Belgian Blond Ale Revvy's Belgian Blonde (Leffe Clone)

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Bottled the Leffe last night, with less than spectacular results. Forgot to purchase priming sugar, no big deal, just adjusted and went with table sugar.

Auto siphon decided to be dumb once, gave me some bubbles, had to add a litle sanitized water to recreate my seal.

Big issue was that, despite my best efforts, I picked up some trub when racking to the bottling bucket. As a result, the last of my bucket just had too much sediment in it for me to keep the stupid bottling wand clear enough to bottle. I ended up with 43 2/3 bottles instead of 48... and I poured that 2/3, since it had lived through several nasty bubble issues AND had some trub in it. Really sucked, as I defintiely had enough volume for a full two cases of beer, but it became abundantly clear that the only way I'd get those last bottles would have been by removing the bottling tip, letting the junk flow, and dealing with a few oxidized bottles. I sadly poured the remainder.

To add insult to injury, this took far too long, I ended up in bed late again.

I know that it's fashionable to avoid secondaries unless you are doing fruit or wood, but I feel like I'd have avoided this issue had I racked to secondary first, then let that tiny bit of leftover trub settle before bottling.

On the bright side, I have enogh bottles now for my imperial nut brown.

Ah well. I should have 43 excellent beers, right?

I'll post a full blog entry with details and pics, if you care to read such.

keg the next one:D
 
keg the next one:D

Shucks, why didn't I think of that? Let me go grab my kegging stuff...

Oh, wait.


Maybe one day for kegging, but I'd rather focus on getting the gear I need to move to all grain first. I don't mind bottling itself, and I like the portability of bottles.

I simply had a sucky experience last night.
 
Oh mmmmyyy, I brewed this monday morning and pitched my nice big starter at 67-68 degrees. It was bubbling in about 3 hours. Wooooow, up until wed it was absolutely spewing out the blowoff tube. I had to change the blowoff 3 times. I have never seen krausen rise that much! I could have harvested some grade A yeast had I been prepared. I had what looked like a beautiful big starter in my blowoff jug. Today fermentation seems to have slowed way down. Should I raise the temp or just let it ride out at 68?

Looking forward to this beer. It's my first Belgian and I'm pretty excited about it.

Thanks Revy!
 
Wow. Sounds like you've had a rocking fermentation. Man, I've never had this beer go that nuts that I can recall. But you prove the importance of a big healthy starter for sure! :mug:
 
Oh mmmmyyy, I brewed this monday morning and pitched my nice big starter at 67-68 degrees. It was bubbling in about 3 hours. Wooooow, up until wed it was absolutely spewing out the blowoff tube. I had to change the blowoff 3 times. I have never seen krausen rise that much! I could have harvested some grade A yeast had I been prepared. I had what looked like a beautiful big starter in my blowoff jug. Today fermentation seems to have slowed way down. Should I raise the temp or just let it ride out at 68?

Looking forward to this beer. It's my first Belgian and I'm pretty excited about it.

Thanks Revy!

had the same type of fermentation,10 gal. batch with a 1.5 ltr starter.
 
68 is good for the Leffe, its not over the top estery but it certainly asserts itself as a Belgian.

HBDad - you know you have to drink what's left in the bottom of the bottling bucket for luck. That and make a pick up tube for your bucket so very little doesn't end up in a bottle. A 1/2" MPT fitting and a 90 elbow can save you the trouble of tippy bucket and a fair amount of brew.

Also, in my house the half filled bottles and hydrometer flasks now get the DIY carbonator cap treatment so no beer is ever dumped. It was a fun $30 DIY project that lets us bottlers force carb too.
 
Awesome thanks guys, 68 it is.

Its good to know I wasn't the only one with a wild fermentation. Ive learned my lesson and next time ill ferment in my carboy and shove some big tubing in the top. The stuff I had on the 3 piece stem was too small and was getting clogged easily with that thick krausen.

Ill post back in a few weeks and let ya know how it turned out.
 
68 is good for the Leffe, its not over the top estery but it certainly asserts itself as a Belgian.

HBDad - you know you have to drink what's left in the bottom of the bottling bucket for luck. That and make a pick up tube for your bucket so very little doesn't end up in a bottle. A 1/2" MPT fitting and a 90 elbow can save you the trouble of tippy bucket and a fair amount of brew.

Also, in my house the half filled bottles and hydrometer flasks now get the DIY carbonator cap treatment so no beer is ever dumped. It was a fun $30 DIY project that lets us bottlers force carb too.

Dip tube is on my to do list. Yeah, I'm sure my wife wants me to chug five beers worth of trub-filled flat beer. I'm a lightweight anyway... I can see it now. Drunk, gassy me. Not a pretty picture.



I loved the way this yeast took off. Didn't like that the cake wasn't as hard as the last couple I did, but still was a cool experience.
 
Almost to the two week mark in bottles. The wait seems to be killing me.

I plan to pick up a "make your own six pack" this weekend, and one or two of those bottles will be the real, commercial Leffe. I want to see just how close this comes, and exactly how it compares - better, worse, different.
 
I suppose I should preface this post by saying that this is only my second all grain brew. I brewed this recipe up on Monday and everything seemed to go well. Took a gravity reading and tasted it and it tasted great. However today, two days after brewing this, the smell coming off of my fermentor is a very sour smell almost like a terrible fart. Is this normal or is my beer going to taste like someone farted in my mouth? I also made a one liter yeast starter which smelled great before I pitched it.
 
To be honest, my airlock smelled very nice the entire time for this batch - very much like bread. However, fart smells are not at all unusual in fermentations, and they don't affect the final smell or flavor of the beer.
 
I suppose I should preface this post by saying that this is only my second all grain brew. I brewed this recipe up on Monday and everything seemed to go well. Took a gravity reading and tasted it and it tasted great. However today, two days after brewing this, the smell coming off of my fermentor is a very sour smell almost like a terrible fart. Is this normal or is my beer going to taste like someone farted in my mouth? I also made a one liter yeast starter which smelled great before I pitched it.

Fermentation is often ugly and stinky and perfectly normal...It doesn't matter something smells, or looks UNTIL the beer is carbed and conditioned....
 
ive had this on tap for about three weeks now,just keeps getting better !will definatly brew again.thanx revvy :mug:and bonus:washed the yeast and on "the big brew day" made the westy 12 clone and pitched a ton of this yeast and the blow off tube chugged for a solid week.awesome!
 
After allowing almost four weeks in the bottle, I put two in the fridge last night; I plan to crack the first one Saturday night.

I did notice a relative ton of sediment in the bottom of the bottles... not surprising, I suppose, considering the issues I had at bottling time. Guess I'll have to be sure to do some good homebrew pours.

Cannot wait to see how this beer does.
 
Dammit, you're torturing even me, and I'm the king of patience. :)

LOL what would you have me do? Saturday night will be eight weeks on the dot from brew date. I could have bottled after three (instead of four), I suppose, and I could have tried a bottle after three weeks... but I want it to be GOOD. I'm hoping it is fully carbed, I'd hate to have to wait longer.

I'll be curious to see how it ages, too.

Definitely gotta pick up a couple of bottles of the "real thing" to see how it compares. :)
 
Mine is 3 days away from 4 weeks in primary. Gonna transfer to a keg Sunday and let it carb the slow and steady way. What is everyone's fg on this? The original recipe is saying 1.010. Has everyone been hitting that low of a gravity? Last time I checked I was only around 1.016-18 I think. I did warm it up at that time and roused the yeast carefully. I think it may have gotten too cold.
 
Mine is 3 days away from 4 weeks in primary. Gonna transfer to a keg Sunday and let it carb the slow and steady way. What is everyone's fg on this? The original recipe is saying 1.010. Has everyone been hitting that low of a gravity? Last time I checked I was only around 1.016-18 I think. I did warm it up at that time and roused the yeast carefully. I think it may have gotten too cold.

Mine was a partial mash version, so both my OG and FG were higher than Revvy's recipe - but that was expected. My targets were 1.075 and 1.017, and I ended up hitting 1.078 and 1.014, respectively.

Apparently, mine will be a tad boozy. :)
 
I couldn't wait any longer, so last night (after four weeks in bottles), I cracked open the first of these. My tasting notes follow.

Appearance - pours a rich golden color, a bit cloudy. About one finger's worth of densely packed off white head that really persists well throughout the glass. Chill haze is present thanks to my chilling issues. Bleh.

Smell - very sweet, fruity bouquet; floral and grassy hop scents are easily noticeable.

Taste - light, but surprisingly complex; nice grainy malt charater with serious spicy overtones - you'd almost swear that black pepper or other flavoring spices had been added. As the glass warms a bit, a little more malt sweetness becomes apparent. Some bitterness at the end of every sip, but not overwhelming. A hint of alcohol harshness is also noticeable at the end. Dryer than the aroma suggests.

Mouthfeel - More substantial than the color implies; drinkable, balanced. A bit of a carbonic bite; carbonation is definitly noticeable on the tongue, even halfway through the glass.

Overall - I'll be interested to see just how this stacks up against the original beer; my impression is that this one just feels "bigger". Right now, this is a good beer with nice potential, but I think that it needs a few weeks to fully mellow into the great beer than I think it can be.


Temps never got high on this one, so I'm not really worried about fusels; the fact is that this is an 8.4% ABV beer, and I'm thinking it's just green and boozy still. I'm hoping this is where the carbonic bite is also coming from - that it just needs time to mellow. If these issues calm down with some time, I could see myself keeping this beer on hand all the time. I plan to give it two weeks, then drink another bottle, then go from there.
 
So last night, I consumed the "real deal" - a commercial bottle of Leffe Blonde (for research purposes).

Appearance - very slightly lighter than my brew. Extremely clear, which mine was not. Ah, well. Extremely similar head and retention.

Smell - holy cow, this was spot on! I had noticed how mine had just an extremely sweet scent to it... so does Leffe.

Taste - again, I was stunned at how close this was, all things considered. An almost identical spicy kick up front - this recipe definitely nailed that, as well as the grainy character. Biggest difference was that the "real" Leffe lacked the alcohol harshness I was detecting in my brew; hopefully, mine will mellow out. I detected a very slight fruity hint with a touch of sweetness... my own brew lacked this fruitiness. I'm again hoping that this may become apparent with age.

Mouthfeel - very similar, with a tad less bite than mine. Perhaps a touch thinner, as well.

Overall - a very drinkable beer with surprising complexity. Super kudos to Revvy, as this recipe almost perfectly replicates the commercial Leffe (and it might still get there).

This is going to be a long week and a half before I try another of mine. I have some very high hopes, though... I've seen what age can do for homebrew.
 
So I finally got around to brewing this as Leffe is a favorite of mine and after patiently awaiting its arrival I sampled a bottle this weekend after 10 days in the bottle. I know it's not ready but my questions are not about the fact that it's still young, more about color and attenuation so here goes:

The original recipe was for 5 gallons, using Beersmith I scaled the recipe to my batch size of 6.25 gallons and normal efficiency of 70% and here is what was brewed:

13lbs 7.5oz Pilsner 2 Row
1lb 5.6oz Munich
7.1oz Biscuit
4.5oz Melanoiden
14.4oz Table sugar
1oz Styrian FWH
1oz Styrian 60 min
.5oz Saaz 30 min
.5oz Saaz 15 min
2L starter WY1762 decanted

Est OG 1.070
Measured OG 1.068
Est FG 1.012
Measured FG 1.020
Actual Batch size 6.25G

Mashed at 152 for 60 minutes and batch sparged
Fermented 30 days at 62F

Est ABV 7.6%
Actual ABV 6.3%
Est SRM 5.7
EST IBU 34.1

SO here are my questions: Actual efficiency was a little over 67%, The IBU difference from original recipe is not a concern as its pretty close. The color on the first pour was considerably darker than what is listed and am curious if the scaled conversion was perhaps off and what malt I should consider reducing to get closer to the real thing?

Second is my attenuation and efficiency. I had no problems with the mash, hit all temps and maintained throughout and hit all my volumes exactly. I know my fermentation temp was a little lower than it should be so some of the flavor notes may be off a bit but of more concern is not hitting my FG. I thought at mashing lower I would have gotten a bit more out of it, is it the lower temp causing the yeast to drop out faster than it should have since its rated as a high flocculating yeast?. would a higher temp have lessened this?

I am planning on brewing this again soon and would like to pin down some of these issues to improve the next batch. While still young at only 10 days in the bottle, the beer had a pretty good head, decent clarity and taste was pretty similar to what I expected and know it will improve over the next month of conditioning. I always sample early so I can begin my note taking process and get a general feel of where things are heading.

Appreciate the input to my few questions, this was my first Belgian and first use of the yeast so I am trying to figure it out, thanks!
 
I'll be interested to see what the pros say for you, duboman. My own mash temps got a tad low, and I ended up with a fuzz lower FG than predicted (which makes sense).

For the record, I did a partial mash version. My own color was a hair darker, but I chalked this up to the extract use.
 
Just took my first gravity reading after 4+ weeks I primary. It was way high about 1.024. The og came in a bit high, 1.073. I was wondering what possible causes would have contributed to the high fg.
 
Just took my first gravity reading after 4+ weeks I primary. It was way high about 1.024. The og came in a bit high, 1.073. I was wondering what possible causes would have contributed to the high fg.

Did you do all grain? Partial mash?

Did your mash temps get high?

What about your fermentation temps?
 
So I was able to do a taster tester with a professional brewer friend of mine and we came up with a few things that answered my questions:

Color: WE determined that since I scaled my recipe up from 5 to 6.25 gallons BeerSmith made some adjustments in the specialty grains that went a little higher than they should have so we tinkered with the percentages and amounts and came up with a modified grain bill that looks like it will get me the correct SRM. Then we added in some additional base to get back the OG.

Attenuation: I fermented to cold for the yeast and caused it to drop earlier than it should have, I really should have been up around 68-70 and I was a steady 62-63 and even with rousing the primary I could not get it to go any further. I had a feeling this was the case so next time I plan on pitching around 64-65 and let it free rise through active fermentation and then, because my ambient is 66 I will use a brew belt to get the temp up to the 68-70 range as active begins to slow and maintain at that temp to keep the yeast happy and active as they clean things up.

@Homebrewdad, you said you did this as a PM so perhaps your darker color relates similarly and need to cut back a bit and then add back as base malt to maintain OG

I'm going to tackle this again in a few weeks so we'll see how it goes. We additionally determined that I actually got closer to a Goose Island Matilda clone than a Leffe, and that's some great beer as well!
 
So I was able to do a taster tester with a professional brewer friend of mine and we came up with a few things that answered my questions:

Color: WE determined that since I scaled my recipe up from 5 to 6.25 gallons BeerSmith made some adjustments in the specialty grains that went a little higher than they should have so we tinkered with the percentages and amounts and came up with a modified grain bill that looks like it will get me the correct SRM. Then we added in some additional base to get back the OG.

Attenuation: I fermented to cold for the yeast and caused it to drop earlier than it should have, I really should have been up around 68-70 and I was a steady 62-63 and even with rousing the primary I could not get it to go any further. I had a feeling this was the case so next time I plan on pitching around 64-65 and let it free rise through active fermentation and then, because my ambient is 66 I will use a brew belt to get the temp up to the 68-70 range as active begins to slow and maintain at that temp to keep the yeast happy and active as they clean things up.

@Homebrewdad, you said you did this as a PM so perhaps your darker color relates similarly and need to cut back a bit and then add back as base malt to maintain OG

I'm going to tackle this again in a few weeks so we'll see how it goes. We additionally determined that I actually got closer to a Goose Island Matilda clone than a Leffe, and that's some great beer as well!

I wondered about the specialty grains for you. Thanks for letting us know.

I personally did not alter the grain bill any, aside from subbing out some DME for part of the base malt. I expect my darkness is probably due to carmelization of the extract during my boil, nothing else.

The ferm temp findings make sense. Belgians like things a bit warmer than many yeasts; this particular strain is supposed to do fine in the low to mid seventies, and I have read quite a few reports of people letting it get even warmer (with nice results). Mine hit 73 degrees (ambient temp of around 65), and the flavor profile seems quite good.

Yay for you that you still got good beer!
 
Yea, I'm pretty psyched, each bottle I try keeps getting better so I'm sitting on it now, the fact that it's really damn close to Matilda makes me even happier as that is truly another favorite of mine!

It's kinda fun to unexpectedly screw up a recipe and discover something great:drunk:
 
Yea, I'm pretty psyched, each bottle I try keeps getting better so I'm sitting on it now, the fact that it's really damn close to Matilda makes me even happier as that is truly another favorite of mine!

It's kinda fun to unexpectedly screw up a recipe and discover something great:drunk:

Heh, now you know how the guy who discovered saran wrap felt.
 
While I've been gathering parts for my keezer, I've started designing little graphics for my tap handles. I've designed just a simple little handle idea with a lamnated graphic for each beer. I'm fiddling with a way just to slip the little laminated graphics into the handles so I can easily change them. But I've made a little Icon that is 2.25" wide x 3" long.

Right now I'm doing the ones for the beers that are going to be regular house beers. This one is obviously one of them.

Here's the one for this beer.

206047_10150870551714067_684662463_n.jpg
 
Revvy's UJ Keezer build thread?? Actually I just started kegging select batches myself, but a 10 month old Revvy Leffe I had last week tells me this beer is still a good one to bottle. Cool label though.
 
Very nifty label. I'm cracking open another bottle tonight to see how seven weeks in bottles is. I get the feeling that I am very close...
 
Just wanted to say that this bottle was a definite success. No bite, no alcohol harshness, much more maltiness and a hint of fruitiness. Still ever so slightly funky at the end, didn't have as clean of a finish as commercial Leffe... but a very nice brew, one I would be glad to keep around.

Could certainly feel the alcohol in it, even though I can't really taste it. :)
 
I'm serving this at my Belgian buddies bachelor party tonight. I may have snuck a pint or two already and I must say its very nice!

My fiance said its one of her favorites.

Ill let ya know how it goes over. Thanks
 
thirstyutahn said:
I'm serving this at my Belgian buddies bachelor party tonight. I may have snuck a pint or two already and I must say its very nice!

My fiance said its one of her favorites.

Ill let ya know how it goes over. Thanks

Gee, real Belgians? I'm nervous now. ;)
 
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