Beer to Age for when it's cold - Belgian Dark Strong Ale

should be tasty, I personally don't like using molasses and don't see a place in Belgian beer for it.

I always add my Candi as a preboil addition, make sure everything dissolves before boiling, but I know a lot of people like to add sugars and Candi during fermentation.

and keep your water profile soft! you're using WLP500 the Chimay strain, the Chimay water profile is something like, Ca:30 Mg: 7 Na: 7, Cl: 20 SO4: 20
 
The flavors of the candi syrup aren't volatile so you can add them anywhere in the boil. Problem is the sugars in Candi are sugars yeast prefer over maltose, so you can end up with a stuck fermentation or incomplete attenuation if you add them too early. Best way I've found is to add them just past high krauesen, when about half of the extract has been fermented. That way, the yeast are already tuned to maltose, they'll then clean up the simple sugars (fructose and glucose) in the invert syrups or sugars.
 
@oliver
I could take or leave the molasses. I think I saw an article somewhere suggesting it, so I threw it in.
RE: water profile, I'm not sure what my municipal water profile is. I checked my city's water department's website, and the last report was from 2017 (2 years ago), and I couldn't interpret the data too well. Also, I have a pessimistic outlook on the value buying a self test kit of my water.
FWIW, I pull water through my fridge's filter.
I'm open to advice in this regard!

@Nosybear
That's what I read about Candi and why to add it to mid fermentation. I'm planning on using a bucket as the primary vessel with a blowoff for that has the most amount of headspace; it's not transparent so determining high krausen will require opening the bucket, which I tend to avoid.
 
@oliver
I could take or leave the molasses. I think I saw an article somewhere suggesting it, so I threw it in.
RE: water profile, I'm not sure what my municipal water profile is. I checked my city's water department's website, and the last report was from 2017 (2 years ago), and I couldn't interpret the data too well. Also, I have a pessimistic outlook on the value buying a self test kit of my water.
FWIW, I pull water through my fridge's filter.
I'm open to advice in this regard!

@Nosybear
That's what I read about Candi and why to add it to mid fermentation. I'm planning on using a bucket as the primary vessel with a blowoff for that has the most amount of headspace; it's not transparent so determining high krausen will require opening the bucket, which I tend to avoid.
I'm agreeing with Oliver - lose the molasses. Unless you want to keep it, in which case it might add some interesting complexity. I'm assuming you're using some form of abbey yeast - those things ferment like monsters! Plan on adding the syrup after day 2, if you can't estimate when half of the sugars are gone.
 
RE: water profile, I'm not sure what my municipal water profile is. I checked my city's water department's website, and the last report was from 2017 (2 years ago), and I couldn't interpret the data too well. Also, I have a pessimistic outlook on the value buying a self test kit of my water.
FWIW, I pull water through my fridge's filter.

water is cheap right now, at least at Whole Foods it is, its $0.45/gallon of Deionzed water at all my local Whole Foods stores. start with DI, add just enough Gypsum and Calcium Chloride to hit your numbers and then adjust with lactic. I recommend doing it this way only because of the situation I am in. My municipal water changes daily, has a big bicarbonate, an unhealthy amount of chloramines, and the sewerage and water board doesn't publish an accurate water report. So why guess at what your water content is? Unless its certain your water is good for brewing.
 
I'm with Oliver on the water. I start with RO and "season" from there. My city water is from 3 different sources so the profile is not available, plus it is treated with chloromine. My brews had a noticeable improvement when Imade the change.
 
Check. I haven't done it but two times now but I use DI water (0 tds) from my under sink unit and build water. My two brews were noticeably different and I'm adjusting now.
 

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