I have decided to try to make another Belgian Abbey-style Ale. There are a lot of interesting looking recipes out on the internet for these beers - lots of use of spices and flavorings. I'll probably try one of these before too long but for this one I found a cool recipe on homebrewtalk for a Westvleteren 12 Clone that calls for a very simple grain bill (all base malt) and utilizes the interesting technique of boiling down first runnings to get caramel flavors and a brown color. I have never had a Westvleteren beer so whether this is a good clone or not isn't very relevant to me. This recipe is for a 10% which is a "Quad". I've decided to try to bring the beer in at around 7.5 to 8% ABV which would make this more of a "Dubbel".
The recipe will use WLP 530 Abbey Ale Yeast which is apparently pretty authentic for what the Belgian brewers use. The recipe calls for some temperature ramp up towards the end of fermentation which I will ignore for this batch. I plan on chilling the wort down to the low 60s and then letting it ferment in the ambient temperature of the basement (also low 60s right now) - it can free rise as much as it likes from there.
Seeing how much my Tripel improved with a bit of age (and how well stocked I am right now with homebrew after bottling two batches this week) I will let this beer sit in primary for one month and then age for an additional three months prior to bottling (might decide to throw in some oak as well).
Recipe Details:
- Grain/Adjuncts:
- 7 lbs 2 row malt
- 7 lbs Pilsner malt
- 4.5 oz Acid malt
- 2 lbs D-180 Candi Syrup (added at 5 min)
- Hops:
- 1 oz Brewers Gold (Pellet, 9.0% AA) at 60 min
- 1 oz Hallertau (Pellet, 2.7% AA) at 30 min
- 1 oz Styrian Goldings (Pellet, 1.4% AA) at 15 min
- Yeast:
- WLP 530 Abbey Ale Yeast
- Red Star Pasteur Red Wine Yeast (Bottle Conditioning)
- Water:
- 10 gal Spring Water
- 2 gal Tap Water
- 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
- 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min
Process Details:
- Batch Size:
- 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
- Mash:
- 152 F (Target 150 F for 60 min)
- Boil:
- 75 min (Target 90 min)
- Fermentation Temp:
- Ambient Basement Temps (Mid to low 60s)
- Primary Duration:
- 1 month
- Secondary Duration:
- 3 months
Results:
- OG:
- 1.076 (Target 1.070)
- Efficiency:
- 76% (Target 69%)
- FG:
- 1.011 (Target 1.012)
- Apparent Attenuation:
- 85% (Target 82%)
- ABV:
- 8.53 (Target 7.61%)
Brewing Notes:
- 2/26/15 - Created a 2 litre starter with 7.5 oz of DME and 1/8 tsp of yeast nutrient and pitched the yeast. Put onto a stir plate to grow. Activity was seen the following morning.
- 2/28/15 - Brew day - 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM including setup and cleanup
- Brought 7 gal of spring water up to 172 F strike water temp (lowered the flame on the burner once it got withing 10 degrees to avoid overshooting) - took 20 min
- Added CaCl to the HLT as it was heating
- Moved 24 qt of strike water to the mash tun - let the temp settle for 5 min - ended up in the high 160s
- Added the grain and stirred well to eliminate dough balls
- Checked the temps after 10 min - ended up between 152 and 154 F. Gave it another good stir and let it go at that temp
- Stirred after 30 min - temp was high 140s to low 150s. It was the right call to let it ride at the slightly higher than desired temp as it came down to the correct range
- Brought 6 gal of sparge water up to 200 F - took 25 min
- Mash was in the low 150s after 60 min. Vorlaufed and drained - slowly at first and then up to full speed
- Pulled off 1 gal of first runnings to boil down to a syrup
- Added 6 gal batch sparge and stirred - ended up in the mid 170s
- Vorlaufed and drained like before
- Started to boil the first runnings on the range in the kitchen
- Collected 8.5 gal of wort in the kettle and 1 gal for syrup
- Brought the kettle up to a boil
- Added the 60 min hops at 8 gal and the 30 min hops at 7 gal
- The stovetop wasn't boiling fast enough so I moved the gal of 1st runnings to the HLT to reduce down more quickly
- Added irish moss when volume was down to 6 2/3 gal
- At 6.5 gal added the 15 min hops
- Once the first runnings looked fairly thick I pulled some of the boiling wort and mixed it in with the syrup to loosen it up and then poured the whole thing back into the kettle
- Added the Candi Syrup at 6.25 gal
- Put the chiller in to sanitize at flame out
- Chilled the wort down to 65 F - took 10 min
- Transferred the wort to the fermentor - ended up with 6 gal
- Poured back and forth between the fermentor and another bucket to aerate
- Measured gravity at 1.076
- Pitched the yeast (looks to be at about high krausen)
- Set the fermentor up with a blow off tube
- 3/2/15 - Powerful blowoff from the fermentor today. The lid is bowing out due to the high pressure. I wont be surprised if it pops overnight.
- 3/8/15 - The beer is still bubbling away after a week.
- 3/27/15 - Transferred to secondary in a 6 gal glass carboy. The beer finished out at 1.011. It still had a bit of krausen on the surface which is odd. The beer is deep brown and a bit cloudy - will probably need to cold crash even after aging for 3 months. It has a nice, but restrained, fruity yeast character. The flavor is, likewise, fruity in a somewhat restrained way. It has a bit of sweetness and hoppiness mixed in. Hides it's alcohol very well - never would guess this is an 8.5% beer. It's a lot better than my first Belgian. Doesn't really need any more age but I'm going to stick with my plan anyway.
- 6/26/15 - Cold crashed down to 36 F in preparation for bottling this week
- 6/27/15 - Added 1 packet of gelatin dissolved in hot water to the beer to clear it.
- 6/29/15 - Bottled 5.5 gal with 6.5 oz of priming sugar and 1 packet of re-hydrated wine yeast. Got 55 12 oz bottles from the batch.
- 8/29/15 - Tasting Notes - Smooth, malty, and complex. This beer hides it's 8.5% ABV very well. Yeast character is restrained from the low fermentation temperature. Would try to increase that ab bit next time.
Lessons Learned:
- My efficiency calculation needs to be updated to recognize the fact that I get maybe 70% efficiency from the grain but pretty much 100% with sugar. I believe this is the root cause for the higher than expected efficiency in this batch.
- I was a bit more careful with my water usage for this batch and had a nice short boil as a result
- Boiling down the first runnings on the kitchen range was a good idea but it just didn't have the power to get a real good boil. I wont be trying that again. The boiling of the wort down to syrup didn't really have much of a color impact - the beer was pretty light until the candi syrup. I wonder if it will have any real flavor contribution
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