recipe advice belgian strong

[riverbottom]

hey guys my next 2 homebrews will be a belgian strong dark ale and a belgian strong golden ale.

i am considering putting both on brett but my first question is: have any of you experimented with these styles? and what yeasts have you used? i had great results with white labs belgian strand and am considering the wlp 530 (chimays strain) for the strong dark and WLP 545 or WLP570 (belgian golden ale / belgian strong ale) for the golden ale - what one i use depends on what ABV i shoot for.

ideally i may put the effort in to making them both as similar as possible and letting them sit on brett for a few months - bottling around march and conditioning until thanksgiving (love me some strong ales with turkey).

so basically id like reviews of all 3 yeasts if any are available, and any experience with belgian strongs and bacteria.

thanks!

[ShoreWoodBrew]

No experience with those WLP yeast strains River, or with brett'ing high gravity Belgians. My two Belgian go to strains are WY3787 and WY1388. Maybe they are the WLP equivalents of some of those you listed. 1.5 years ago I had a long brew day where I made a Dark Strong (similar to old world style Westy XII recipe thats on Homebrewtalk, 10.2%) and a Duvel Clone (8.5%). Nailed the OG and FG's, Had a very specific cold conditioning in secondary for each (Duvel at 31F for 2-3 weeks and 50F for the Westy XII for 4 or 5 weeks. I used WY1388 for both as I pitched 1/3 to 1/2 of the cake to each from a Patersbier.

Never had a real Westy XII, but I suppose not many have. But I liked that one a lot; its still my favorite beer in our cellar. I used 2 lbs of D180 syrup and 1 lb of D90. I would reco at least 2 lbs of the D180 stuff, its great.

I had a real Duvel side by side with my BGS attempt. Mine was a tidge darker and something about it was not quite right. Tasty but not the real deal. Kinda hard to get just right, but I will try again some day.

I did pitch Brett into a 1 gallon carboy that I split off some 12% Barleywine last winter. Haven't opened it up yet and will bottle sometime this winter. Good luck with both of those beers, they sound awesome!

[riverbottom]

i have had a westy XII and to be honest i prefer the blue label chimay (which is why i am leaning towards that strain of yeast) - one of the strains i am looking at from white labs is the equivalent to wy3787, but i dont remember which one offhand there either.

ill be brewing the dark this coming weekend. ill get your address at some point and ship you a bottle of both next autumn.