Belgian Strong ale recipes

SpillsMostOfIt · Wednesday Mar 14, 2007 6:58 pm

Excellent....

</Mister_Burns>

Whilst out and about today, I picked up a stubby each of the Blue and Red Chimay - the White did not appeal. The Blue is much preferable - maltier and warmer. I must make some of this!!

derfly · Post by **derfly** » Thursday Mar 15, 2007 9:33 am

Just racked another of the Chimay clones to secondary yesterday. Well, it's sort of a Chimay clone, made this one up to a greater volume and it should turn out at about 5.2% rather than the 8.9% of the first one i did.

I wasn't aiming for a session beer but judging by the taste out of the primary, it might just end up being one!

SpillsMostOfIt · Post by **SpillsMostOfIt** » Monday Mar 19, 2007 9:23 am

The Wyeast 1214 yeast seems to have a very large fermentation temp range, but I read that higher temps get the nice Chimay-ish spicy flavour. What do people tend to ferment this at?

Knowing that lethaldog is so fond of near-endless bottle conditioning (

) , what sort of periods are people leaving this stuff? I'm figuring that it must be a few months...

I'm off to Yarraville today to pick up the bits. I'll be making the beer at some point in the near future depending on how I go with this (my first) liquid yeast thing.

Danzar · Post by **Danzar** » Monday Mar 19, 2007 11:46 am

SpillsMostOfIt wrote:I'll be making the beer at some point in the near future depending on how I go with this (my first) liquid yeast thing.

Once you go liquid you'll never go back. The whole flavour profile of your beer changes.

It's like tasing fresh, home-made pasta (original Italian style) versus the dried junk you get in a supermarket.

EDIT: By the way, I left my Forbidden Fruit clone for six weeks, then tried again at 10 weeks and found only a marginal difference. I'd go with six at a minimum. Not sure on the Chimay (I'm brewing that one tomorrow night).

SpillsMostOfIt · Post by **SpillsMostOfIt** » Monday Mar 19, 2007 1:36 pm

Danzar wrote: It's like tasing fresh, home-made pasta (original Italian style) versus the dried junk you get in a supermarket.

Get some Barilla pasta into you. It's dried. It's from the supermarket. (I understand that dried pasta is traditional - they used to make heaps of the stuff and dry that which they couldn't eat in a single sitting, which should tell you how much they made, given the usual size of Italian families...

) But, it's good stuff and very tolerant of people whose wives decide to wander off and do stuff when dinner is just a few minutes away...

Certainly better than a lot of the dried yak yuk you find in the same aisle.

Yeast - baby steps. I'll probably stick with dependable US-56 for the time being for the House Beer. It really works very nicely and I have too much to obsess/focus on as it is without becoming a rancher too...

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Monday Mar 19, 2007 3:25 pm

I used a starter from a chimay stubbie for my yeast and ive got about half a batch left that has been sitting since september 06 and just keeps gettin better

SpillsMostOfIt · Post by **SpillsMostOfIt** » Monday Mar 19, 2007 4:23 pm

I bought the balance of the ingredients today - including the Wyeast.

Tomorrow's the day - once the good wife has left for work - I will boil the bugger up and lose my liquid yeast virginity. I have to do it when she's not here because it is too small for my immersion heater and too big for any pot but the FB Boiler, so it is a careful stove top deal.

I'm thinking I will ferment it towards the lower end of its range to avoid too much banana flavour...

SpillsMostOfIt · Post by **SpillsMostOfIt** » Tuesday Mar 20, 2007 9:53 pm

So, having woken up early and realised that if I scale up to a final volume of 23litres, I can do it with my standard kit, I set to work on completely buggering up lethaldog's recipe - which I did rather well. I didn't pay enough attention to the thing and added a bit too much honey. I figure I will learn what doggerdan sees in it.

The smackpack hasn't done it for me yet, but that is okay because the wort is not quite cool enough.

One thing - I used my new Easy Syphon (in French, Facile Siphon) and it is easily the greatest thing ever made.

By anyone.

Ever.

Including the Swedes.

Syphoning used to be my biggest headache. I don't want to put a tap in my FB Boiler, but syphoning was always horrible. It wasn't today - it just happened. Highly Recommended.

Danzar · Post by **Danzar** » Tuesday Mar 27, 2007 12:51 pm

What about this one, done on the weekend:

Figment Belgian Ale
Brewcraft Belgian Ale 1.7kg
1.5kg Liquid Pale Malt
300 grams English Crystal Malt
250 grams Brown Sugar
150 grams Yellow Rock Sugar
10 grams coriander
1kg figs, pastuerised, with liquid added and fruit discarded
14 grams Hallertau and 14 grams Goldings,m 15 minute boil (quick method)
Wyeast Belgian Abbey Ale

She's off like a rocket in the fermenter. Tasting tonight (just a bit).

SpillsMostOfIt · Wednesday Mar 28, 2007 3:41 pm

I bought me a copy of 'Brew Like a Monk' today. If my Chimay Blue clone ever stops fermenting (it's already exuding the sort of smell I was hoping for), watch out!

SpillsMostOfIt · Post by **SpillsMostOfIt** » Tuesday Apr 03, 2007 4:34 pm

Racked lethaldog's Chimay Blew into a second fermenter today. Not a lot of trub to worry about, but enough yeast yuck to make it worthwhile.

It looks a bit lighter in colour than the real one - but that was predicted. Smelled fabulous.

I'm all excited - just a few months to go. Can I hold on that long?

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Tuesday Apr 03, 2007 4:37 pm

Yeah it is deffinately lighter but it is a great brew IMHO so wait the distance and it will be worth it

Boonie · Post by **Boonie** » Sunday Apr 15, 2007 10:54 am

lethaldog wrote:ldme 2.3kg
black grain (crushed) 30g
soft dark brown sugar 400g
blended honey 250g
bittering hops hallertau 40g
bittering hops goldings 20g
if you can get hold of a bottle of chimay blue label then make a starter out of it but if not just use a good ale yeast eg. safale or wyeast abbey ale
final volume 15litres

boil all ingredients for 40 min then strain and adjust to 15 litres with cold water, wait to pitch yeast untill it reaches 25*c.

sit back and crack a cold one as usuall

Lethal, sorry to drag up the past, but I had this one saved in favourites. This is where I short cut to the recipes on here.

Soft Dark Brown Sugar? Where do you get that?

Also my local HBS does not have Black Grain. Is this imperative?

Did I say drag up the past, this puppy is still going

Cheers

Boonie

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Sunday Apr 15, 2007 11:30 am

You get the sugar from the local supermarket, its easy to find

Considering the small amount of grain then i would take a stab and say its really only there to darken it up a bit, in fact i would probably use a bit more next time but im sure you will still have a beer that tastes pretty much the same without it as 30gm would not do alot for flavour anyway

SpillsMostOfIt · Post by **SpillsMostOfIt** » Sunday Apr 15, 2007 2:52 pm

I don't keep stocks of grain on hand, so when I asked G&G to sell me 30g, I was Joke of the Day. When the laughter subsided, we agreed that it could only be for colouring. Looking at mine (still in secondary - I must have underpitched), it could do with more darkness if you were that fussed about it.

Danzar · Post by **Danzar** » Monday Apr 16, 2007 2:07 pm

I ended up using 50 black and 50 choc grain. Good colour.

SpillsMostOfIt · Post by **SpillsMostOfIt** » Thursday Apr 19, 2007 4:36 pm

Bottled my batch of Lethaldog's Chimay Blue clone today. It had the best out-of-fermenter taste I've come across (cheers, Leigh!). Now for the wait...

It went into 22 swingtop bottles, 6 Coopers PET and a bargeload of 330ml stubbies - my first crown sealing exercise. I tried to seal a couple of twist tops as an exercise (as I have a few in storage) and they are really worrisome. I know people use them, but I much prefer the crown seal - you know you got a good seal...

davekate · Post by **davekate** » Monday Apr 30, 2007 6:16 pm

lethaldog wrote:ldme 2.3kg
black grain (crushed) 30g
soft dark brown sugar 400g
blended honey 250g
bittering hops hallertau 40g
bittering hops goldings 20g
:

Hi lethaldog and other brewers of this recipe

Have not posted here for ages, but had to ask you all a question after reading this thread!

How is this beer now it has been in the bottle for a while?

and

What do you reckon about adding Â½ tsp coriander and Â½ tsp cardamom seeds for the last 5 min of boil? I have read that some AG'ers have done this, do you think it needs it?

Cheers
DK

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Monday Apr 30, 2007 6:34 pm

I think its fantastic and to be honest the only thing that i would do next time is add a little more black, apart from that i would probably leave it alone cos it is very close to the real thing as it is

Danzar · Post by **Danzar** » Wednesday May 02, 2007 1:58 pm

lethaldog wrote:I think its fantastic and to be honest the only thing that i would do next time is add a little more black, apart from that i would probably leave it alone cos it is very close to the real thing as it is

Did just that Lethal - doubled the black grain and added an additional 30g of Chocolate. Nice and dark.

Brilliant recipe - I'm addicted to it, much to the distress of my liver!