Leffe Blonde Clone (Hopefully)

[Tim...]

Went into brewcraft today with a few recipes in mind. I was looking to do something with a bit more flavour than a normal beer (ie a Belgian Ale, or something of that sort). Talked to the guy there and looked through their recipe book, and ended up using their leffe blonde recipe. Here it is:

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Muntons Premium Lager
1.5kg Light Liquid Malt Extract Tin (Black Rock)
500g Glucose
25g Saaz Hop Pellets
Safale K-97 Yeast
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Make to 21L

Instructions: Boil 2L of water, add malt, glucose and hops. Boil for 1 minute, rest for 15 minutes, then strain into fermenter.

Original Gravity: 1060
Temp before I added yeast: 26C
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I followed all of this, except I used 1L of water and didn't boil the LLME (just the glucose and hops). Will this make a difference? I was told it is useless to boil the LLME as it doesn't change anything in the flavour.

How does this beer sound? Reckon it will be anything close to a Leffe Blonde?

[Kevnlis]

Nice and easy, let us know how ya go!

[James L]

I made something very very similar.... except i used t-58 yeast (beglian ale yeast).

I think that this recipe is the Duvel recipe thats in the Brewing Craft book that you can get from most generic HBSs.

Its not a bad drop, but you'll find that if wont be blonde.... it'll be more like a redhead... but still a nice drop...

One thing i found was that i could've done with a little more hops, or the hops boiled for longer as the alcohol % was about 8%, and needed something to take the edge off the taste of alcohol.

[Kevnlis]

Yeah, personally I would boil for alot longer than 1 minute, and I would not put all of that into a 2L boil!

Just use a 2L boil with the glucose, boil for at least 30min (60 min if you can) with the hops in (maybe start with 15g and add the other 10 with 5 min left), then a few minutes before flame out add the rest of the ingredients, rest it for 15 min off the heat, strain into fermentor, top up with cold water and pitch yeast, too easy!

[forcetwelve]

http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... php?t=5906

looks good

[timmy]

Bump.....

I'm keen to have a crack at a Leffe Blonde. I have a Cascade Imperial Voyage Pale in the cupboard begging to be used, so do you think this would be a good base if I were to chuck some extra LDME, some glucose, saaz and some T-58? Otherwise I could make the whole thing from LDME and ditch the kit. Another thing - I have some trub recovered from a batch of Brewferm Tripel. Would this be an acceptable alternative to T-58 for this style?

Cheers,

Tim

[timmy]

Just to resurrect this one again...

I'm hoping to have a shot at this one as a partial. How about this:
1.5kg Pilsner Malt
0.5kg Wheat Malt
2kg LDME
0.5kg Belgian Light Candi
Hallertau to bitter + Saaz for flavour
T-58
Made to 20L

According to Qbrew this should work out near 7%. Will that be too much for the yeast? Perhaps I could add the candi after fermentation has kicked off...
I also have some cara wheat and some melanoidin in stock - would either of these be needed?

Cheers,

Tim

[chadjaja]

That will be fine for that yeast.

I'm putting one down this week similar to the top one.

Morgans prem lager
500g wheat malt
1.5kg LLME
Saaz
T58 yeast.

Made to 20L to get close to acl% of the real Leffe.

[bobbioli]

One of my favs. Muntons blonde 1.7kg
1kg ldm
500g honey
nottingham yeast
tastes good but looking for ideas on hop additions

[timmy]

I think Saaz is generally the shot for Leffe Blonde....

[Tipsy]

One of my favs. Muntons blonde 1.7kg
1kg ldm
500g honey
nottingham yeast
tastes good but looking for ideas on hop additions

I agree with Tim on the Saaz but I reckon you would have to change your yeast for a Leffe.
At the very least T-58

[chadjaja]

How long would it normally take a brew like this to reach FG?

My leffe has been in 13 days and fermentation started up just about right away. Its been at 18-20 the whole time and its now at 1019.

According to the calculator I can expect a FG of about 1015 for the ingredients used. Its still bubbling every couple of minutes. This is the longest stable ferment I've had so far in brewing.

Although my leffe will be a few .pts higher than the real Leffe at 7%.

[chadjaja]

My bad. The FG should be 1018 and its that today. I'll let it sit a few more days to see how stable it is as its still bubbling a fair bit for a beer that has reached its estimated FG.

[Hopmeister]

Brewing Classic Styles has this all-grain recipe for Lefty Blond (5 gallons):

Pilsner malt - 5 kg
Wheat malt - 227 grams
Cane sugar - 680 grams
Aromatic (melanoiden?) - 227 grams

Hallertau 45 grams @ 60 mins for 24.5 IBU

Ferment with Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale or WLP500 Trappist Ale.