bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
mjap, just wait. If they are carbed at all it means they will fully carbonate given time. Check them again in 3 more weeks.
Belgian Dark Strong Ale The Pious - Westvleteren 12 style quad - multiple
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They will probably take a couple of months to carb. The difference between 68 and 72F is really nothing to sweat.
This is why I force carb this beer in the keg, then use the beer gun to bottle...its foolproof.
Unfortunate -- I've got no problem waiting, but my buddy that I split the batch with will get annoyed. I normally force carb and beer gun most of my beers, but I figured I'd go natural carb since it's more appropriate for the style. Probably not a good beer to try your first natural carb on.
Screw that, Next batch is getting force carbed.
I brewed up a batch of this and used East Coast Yeast Abbaye. After one week it reached FG of 1.006. It has an insanely eatery profile, but not in a bad way. It definitely compensates for the dryness. The best part was I only had to wrap my carboy in a blanket. When fermentation got to rocking the temp held at 84° for 3 days. Time to get this bad boy in the freezer for lagering.
CSI - CandiSyrup
Well-Known Member
Any way that you know of to contact ECY directly? We'd love to do some trials with their yeast.
jeepinjeepin
Well-Known Member
CSI said:
I think his name is Al. Solarbrewing.com? Solarhomebrewing.com?
jeepinjeepin said:
The man who runs Princeton Homebrewing in Trenton, NJ, right?
jeepinjeepin
Well-Known Member
meadowstream said:
I don't know if he owns/runs the store or if its just close to him and thus an easy location to deliver his product to.
CSI said:
CSI, I think you can contact Princeton Homebrew in Trenton, NJ, and reach ECY that way.
Al Buck runs East Coast Yeast. Joe Bair runs Princeton Homebrew, which is one of the only distributors of ECY. It's currently a one-man operation done in spare time, so the strains typically sell out in minutes once posted to the Google group. The brett/bacteria strains sell out in seconds.
Suffice to say, it's tough to get a hold of.
TriggerFingers
Well-Known Member
You can call Joe and ask him about the ECY. I have seen various bottles of ECY in his fridge from time to time. I have stopped by before he has posted them on the google group and seen that he gets about 12-16 bottles of various kinds. Sometimes its one or two strains, others its 4 or 5. If I recall correctly he gets in whatever Al brings over. I doubt he would do some type of "wait list" for the ECY, but if you are out of the area it never hurts to ask.
CSI - CandiSyrup
Well-Known Member
Thank you all for the contact information on ECY.
CSI - CandiSyrup
Well-Known Member
Thank you. I'll IM you. We'll be happy to pay shipping.
CSI - CandiSyrup
Well-Known Member
Thanks g-star. The backgrounder is much appreciated.
CSI - CandiSyrup
Well-Known Member
Just before tasting a recent Westy clone we sat down for another taste trial of a Westvleteren Abt 12. Now that Belgianshp.com has the Abt 12 in stock most of the time we've stocked our break room chiller with it.
On this taste test we detected distinct Saaz. Still the clear sweet-bitter of Northern Brewer with a spiciness that reminds me of Brewers Gold, (possibly H. Mittelfrueh). Mouthfeel was lighter than usual and closer to St. Bernardus Abt12 (near exact). A little boozy on the backside with the expected understated non-sweet dried figs. No longer any detection of Pale malt whatsoever (have they gone to decocted Pills only?). I suppose batches will vary with the art even at St. Sixtus. I'd say after bottle re-fermentation/aging the FG came in closer to 1.011 than 1.012. A beautiful ale every time to be sure but this was an apparent change in recipe that all of us here noticed. Much preferred the former releases. Anyone else detect changes?
Date for reference (13.12.15):
On this taste test we detected distinct Saaz. Still the clear sweet-bitter of Northern Brewer with a spiciness that reminds me of Brewers Gold, (possibly H. Mittelfrueh). Mouthfeel was lighter than usual and closer to St. Bernardus Abt12 (near exact). A little boozy on the backside with the expected understated non-sweet dried figs. No longer any detection of Pale malt whatsoever (have they gone to decocted Pills only?). I suppose batches will vary with the art even at St. Sixtus. I'd say after bottle re-fermentation/aging the FG came in closer to 1.011 than 1.012. A beautiful ale every time to be sure but this was an apparent change in recipe that all of us here noticed. Much preferred the former releases. Anyone else detect changes?
Date for reference (13.12.15):
ultravista
Well-Known Member
I don't have access to the Westy 12 here but today, I had St. Bernardus 12 on tap at the Yard House. Mother of all creatures big and small, the taste was really close to the New World recipe.
I let the end of the glass flatten-out to get somewhere near where mine is right now. Without question, they are spot on duplicates. Due to underpitching, mine is just a wee bit sweeter. The wife said "isn't this what you have in the garage?"
CSI, in the post above (#1137) which of the recipes are you referring to?
I let the end of the glass flatten-out to get somewhere near where mine is right now. Without question, they are spot on duplicates. Due to underpitching, mine is just a wee bit sweeter. The wife said "isn't this what you have in the garage?"
CSI, in the post above (#1137) which of the recipes are you referring to?
CSI - CandiSyrup
Well-Known Member
Congratulations on the success of your brew!
In answer, we were sitting around the table sharing 2 Westvleteren Abt 12's between four of us here at CSI...first comparing notes from previous Westy 12 taste tests and then on to the clone. In this case we were following it with the tasting of a young 017x (at 3 months). We all noted an absence of Pale malt compared to previous Westvleteren 12's. The test trial turned out to be more a comparison of Westy v. (previous) Westy.
ultravista
Well-Known Member
Out of curiosity, how do you compare the St. Bernardus with the Westy 12?
CSI - CandiSyrup
Well-Known Member
[Based on past Westy taste comparisons]
We taste a notable difference in IBU's. The Westy has distinct bittering and hops while the SB12 has difficult to distinguish hops. The Westy 12 is slightly sweeter, and has more dried fruit in the nose and palate. Carbonation and body is very similar. The SB12 yeast is unknown.
CSI - CandiSyrup
Well-Known Member
Probably biased but I pick our clones over the Westy's. American brewing of this style is getting amazingly good.
ultravista
Well-Known Member
CSI, is your 17x the preferred recipe now, hands-down, best of the best?
CSI - CandiSyrup
Well-Known Member
Yes. I opened a 017x this past Saturday. It was just under 3 months in the bottle and was already better than any of the imports of the style...but to get it right the numbers have to come in on time.
I like to share our experiments with friends outside of the context of work. Like most of us I have a unique sounding board where my wife has a distinct dislike of anything beerish. Testing this ale with her outside of our company trials is like a chalk board scratch test but it has critic-style value. The best I've gotten over the years is "well, I don't hate it". Her response to the young 017x (10.2% ABV) was "Is this non-alcoholic?", and "This tastes like bread and plums". A day later she mentioned, "I can't stop thinking about that beer". Taste is subjective but in this case other responses have been similar also.
Over the course of 12+ months conditioning, the plum esters mature into more prune/fig flavors and aromas with a faint hint of vanilla.
FredTheNuke
Well-Known Member
CSI said:
I have one of those wives also! Great go no go test for my experiments...
FredTheNuke
Well-Known Member
Should someone opt for a single infusion mash would 153 for 60 mins be a good target?
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
FredTheNuke said:
I mashed at 151 and hit TG, but I definitely wouldn't go higher than that. In fact I would go lower.
CSI - CandiSyrup
Well-Known Member
We used to mash higher (153F and even higher) but have since returned to a lower mash at 150F. 148F works well also.
FredTheNuke
Well-Known Member
Thanks! One more - if using the 017x recipe but kegging would you folks force carbonate or add the priming sugar and yeast to the keg?
CSI - CandiSyrup
Well-Known Member
We have always followed the traditional bottle refermentation/carbing of the Westy 12 clones. I think g_star and others have force carbed the Westy 12 so I'd defer to them.
Other than some of the latent esters produced in bottle refermentation and the differences in long-term bottle aging, force carbing should work fine.
I choose to force carb in the keg and then bottle with a beer gun b/c it is foolproof and I'm lazy. The beer still ages out nicely and changes over time this way, but that's hard to quantify directly vs. bottle conditioning.
FredTheNuke
Well-Known Member
CSI and g-star thank you for the info. Call me nutz but I'm going to try something a bit in the middle. Unfort I won't have results for another 18 months... I'm going to tie up six 5 gallon kegs in a constant West 12 clone rotation. I typically brew 15 gallon batches - so every time 3 are open I'll brew another 017x batch. They will be cellared at a constant temp of 52F. The question is force carb them or let them carb in the keg with some tasty yeast and sugar. Heck I may try 3 of each as the first round will be 2 batches (I'm sure I won't wait the entire year to drink the first 3...) I figure i'll end up in a rotation of making a 15 gallon batch every 6 months if they turn out as good as I'm expecting. I'll temporarily tie up 3 more kegs at the 6 month point to get the leapfrogging batches in sync. I figure it will age in an SS keg the same as a glass bottle given the proper temperatures.
I brewed the new world on Saturday and pitched a two liter starter on sunday morning. Was fermenting vigorously to the point of near blowoff this morning and self rose to 83. Now it's 78 and krausen dropped to three inches or so and bubbling much less . Any suggestions?
hbr2547 said:
My experience with this yeast is that 1st three days are vigorous then ere is a very steady fermentation for several days. Are you heating the chamber or counting on yeast to heat chamber?
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