what should my chimay red clone schedule be?

I got the recipe off of here, brewed it and tossed it in the fermenter wednesday night, its bubbling like crazy still. Was originally thinking about 3-4 weeks in primary then bottle and condition for another 3-4 weeks, but somewhere i read that youre supposed to leave it alone in either a secondary* or bottled for 3-4 MONTHS?? just curious as to avoid any kind of wasteful beer.

Heres the recipe that i got from here i used pretty spot on with what i have(in terms of temp of steeping/sparging, OG etc)

BrewDoc_Md said:

My OG: 1.064

Steep 150F for 20 minutes in 1 gal water (sparge with 1/2 gal 150F water):
4 oz Belgian Aromatic malt
8 oz Belgian Cara-Munich malt
1 oz chocolate malt

Boil 60 min:
1.25 # M&F light DME
6.6 # Maris Otter light LME
1.5 # Belgian clear candi sugar [I used 1# candi sugar, and 1/2 # table sugar]
2 oz Tettnanger hops (~4% AA)

after 45 minutes, add:
0.25 oz Styrian Goldings
0.25 oz Hallertau Hershbrucker
1 tsp Irish moss

Recommended Yeast:
Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey Ale

Click to expand...

**ok, in reference to a secondary. Ive read a few things here on/about it, its my understanding its good for cleaning up a beer, with clarity and whatnot? if its a chimay clone, wouldnt that be sort of a waste of time as its a daaaark beer?

Try and raise the temperature to let the yeast fully attenuate before moving it anywhere. leaving it on the yeast the whole time is OK.

Give it 4 weeks in primary and 4 in bottles minimum prior to putting them in the fridge. This beer will only get better with time and will reach its full potential after 4-6 months. Thats why there are references to months. It will be drinkable after 3 months for sure, but better and better as time goes on. Enjoy it slowly.

now when you say it will be drinkable after three months(or 4-6 months for best results), thats total, right? not three months bottled?

I did a chimay red clone and it was tasty 3 weeks in the bottle. It was far better 4 months in the bottle. Patience is the most difficult lesson for a homebrewer to learn.

Total age 6 months from grains to glass it'll be really good! It'll start being really good at 4 months but there's no way to describe the transformation those extra 2 months in the bottle give until you do it yourself. The whole "best beer in the batch is the last one" is very true but especially with belgian beers. They age better than any other style beer I've brewed. Hope it helps. Your patience will be rewarded. Start a batch of low gravity easy drinking stuff and forget about that chimay until January or February and you will be blown away. Use it as an excuse to brew more!

k, thanks all! in terms of the temperature, how high is TOO high for it? my apt is currently low 80's, im trying to keep it around 70-74ish but people here are saying let it ride up. i read some people say belgians like it when the temp ramps up, but is there any adverse affect if you just keep it in the low 70s range?

Belgian beers do like it high. But I agree 70-74 is more stable for long term storage.

Just wanted to update this, i bottled this in august after a month in the fermenter, left it alone for three months. Tried one with some mates when they came for a visit in october, VERY strong banana esters. It dissipated eventually but it was a bit unsettling. left it alone for another two months. December it actually was fantastic. Tasted spot on imo, so 4 months in the bottle was my sweet spot. Still have a few left but the flavour seems to have mellowed out a bit too much. Thought overall it turned out fantastic. 4 months bottle conditioning would be perfect imo.

Do you have any left now? I'm curious how it tastes after 6 months.

very mellow. i think the sweet spot for this was around 4months or so. i made it in mid-late july, it was almost perfect in december. i still have a few bottles floating around, im dont really want to drink them ha! i actually still have my 4 grolsch bottles to open, one of them i owe to a mate who gave me one of his homebrews, figured i'd return the favor.

I'm brewing this now, put it in the carboy a couple nights ago. Partial mash kit from AHB can't wait to try it. Probably around March. Also plan on using Grolsch bottles. You are only about an hour and a half from me. Hello neighbor!

How long in the fermenter if you plan on kegging?