Belgian Golden strong ale critque

What do you want the beer to taste like? What are the amounts of hops and sugar? What kind of sugar?

 

Without knowing exactly what your goal is for this beer all I can say is, the recipe looks fine, though I would suggest using table sugar rather than white candy sugar as this is nothing more than big chunks of expensive sucrose (aka, table sugar), and when it comes to spices, less is more IMO.

 

I have a great recipe for this style and is very simple too.

for 5 Gallons

15lbs pale malt
2 oz saaz 60 min
wyeast belgian strong ale #1388

 

I would ditch the caramalt and the vienna and add no spices. Sugar is essential, and as HB42 says, table sugar is fine. This is assuming you want something like the BJCP description of a golden strong; nothing wrong with doing your own thing and adding what pleases you.

 

-I would mash a bit lower than 154F, Id shoot for 151ish so its dry and not too full bodied

-I would skip the spices, most belgians taste far better without any spices, the yeast will give you lots of those flavors

-I would ferment a bit lower than 75F, Id go for 72F at the highest, 1214 can get a little strange at higher temps, but has nice pear notes in the midrange

 

I would ditch Vienne and caravienne adding 2% Crystal 20 and 2% Munich . I would smash at 149f for 80 mins .If you are going to ferment at 75F remember to pitch a bit lower than the low end of the recommended temperature range.1 gram of coriander at the last 10 mins of the boil would add some nice subtle flavor.

 

From what I have read, anything brewed with Belgian Pils malt should be boiled for 90min, sorry I forget why.

 

DMS. And it's not just Belgian pils, it's any pils.

 

I would start fermenting @ 66°f for 3 days then let it free rise into the 70s. A bigger beer w/ sugar and a higher temp you're likely to get nail polish remover. I did mine about 72°f and had higher alcohols. I will also echo the table sugar and lower mash temp. How much sugar are you planning to use?

 

I would use a Duvel-style yeast like 1388 Belgian Strong Ale or the White Labs equivalent. I agree with those that said to leave out the spices and Mash below 150 to keep the body lighter. The Belgian Strong Ale yeast will develop a lot of character on its own given a few weeks of conditioning where the spices are not necessary.