Belgian Trappist/Abbey Ale - Page 2

B-Dub · 02-24-2008, 05:59 AM

I brewed 2 Belgium styles last night. On one I used the D2 candi syrup cut with half white sugar and the second one I used the soft blond and brown cut with a little white sugar.

The wort tastes amazing!! Both brews had 2 inches of krausen this morning. And to top it all off, Brian, the importer of the candi syrups and soft sugars is a really nice guy. I like knowing the people behind a product are solid folks. That is one of the reasons I bought the Barley Crusher this year.

Kai · 02-24-2008, 06:14 AM

The flavours you get in these Belgians is much more dependent on the control of the fermentation than on the ingredients. I haven't tasted a difference between purchased candi sugar and homemade candi sugar, and have had good results with boring old table sugar.

If you want that good abbey flavour, it's all about treating your yeast right. Don't overpitch - some people use the yeast cake from a small batch, but apparently if you do that you lose out on some yeast flavour components you get from the growth phase. Just make a normal sized starter like you would for a regular beer (1-2 qts). Aerate your wort very well. Very well. Pitch the yeast around 68˚ or 70˚; keep the ambient temperature around that, and let it rise on its own as far as it goes, hopefully to the low-mid seventies. Don't pitch it while it's warm, you'll risk fusel alcohols. Pitch room temperature, let it warm after. I don't know the Rochefort strain well, but with the Westmalle strain (3787) it can be a challenge to keep the yeast in the wort where you need them. I had to periodically agitate the carboy to get the yeast out of the krausen or the trub and in the wort in order to dry it out.

Read up. Jamil is useful on the topic of getting a good Belgian fermentation. Good luck!