Belgian Dark Strong Ale Easy Chimay Blue clone

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I think that the wine yeast was used as a yeast nutrient. The boiling wort will kill the yeast, yielding a nice additional food supply for the pitched yeast after the wort is cooled.

Why not just pitch yeast nutrient at the end of boil?
 
LOVE IT!!!! No issues with the recipe. I personally added far to much priming sugar so it was a bit sweet in the end but that had nothing to do with the recipe and the amazing beer still shines through. I am already getting the ingredients for the next batch......minus all that priming sugar.
 
I am excited about this recipe as you can tell from my moniker.

I am a newbie. Just bottled my first brew yesterday (Belgian Quad kit from Williams Brewing). Bottle in 70 degrees for 20 days and then 55-58 degree for 3 weeks.

Now my question for this Easy Chimay Blue clone. Aged in the bottle at what room temperature and for how long. Are there stages in aging like my first kid (Belgian Quad), i.e., first stage at 70 degrees and second stage at cooler temperature for this Easy Chimay Blue clone?
 
I have some more questions that I hope you will help a newbie.

My questions are: for the first step, steep the grain in 156F for 40 minutes. Then the next step is to remove the grain and add a gallon of water. And add two kinds of malt extracts. Still at 156F? For how long? Then 1 oz Hallertauer (60 mins) 1 oz Styrian Goldings (30 mins). 60 mins and 30 mins? At which temperature?

Can someone clarify the instruction/directions? Thanks.
 
deafmonk,
When you add your extract you boil it. In this case for 60 minutes.
When hops has a (60 mins) after it, or (30 mins) after the type, it means that is how long you boil the hops for. So in this case when you have 30 minutes left in your boil, you add the last hops.
 
So if I want to do a partial mash on this, would it be the same thing to sub out the munich malt extract with more munich malt grain?
4 lb Amber Dry Extract
8 lb Munic Malt grain (this is pushing my limit on partial mashing space)
Then the rest as listed. This would put me at around 9% ABV.

Thanks!
 
Hi - I just started home brewing, and I chose this as my first recipe, since Chimay Blue is among my favorites. Had I read a little further, I might have picked a recipe with a little shorter turnaround time - 6 months bottle aging? yikes. Maybe I'll try it at 2 or 3. ;)

I just put this recipe in the fermenter, with only 2 substitutions:

1. - yeast was substituted, Wyeast 3787 Trappist instead of White Labs WPL 500 Belgian Trappist. I saw some other Wyeast strains suggested here, hope I haven't made a grave error. I wonder how the 3787 compares to the 1214.

2. Styrian Goldings hops were subbed with our local brew shops 'Traditional' German hops. It's what they recommended for a sub, anyway.

The Lyle's Golden Syrup was actually a bit of a pain to find - I'm in the Columbus, OH area, and the only place that carried it was World Market. Couldn't you sub a LME? I had also read you could do 1 part molasses to 2 parts Karo syrup in *cooking*, but wasn't sure about how that would work for brewing, so I pursued the real deal.

I also had a mishap where the rubber stopper/seal on my 7 gal pail lid where the airlock plugs in dropped down in my wort when I went to put the airlock in. You'd think the rubber would float, but nooooo.....had to resanitize and strain it, pour it all out, and back in after the yeast was pitched. I sanitized well and use decent aseptic technique (I'm a nurse), but these things always make me nervous. Hop I didn't just drop $60+ worth of ingredients into a bad batch.

Also, if my calculations are right (and they probably aren't), looking at the difference in the OG and FG it only looks like about a 6% recipe - shouldn't a Chimay Blue clone be more in the 9-10% range? Add more ME next go, or? :)
 
I made this recipe and I am at 6.7% ABV. I might up the LME in the future to get the higher ABV. I am going to do an all grain too soon.
 
6 days in the primary, hydrometer says 1.040, still sweet, still a bubblin'. Any bets this thing is gonna go another 2-3 weeks minimum?
 
I just brewed my partial mash version of this. The following stats are my results of brewing.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.50 gal
Actual OG: 1.100 SG
Estimated Color: 21.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 19.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 79.00 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.00 lb Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 27.12 %
8.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 54.24 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3.39 %
0.50 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 3.39 %
0.50 lb Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 3.39 %
0.25 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 1.69 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer [3.90 %] (75 min) Hops 10.3 IBU
1.00 oz Styrian Goldings [4.00 %] (45 min) Hops 9.3 IBU
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 20.0 min) Misc
2.00 tbsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 20.0 min) Misc
1.00 lb Invert Sugar (0.0 SRM) Sugar 6.78 %
1 Pkgs Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500) Yeast-Ale

I was going for 60 min boil but I had to much water left so I boiled for another 15 minutes to try to get close to 5 gallons. I intended this to be 9% ABV, but my efficiency was a lot higher then I expected. This will be more like 10%. I guess I am getting better at mashing. I wll let you know how it turns out.... in about 2 months!!
 
Broken said:
I just brewed my partial mash version of this. The following stats are my results of brewing.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.100 SG
Estimated Color: 21.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 19.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 79.00 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.00 lb Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 27.12 %
8.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 54.24 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3.39 %
0.50 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 3.39 %
0.50 lb Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 3.39 %
0.25 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 1.69 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer [3.90 %] (75 min) Hops 10.3 IBU
1.00 oz Styrian Goldings [4.00 %] (45 min) Hops 9.3 IBU
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 20.0 min) Misc
2.00 tbsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 20.0 min) Misc
1.00 lb Invert Sugar (0.0 SRM) Sugar 6.78 %
1 Pkgs Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500) Yeast-Ale

I was going for 60 min boil but I had to much water left so I boiled for another 15 minutes to try to get close to 5 gallons. I intended this to be 9% ABV, but my efficiency was a lot higher then I expected. I guess I am getting better at mashing. I wll let you know how it turns out.... in about 2 months!!

Thanks for the info!
 
I've got these ingredients coming in. Anyone else completed this one yet?

I used the Wyeast 3787 High Gravity Trappist with this recipe, and I like what I'm seeing. I'm on week 3 in the primary, it's still bubbling along about every 20-30 secs, and SG was down to 1.024 on Saturday. It smells great, and every week it's tasting more and more like Chimay. I'll probably rack to secondary here in a week or 2, then bottle after another couple of weeks, the wort is still *very* yeasty and a little sweet. Can't wait til this one's done!
 
My version has been sitting for 10 days. Fermentation after 3 days was at 1.034. After 10 days it is 1.032. I also noticed that my wort is very "chunky". It seems I have lots of stuff/hops suspended still. Also when I took a big whiff it smelled like hard alcohol, or rubbing alcohol. I actually had to cough after that.
So I tried a sample. Tastes fine as far as I can tell.

Anything to worry about? Any bad signs cause of the floaties or smell? Maybe its normal? This is my first time with a Belgian.

Thanks
 
My version has been sitting for 10 days. Fermentation after 3 days was at 1.034. After 10 days it is 1.032. I also noticed that my wort is very "chunky". It seems I have lots of stuff/hops suspended still. Also when I took a big whiff it smelled like hard alcohol, or rubbing alcohol. I actually had to cough after that.
So I tried a sample. Tastes fine as far as I can tell.

Anything to worry about? Any bad signs cause of the floaties or smell? Maybe its normal? This is my first time with a Belgian.

Thanks
I'm jsut a newbie, but this was my first batch, and so far it's coming along well. It took until near the end of week 3 for the krausen/foam head and 'floaties' to settle out for me, but I also used a slightly different yeast (Wyeast 3787 Brlgian Trappist High Gravity). It has a strong smell, but it's also a strong beer.
 
The 3787 will give you more of a spicy flavor that the suggested yeast (WLP500, I'm not sure the WYeast sub #). Chimay Grand Reserve is a very fruity beer and WLP500 gives you that flavor. I am sure you will have good beer but it won't be very close to Chimay.

I bottled my batch up on Saturday and having done many Belgians before, this is still a very good beer. With the lower ABV, there is no need to age it for 6 months. I will probably start drinking it a 1 month if it's carb'd well enough. There were no off flavors or sharpness to age out in this beer.
 
The Wyeast 3787 actually ended up tasting very similar to the Chimay Blue, very fruity yeast, I just put this to bottle yesterday with a FG of 1.013, pretty darn close to the recipe's estimation. Although Chimay Blue is a 9% beer, this recipe as shown only hits about 7.5%(assuming OG of 1.068 and fg of 1.011). I'm pretty happy with it thus far, I guess the proof is in the tasting after the bottle carb's done. I completely agree, at only 7.5% I think it'll be ready in a few weeks.

I'd be curious to try this recipe again with the WLP500 to see if it makes much of a difference. Anyone have any suggestions on how to get it closer to hitting the 9-10% range? More light or dark ME, pitch a bigger starter?
 
I've had this in the primary for about two weeks, using the WLP500 yeast. It definitely is missing those dark fruit tastes and is a bit sweet still (as of saturday, my last sample) but tastes excellent. Wishing I had used the Wyeast 3787 :)
 
The fruitiness comes more from the temperature you ferment at if you read the yeast descriptions on WYeast or White Labs websites.
 
I've had this in the secondary for a month and the gravity seems to be stuck around 1.032. Any tips?

You shouldn't have transferred to the secondary if it wasn't done fermenting. You probably don't have enough yeast to finish the job in there. I would pitch some more and see what happens.
 
I've had this in the secondary for a month and the gravity seems to be stuck around 1.032. Any tips?

I used the WLP500 and mine finished at 1.030 after 3 weeks in primary. I let it sit in secondary for another 10 days and bottled it. Granted this was yesterday. My starting gravity was 1.100. (boiled too much off)
 
I used the WLP500 and mine finished at 1.030 after 3 weeks in primary. I let it sit in secondary for another 10 days and bottled it. Granted this was yesterday. My starting gravity was 1.100. (boiled too much off)

Any tasting notes?
 
I am really happy with this beer but not happy with myself. I decided at the end of fermentation to up the temperature and get some nice Belgian flavors in there. With this being my first time using WLP500, I didn't know it throws so much banana and bubblegum flavors when it gets too hot. It's good but not as good as it could be because of what I did.
 
I am really happy with this beer but not happy with myself. I decided at the end of fermentation to up the temperature and get some nice Belgian flavors in there. With this being my first time using WLP500, I didn't know it throws so much banana and bubblegum flavors when it gets too hot. It's good but not as good as it could be because of what I did.

I am curious. I am using WLP500 also for Ommegang Abbey Ale clone which the recipe calls for primary fermentation temp of 76 to 84 degrees F. I stayed with 77 to 78 degrees F because I was afraid of banana flavors if the temp went over 80 degrees. How hot did you up the temperature?
 
Any tasting notes?

The taste was good I think. Its hard to tell without the carbonation for me. I fermented at 68-70. I did not detect very much of a flowery/banana taste.

I plan on opening one in a week, hopefully it is fully carbonated. I will update. I just opened a 10% stout after 2 weeks and it was not carbonated... woops. Guess that one needs another 2-3 weeks.
 
I am curious. I am using WLP500 also for Ommegang Abbey Ale clone which the recipe calls for primary fermentation temp of 76 to 84 degrees F. I stayed with 77 to 78 degrees F because I was afraid of banana flavors if the temp went over 80 degrees. How hot did you up the temperature?

I kept it in the upper 60's for all of the fermentation and after it was all done, for almost a day I had it in the upper 70's which I think gave me all the banana and bubble gum. It hit 77-79. I would not go over the lower 70s for this yeast.
 
Taste notes: I have to revise my prior statement now that it's been bottled two weeks. Subbing the yeast and one of the hops has definitely made a taste difference - I used German traditional instead of Hallertau and it's definitely a stronger hop flavor than Chimay. I also used the Wyeast 3787 instead of the WLP500, and as someone commented earlier, it's a bit spicier than fruity, even though it smelled very fruity during the ferment. It's a good strong caramel-y malty barleywine-ish ale. My carbonation is seeming inconsistent between bottles too. Although my final ABV is only somewhere in the 7.5-8% range, the alcohol taste is notable. This one will probably still benefit form some aging for a month or 2.
 
I followed the OP recipe fairly closely but tweaked it to get it to the magic 9% of Chimay Blue.

I also used Amber Belgian Candy syrup instead also.

I did however split it into two 2.5 gallon batches one with WLP500 and one with WY1214

Ingredients used

Ingredients
-----------
Amber LME 3.30 lb, Extract, Extract
Aromatic Malt (Belgian) 0.25 lb, Grain, Steeped
Northern Brewer LME - Munich 6.00 lb, Extract, Extract
Candi Sugar, Amber (Belgian) 1.00 lb, Sugar, Other
CaraMunich 0.50 lb, Grain, Steeped
Munich (German) 2.00 lb, Grain, Steeped
Special "B" (Belgian) 0.50 lb, Grain, Steeped
Torrified Wheat 0.50 lb, Adjunct, Steeped

Hallertauer (Germany) 1.00 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Styrian Golding (Slovenia) 1.00 oz, Pellet, 30 minutes

This somehow hit exactly 1.09 OG. This batch was almost meant to be so far.

I am 3 weeks into the primary and the gravity is as follows.

WY1214 batch = 1.022
WLP500 Batch = 1.0215

Taste test was delicious. The 1214 batch smells a bit better, while I preferred the taste of 500 batch a bit more. By a bit I mean minuscule and I can already tell these will both be delicious.

Odds are I am going to just bottle this from primary after week 4 since my FG is hit and it already tastes magical.

I decided I am going to add some 1214 before bottling to make sure nothing dare goes wrong while conditioning.

I'll report back sometime towards the end of June after I know I will cave in and try some of each early.

Thanks for the initial blueprint.
 
ok...I've read this thread for beginning to end...and now I'm excited. This will be my first Belgian. Seems like a great place to start. I'll try to stick to the original recipe posted but certianly have enough suggestions for subs! (And you've answered my question about the boiling wort killing the wine yeast)
Bottling my summer ale this weekend and will replace with this in my primary immediately!
Love this site!! Thanks everyone!
Cheers!
 
Well I tried a small Chimay bottle of each batch yesterday out of curiosity.

They were not fully carbed yet nor even cold as I refrigerated them only for an hour or so.

The WLP500 one looked, smelled, and tasted very close. Although mine felt a bit dryer.

The WY1214 one however just seemed a bit off. It was good but didn't have the early awesomeness of the white labs.

If I did it again I would do 2 weeks primary, 4 weeks secondary and stick with WLP500 @ 66-68 degrees.

Regardless they should both be awesome in a month or two and actually cold conditioned for a week or two.
 
If I did it again I would do 2 weeks primary, 4 weeks secondary and stick with WLP500 @ 66-68 degrees.

Regardless they should both be awesome in a month or two and actually cold conditioned for a week or two.

Hi FattyLiver,

I am still newbie so I want to see if you can clarify your comment "actually cold conditioned for a week or two" for me. Is that at that point at the end of secondary and then cold conditioned? The reason I asked is because I have another recipe for Ommegang Abbey Ale clone which calls for 76 to 84 degrees F in primary and 28 degrees F in secondary which I think is "cold conditioned."

Or perhaps your definition of "cold conditioned" is to put in the refrigerator for a week or two and then open it up to drink?

Thanks in advance for your reply.
 
Fatty liver, I just brewed your version of this recipe today and it looks and smells great. OG was right at 1.090 for 5 gallons. Nice!
 
Fatty liver, I just brewed your version of this recipe today and it looks and smells great. OG was right at 1.090 for 5 gallons. Nice!

Congrats. I was shocked when it came out exactly at 1.09 .lol.
For once my OG calculator was spot on.

I am still holding strong and not trying another one yet. I will prob give it a few more weeks conditioning before I revisit it.

Although my willpower is fading rapidly
 
Fermentation finally quieted down to a bubble or so every 3-5 minutes. Did a quick gravity check with the "thief" and gravity was at 1.020 (9.2% ABV) for 13 days of fermentation. I am stoked! A 1-2 more weeks in primary, with a move to secondary and we should be all set. I didn't take notes, but it was right on for a Chimay Blue recipe, despite being a bit green.
 
Has anyone ready Beer Captured? They have a clone of the Chimay Blue, and it is much different. Is it against any laws to post that here?
 
No, it is perfectly legal to post recipes since they don't fall under copyright law (there was a discussion about this in the Blood Orange Hefeweizen thread since it was written in a book). I'd like to see this alternate recipe.
 
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