not too far off from the Trippels I have done but delicious in its own way.

Grains

3oz Belgian Aromatic
2oz German Vienna

Hops

2oz Mount Hood (4.7%AA) @60min
.75oz Cascade (8.0%AA) @10min

Malt

10lbs LME
1lb Candy Sugar @10min

Yeast

Apparently I forgot to write down the yeast, which is great.

Additions

1tsp Ground Coriander @10min

SG: 1.075
1wk: 1.018
FG(2wk): 1.015

I also have a profound affinity for brewing strong beers. I always used to love drinking strong beers and I think I eventually came to the conclusion where if I was going to go through the trouble of making a beer, why not make it decently alcoholic. Why would I want to spend the time to make a little 4%’er? My view on this has relaxed over the years, but is always present nonetheless. This Strong Ale is an amazing, unique beer. I found that this beer was only ready to my standards after about 1.5-2 months in bottles. There is a noticeable coriander smell and taste to the beer that pairs incredibly well with the other Belgian flavors in the beer. I know that sounds ridiculous, but you know, those kind of flavors characteristic in Belgian beers. It’s a good thing I don’t get paid (yet) to describe beers. Cuz I would be poor broke. At the time, this was the favorite beer that I have ever brewed*.

*This memory may be influenced by the strength of this beer.

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