Knowledge/beer-brewing-recipes/008_belgian_dark_ale_concentrate_recipe.md

Belgian Dark Ale — Concentrate Recipe

Source: transcribed from user-provided photo on 2026-04-25.

Expected Brew Figures

• OG: 1.067
• FG: 1.016–1.019
• ABV: 6.7%
• IBU: 32
• Volume: 23 litres

Ingredients

• 1.7kg Lager can of concentrate
• 1.5kg Thomas Coopers amber malt extract
• 500g Coopers light dry malt
• 100g Crystal malt grains
• 250g Chocolate malt grains
• 25g Willamette hop pellets
• 11.5g Safbrew T-58 dry yeast

Method

1. The day before brew day, soak the cracked grain in a small mesh bag in a pot with about 3 litres of cold water. Fit the lid and sit it in the fridge overnight. If the grains have not already been cracked, place them in a plastic zip-lock sandwich bag and crack them using a rolling pin.
2. On brew day, lift the mesh bag with grains out of the pot and allow the liquid to drain out before discarding the grains.
3. Place the strained liquid onto the stovetop, bring to the boil then add 25g Willamette hop pellets. Boil for 10 minutes then remove from the heat.
4. Cool the liquid by placing the pot in a bath of cold water for about 15 minutes.
5. Add all the fermentable ingredients and the cooled liquid to your fermenter then stir to dissolve. Don’t be concerned if lumps of light dry malt persist as they will dissolve over the course of several hours.
6. Top up with cold tap water to 20 litres and stir thoroughly.
7. Check the temperature and top up to 23 litres with warm or cool water (refrigerated if necessary) to start the brew at 18°C.
8. Sprinkle both the Safbrew T-58 dry yeast and brew can yeast, then fit the lid.
9. Place the fermenter in a location out of direct sunlight and ferment at 18°C to 22°C. Fermentation should take around seven to 10 days.
10. On day 10, check the specific gravity (SG). The brew is ready once the specific gravity has stabilised over a couple of days and is between 1.016–1.018.
11. Allow your beer to bottle condition for at least two weeks, but it will benefit from at least eight weeks of bottle conditioning.

Notes

• Recipe title inferred from the visible page context on the left side of the image; “Belgian Dark Ale” matches the readable surrounding text.
• Main recipe body is fairly clear and high confidence.
• There is a small internal inconsistency between the FG line (1.016–1.019) and method step 10 (1.016–1.018); both were preserved as read from the image.
• Method step 8 mentions both Safbrew T-58 and brew can yeast, while only Safbrew T-58 is separately listed in the ingredients.