I've wanted to try one of these since I had the Chimay version of the single (Dorée) last year. It was crisp and refreshing and very flavorful with great yeast character (also very expensive). I haven't seen it again since. The Westvleteren clone seems a bit hoppier than I remember the Chimay being but I'm going to give it a shot anyway.
I will be deviating from the recipe slightly. I will be brewing 6 gal of beer rather than the 5.5 the recipe calls for. I will be using Dingemans Pilsner malt as my LHBS didn't have their Pale Malt. I have also decided to skip the candi sugar which is going to cost me some gravity points. I'm planning on bringing the beer in at around 1.040 which, if it ferments down to 1.006 as projected, would get me a 4.46% ABV beer. Finally, I will be going with only 1 oz of bittering hops rather than the 1.25 ox called for in the recipe as I didn't have any Northern Brewer on hand and didn't want to over buy.
As for process notes:
I'm only planning on boiling for 60 min even though I'll be using pilsner. I will make sure to get a strong rolling boil going to evaporate off the DMS.
For my previous Belgian's I've ended up fermenting in the mid to low 60s and end up with a fairly subtle ester contribution from the yeast. For this batch I will be maintaining fermentation in the low 70s using a reptile pad to try to get a bit more character.
I am also going to try changing up my Mash Tun configuration for this batch. I had been using marbles below the false bottom to take up some dead space (which would be 2+ gals). Unfortunately, I found that grain that would get through the false bottom and would get stuck in the marbles (or on the filter media I used to keep the marbles from getting into the drain). Cleaning up the marbles would then require me to remove them from the tun and rinse them. This was a huge pain so I got a brew in a bag to mash in which really simplified cleanup as no grain would get through to the marbles. Unfortunately, I've been finding that the deliberately starchy worts in my Sour Beers have been clogging up the fine mesh brewing bags. So, for this beer, I am going to replace the marbles with 11 12 oz beer bottles which have been filled with water and capped to rest the false bottom on top of and to reduce the dead space. I will also be removing the marbles that had served the same purpose in the grant.
I expect that I'm going to need quite a bit more water for the mash with this configuration (had been using about 2.5 gal more than what was used for mashing between dead space, lines, pump, grant, and RIMS) but I don't expect that it will be a problem. It will be interesting to see if this change impacts my efficiency.
Recipe Details:
- Grain:
- 9 lbs Pilsner Malt (Dingemans)
- 3 oz Acid Malt
- Hops:
- 1 oz Northern Brewer (Pellet, 6.0% AA) at 60 min
- 2 oz Styrian Golding (Pellet, 4.5% AA) at 10 min
- 2 oz Hallertau (Pellet, 2.7% AA) at 0 min (stand for 10 min)
- Yeast:
- Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity Ale Yeast
- Water:
- 9 gal spring water
- 5.5 gal tap water
- 1 oz Calcium Chloride
- 1 oz Gypsum
- 1 oz Irish Moss at 20 min
Process Details:
- Batch Size:
- 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
- Mash:
- Step 1: 147 F for 60 min (Target 147 F for 60 min)
- Step 2: Ramped up to 168 F over 30 min (Target ramp up to 168 F over 20 min)
- Boil:
- 60 min (Target 60 min)
- Fermentation Temp:
- 70 F
- Primary Duration:
- 4 weeks
- Secondary Duration:
- NA
Results:
- OG:
- 1.046 (Target 1.040)
- Efficiency:
- 83% (Target 72%)
- FG:
- 1.005 (Target 1.006)
- Apparent Attenuation:
- 89% (Target 85%)
- ABV:
- 5.38% (Target 4.46%)
Brewing Notes:
- 12/5/15 - Cooked up a 1.2 L starter with 6 oz of DME and 1/8 tsp of yeast nutrient. Chilled, pitched the yeast and set it up on a stir plate to propigate. A layer of foam had formed within a few hours.
- 12/6/15 - Brewday - 12:30 PM to 4:50 PM including setup and cleanup
- Milled the 9 lbs of grain at a fine setting
- Heated 9 gal of spring water in the HLT and cycled through the mash tun, grant, and RIMS until the system was at 155 F - Took 45 min
- Set the Mash Tun up with 3 gal above the false bottom. There was about 6.5 gal in the system as a whole
- Added CaCl and Gypsum to the mash tun
- Added grain while the system cycled. Stirred to eliminate doughballs
- Set RIMS to 150 F with a cycle at about 1 gal per minute
 |
| Grant with cloudy early runnings |
- After 10 min the mash was between 145 F and 147 F
- Started heating 8 gal of sparge water about 50 min into the mash
- Raised the RIMS to 168 F for mashout - took 30 min to raise up to that temp
- Fly Sparged - took about 25 min
- Started heating the kettle after collecting about 3 gal
- Gravity at the grant was 3 brix (1.012) after collecting the target volume
- Collected 8 gal
- Had it at a boil a few min after sparging completed
- Added the 60 min hops after the hot break cleared
- Added the irish moss with about 20 min to go
- Added the 10 min hops once I had boiled down to about 6.25 gal
- Added the chiller to sanitize right before flameout and let it get back up to a boil
- Added the 0 min hops at flameout
- Let the 0 min hops stand for 10 min
- Chilled down to 70 F
- Drained into the fermentor. Ended up collecting about 6 gal. Measured the gravity as 1.046 which is a bit higher than expected
- Moved to the fermentation chamber and pitched the entire yeast starter - was just about at high krausen
- 12/8/15 - The beer started bubbling the evening after pitching the yeast. Today it had pushed some krausen through the airlock. It's giving off a pretty strong yeast character today - very fruity. I think the higher fermentation temperature is doing the trick.
- 1/10/16 - Bottled with 5 oz of priming sugar. Measured the FG as 1.005. Ended up with 5.25 gal which got me 52 12 oz bottles. The beer has a pretty nice fruity aroma and nice, complex, flavor between yeast character and hopping along with a fairly pronounced hop bitterness.
- 3/8/16 - Tasting Notes - A low alcohol beer with big bold flavors. This is what I was hoping for. The Belgian yeast's esters are prominent but don't overwhelm - I think this turned out well. The dry finish allows fairly subdued hopping to really come through nicely. It makes for an easy drinking beer with a really nice crisp finish.
Lessons Learned:
- I got very good efficiency on this batch. Only time will tell if this is due to getting rid of the grain sack.\
- Cleanup was still pretty easy without the grain sack as well. Maybe easier even.
- I ended up having a bottle shatter on me. I used 11 bottles under the false bottom. I think I'll continue with 10 bottles on the next batch
No comments:
Post a Comment