Hex23

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JeffB

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How does it taste now with the additional two months?

Hex23

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It's definitely getting even better with age. Flavors are melding more and I'm tasting some more pronounced plum/raisin. It has also lost any of the early hot-alcohol taste it had on the first tasting. The banana flavor seems totally gone. I'm going to do a blind side-by-side with a real Rochefort 8, but I'm going to try to wait until it hits the 5 month mark.

JeffB

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Cool, im looking forward to this one.

rtg

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I just made this too. Found a thread that stated that the protein rest was 20 lites at 155, then 5 liters at 210 for 60 minutes and then 9 liters at 210 again to mash out. I sparged with 3 more liters. I ended up with a more volume than I needed! I had an PM extract version of this going at the same time with:

7 # Light DME
2# Maris otter
1.5 # Dark Candi sugar
1.5 # Crystal 40 L
0.5 # Special B Malt
0.2 # Carafa Dehusked

I PM the grains in a 5 gal pot and got the temp to 143 then held that in the oven for 30 minutes, raised the oven temp to 155 for 60 minutes and then to 170 for 5. I then did a 1 gal sparge and added the fluid from the Maize that had been boiled for 30 minutes.

I ended up with one all grain batch, and the rest mixed .

I will keep you all posted on the results.

__________________
Bottled: Weizen ,Witbier,Biere du Canada ,Amber Ale (IPA)
Secondary: Belgian Gold,Kriek Cherry, Belgian Strong
Kegged: Light American Ale

Hex23

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Those temps are clearly strike temps. Was the thread you got that from using the same equipment as you did? How did your rest temps turn out?

I debated alot about how to mash this recipe. The 143/144 rest is not really in a protein rest range. I've found sources that call that temp zone an intermediate rest. I would think that temp range might be to increase fermentability which is important for such a high OG beer. I was going to just try a single infusion saccrification mash since I know my base malts were all well modified. But I'm not enough of a mash expert to know whether there was some good reason for the mash schedule called for by Holtrop, so I tried to follow it exactly, but based on my equipment's specific heat. I hit my mash temps pretty well, except for the mash out which missed 170 by about 10 degrees.

It will be really interesting to hear how they compare. I'm sure lots of people will be interested in a PM recipe for this.

rtg

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Here is the link that I used. I mashed according to the schedule listed on this link: And buy the way, my motivation was to prove to another so called home brewer, who failed on an all grain attempt at a R 10 clone, that after a few 10 dollar belgians at a local pub, that I would be the one who could do this...I did not tell him that I only had thus far brewed partial mashes at the most ...

http://www.szwayabrown.com/BeerAndMud/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/Rochefort_8_Clone.html

Since this was my first all grain, I chose to just be a student and follow the directions and learn .. I constructed a simple mash tun out of a cooler with a braided hose...

My strike temps were a bit high on the protein rest to about 146 so I stirred and let the stuff cool off. Eventually it went down to 141. The next rise got me to the exact temp of 155...as did the last Mash out to 168....

Anyways, I also did not mention that I just purchased 40 # of Maris Otter so I used this after having my wife use a coffee grinder ( newly purchased for this) to grind out 11 # of this ;$... .. Anyways I did not have a belgian base malt available, and I believe that the Maris Otter is pretty good stuff for a base malt, and probable does not need any protein rests...but as you have pointed out that my step mash probable was just a long 2 step saccrification. In any event, there was no more starch conversion on an iodine test after this ...

Have you found any real differences between the highly modified base malts on your finished products..is there a difference between the British and Belgian 2 rows?

Thanks...

__________________
Bottled: Weizen ,Witbier,Biere du Canada ,Amber Ale (IPA)
Secondary: Belgian Gold,Kriek Cherry, Belgian Strong
Kegged: Light American Ale

Hex23

Recipes 

That reference is to the original pro-mash recipe from Holtrop or some variant of it. Here is a page describing more of the original history behind this: http://www.reocities.com/iluvhops/brouwsel/rochefort8.html

It also contains a pro-mash recipe zip file, but I don't have a licensed copy of pro-mash. I just noticed that the boil time is 75 minutes. I only did 60 minutes. Not sure how I missed that. That could definitely make a difference.

I think the intermediate rest is definitely to increase fermentability, but the pure sugars should help take care of that. I only got my FG down to 1.010 and supposedly 1.008 is achievable.

I have no experience with Maris Otter, but I've heard it is a great base malt. I've used both British and Belgian 2-row, but unfortunately I don't have enough experience with switching between them in the same recipe to tell the difference. I'm sure some folks have an opinion.

Keep us up-to-date. It will be interesting to learn more about how different techniques affect the outcome. I wish I knew how it tastes without the D2 since that stuff is so expensive, but I saw a post by Denny Conn where he claims that D2 syrup is key.

Tall_Yotie

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So it has been about 2 months since I brewed this, and it is great! I wouldn't say it is exactly like a Roch8, but it does have a lot of the similar tastes and notes. Part of that may be due to that I didn't carb it enough (too little priming sugar), so it doesn't get that added effect of a nice head and running bubbles. Still a wonderful brew, oh so tasty! The wife quite enjoys it as well.

jmm635

Recipes 

Sorry to come into this thread a year late but I'm just thinking about brewing this Rochefort clone.

At bottling, you just carbonate with the listed amount of sugar? It's not refermented in the bottle?