homebrewandbeer.com

had my first chimay blue today and what can i say fantastic nice and
strong and full of flavour if ican make beer like this will be inheaven
also tried hansa pils not to bad like the big bottles will reuse for sure
cheers dan

the first experience with Chimay is usually interesting, usually it is the most complex, flavorful beer that the taster has ever had. It's also the first beer that I've had where I thought that one was definitely enough. (in a good way)

Obviously the first step to making something like chimay is to reculture the yeast (or alternatively buy the White Labs Abbey ale yeast, which is the same). I have a book with a clone recipe for Chimay red, but I'm pretty sure there are lots of recipes for the blue on the net. You'll have to do some clever substitution given the lack of Belgian malts available in Australia, but it can be done.

went to the belgium with a beer loving friend and we splashed out on two bottles of chimay grand reserve.

was a very rocking night, then off to my cousins house for vodka and mango. 2 hours later head in a bowl and knocked off my arse still feeling very tender today and this was two days ago.

can't even look at alcohol but I'll be back!

Must have been an off mango Mike. You surely can't blame the Chimay.

...and yeah, straight back on the horse son.

I don't know Evo,

I have always found the 23 rd beer to be skunky



Dogger

Afetr reading this post rushed down to Dan Murphies and bought one 330 ml Chimay....$7.99

Verdict:
Tasted stouty....seemed to keep changing taste slightly, I just don't know enough about beer tasting to describe it properly. Seemed like a beer more suited to winter drinking.
In the end, what I didn't like was the alcohol taste / strength, it was too strong for the beer. Don't get me wrong I love a double vodka, but I reckon the alcohol level spoilt the beer.

the temperature that you drink it at is critical.

Did you drink it cold Robinelle?

I found that the alcohol is very pronounced at cold temperatures but once it warms up the rich plum and raisin flavors really come out and balance thing out perfectly.

and the price is a bit of a put off...but you can harvest the yeast and save yourself 16.50 on a tube of white labs abbey ale yeast!

Thehipone,

can you run through, again, the process you use for harvesting yeast. My brain is still on holiday and last attempt from a Coopers Sparkling produced nil result.

Cheers

Grabman

agree on the tempreture,

i had one a long time ago it was served at room temp in a brandy glass, it was a clod winter night and the drink was just perfect. when it's cold a lot of the complexity is masked.

That harvesting dit would work out well for me to please. I am going to get that Coopers working for me to

Dogger

Geoff tried to make a Chimay Blue from a recipe he got from a bloke at a homebrew store in Melbourne.

Go to http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/ourhomebrews.html and his No.98.

The only problem is, he reckons it didn't taste like Chimay

Bummer.

Oliver

Well, to harvest the yeast from a bottle conditioned beer you pretty much just need to make a small starter, then step up that starter to a pitching volume. The "rule of ten" seems to work well, where you step up to ten times the original volume: i.e. if you only have say, 30 mL of the dregs from the bottle, your first starter step up should be no larger than 300 mL. Then on the second time you can step this up to 3L. The whole thing can be a bit hit and miss, some breweries use bottling strains rather than the primary fermenting strains. Check here for more info about specific brands:
http://www.nada.kth.se/~alun/Beer/Bottle-Yeasts/

You basically just make up a small batch (couple 100mL) of wort with an OG of roughly 1.040 and put it into a small container that you can fit with an airlock (I actually just use 600mL soda bottles and pack the top with this filter stuff that looks like cotton and cover with foil) . Let it cool down and dump the last bit of the bottle conditioned beer (Don't drink out of the bottle!) into the wort. Let it sit somewhere warm for a couple days and it should go like any other brew. Step up the second time and either pitch the yeast slurry when ready or do what I do and split this larger starter into sanitized bottles, cap them and put them in the fridge. Then when you need some of the yeast for a later batch, just make a starter with one of the bottles. Also a good way to get many batches out of a tube of white labs yeast.

Sanitation is your friend. More so than usual in the rest of your brewing. I follow my usual sanitation steps, plus I flame the tops of any of the bottles with a lighter to kill anything that might get on the lip. The filter gauze gets a dip in rubbing alcohol before going in the neck.

It sounds a bit intimidating, but it's really not too hard.

I'm going to use some cultured Chimay yeast for my Unibroue Maudite clone experimental batches... now only to get some belgian malts here in Brisbane...

thehipone thanks, I agree that the favour did seem to improve with temp. I must admit that I took my time drinking it as I wanted to try and savour the flavours. Still can't get past the alcohol "taste" though.

I promise I'll try another on in winter and keep the yeast if it impresses.

Buy the way how is it pronounced:

She may (or may not wifes version)

or

Chim - ay ??

She-may is the way.

Try here for the pronunciations of belgians and a generally interesting site:

http://www.belgianstyle.com/mmguide/pro ... speak.html

So ahhh... had reason to celebrate today and went and bought 4 bottles of Chimay from Beer Mecca (Dan Murphy's). Now I don't mind the odd drop of red every now and then but I'm not the biggest on champagne. For a bloke who's palate is more aimed at malt and hops than grapes, Chimay is a great substitute for the obligitory bottle of champas I find.

So yeah, trial run celebrations tonight, the real deal Thursday week where I'll try and educate some mates with the remaining 3 bottles of Chimay and countless amounts of my homebrew no doubt.

If you're reading this and thinking WTF is he on about, did I mention the healthy glow that a bottle of Chimay gives you when you don't share it ?

God bless those funky monk(ey)s.

Evo,

I always wonder what you are on about
But at least that explains it.


So do we get to find out about the celebration or is that a big secret (nosey frigin Canadian)

Dogger

Yeah, I'm hearing you. I'm thinking I make sense to those that have imbibed a bottle of Chimay. Pity it's not a more popular drink. If it was, lots of people would be walking around saying, "that Evo, he makes sense".

Geez I talk alot of crap.

Double celebrations Dogger. More pay coming my way AND I'm moving into a new place that I was sure I wasn't going to get.

Cheers mate,

Had one half of that myself
Will have house warming for you.
(did it come with a basement or garage?)

Dogger

Nice work Dogger. I was trying to think of the word to describe a party that occured simultaneously on opposite sides of the globe. Bipolar sprang to mind and seems to almost fit

Did it come with a basement or garage ? Ummm... it has basement parking, so I guess if I wanna share my beer with ALL the residents... No, I've got a fair bit of room to brew in the unit which is pretty big in Sydney terms (ie probably about the size of your basement Dogger).

It's Dad's 50th tomorrow night and after reading through all the posts I decided to try some of the exalted Chimay Blue. Bought a bottle for myself and a bottle for the old man ($8.50 each, ). The guy at the bottl'o seemed to reckon it was the world's greatest beer...pretty big wrap.

I've heard that this beer should be consumed in a wide rimmed glass with a slight chill and bit of respect (well at $8.50 a pop you wouldn't want to quaff it down anyway).

Have a good weekend,
Jay.