Delerium Tremens Clone

Anybody know of a good DT clone recipe (preferably all-grain)?

Delerium Tremens Yeild: 5 gallons
OG: 1.084-1.085
EG: 1.013-1.015
ABV: 9.5%

11.75 lbs Pilsner Malt
7 oz Munich malt
5 oz Biscuit Malt
3 oz Aromatic Malt

Mash grains @ 149 degrees for 90 minutes.

Bring to a boil and add:
1.5 lbs LightCandy Sugar
1 lb Inverted Sugar
1.5 oz Styrian Gold hops

Boil 45 minutes, add:

1/4 oz Styrian Gold Hops
1/4 ox Saaz Hops
1 tsp Irish Moss

Boil for 11 minutes, add:

1/4 oz Saaz Hops
1/2 tsp Paradise Seed

Boil for 4 minutes

Cool andpitch yeast. It isrecommended that you hold out a bit of the yeast and make a starter. Pitch the second batch 3-5 days before you bottle it.

Beermaker said:

Cool andpitch yeast. It isrecommended that you hold out a bit of the yeast and make a starter. Pitch the second batch 3-5 days before you bottle it.

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Uh, say what?

what kind of yeast?

Mikey said:

Uh, say what?

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yeah, that seems a little strange to me, too.

what's the reasoning behind that, Beermaker?

-walker

Walker said:

yeah, that seems a little strange to me, too.

what's the reasoning behind that, Beermaker?

-walker

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I believe the point is to ensure that enough yeast are left to ensure appropriate carbonation without the possibility of off flavors due to too mutation or strain on the yeast.

This practice is common amongst trappist breweries and many others have picked it up as well.

thanks for the edification, cowain!

-walker

That's a pretty interesting...and what's more, I now want a DT.

I've seen that procedure pretty frequently with beers that require looooonnnnggg aging periods.

gaelone said:

That's a pretty interesting...and what's more, I now want a DT.

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mmm, me too. Of course, I mean the beer, not the alcohol withdrawl shakes.

For anyone reading this that didn't know this - quick trivia of the day: Severe Alcoholics may experience serious shaking, tremors, etc. when going through alcohol withdrawal. The shakes are called "delirium tremens" by doctors.

The Fiance taught me that when I ordered a DT when we were in Paris. She started laughing her ass off. I thought she was being an ******* and making fun of my french or something until she told me why it was funny.

Thanks alot, but does anyone know the best type of yeast to use. I don't have access to a bottle, for cultivation. Would any of the Whitelab strains be appropriate?

what about the belgian or belgian blend (white labs)?

what about the trappist strain?

Yes, delirium tremens(the medical condition and not the beer) can actually kill a person. The blood pressure and heart rate increase and they will have hallucinations and they will be truly in a state of delirium. It usually occurs when ETOH-ics are trying to kick the habit quickly or they run out of money to buy alcohol. I've seen it and it's not pretty.

I'm going to make this, using the whitelabs Trappist yeast (unless I hear objections). I will let you guys know how it turns out.

Yes, sorry, i used a Belgian yeast for this. I forgot it was not on the recipe. And saving some yeast back ensures carbonation and flavor.

Nice. That setup is sweet.

There is a very extensive and interesting thread on cloning this beer on the Northern Brewer Forum. I suggest checking it out if you get a chance.

Beerdoc said:

Yes, delirium tremens(the medical condition and not the beer) can actually kill a person. The blood pressure and heart rate increase and they will have hallucinations and they will be truly in a state of delirium. It usually occurs when ETOH-ics are trying to kick the habit quickly or they run out of money to buy alcohol. I've seen it and it's not pretty.

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Yeah, it's kind of a terrible name for a beer. Of course, I don't think a lot of true-blue alcoholics drink it. If you've got the DT's you probably want a flask of cheap vodka, but still...

Of course if you've got a twisted sense of humor like mine, it's effin' hilarious.

As far as yeast goes, I think any of the belgian yeasts rated for high gravity will work fine, trappist included. But it will require a looooong time in the secondary to get the flavor right no matter what yeast you use. Hence the yeast at bottling time. Best of luck! I might eventually try this myself.

P.S. Brewdoc, what does the "ETOH-ics" acronym mean? This is the only forum I use, so I'm lost on a lot of acronyms. Most of them I can figure out, RDWHAHB, for instance, but this one I don't get.

How long do you thin I should leave it in the secondary?

Simple answer, as long as you can stand to. If you get a gravity anything like what's mentioned here, at least two months, but the longer the better. Six months is probably the peak. After that the effect would be negligible IMHO.

Also, how important is it to get champaigne type bottles? I was hoping to just use regular beer bottles. Will this work. I'm assuming that I won't be able to carbonate as much. Is this right?

No. Regular 12oz.-ers will work just fine. I did an imperial stout 7.5% ABV and bottled about half of it in 12oz. and the rest in pints and 22/24 oz. bottles. After waiting a little less time than I should have they were about equal. The benefit of champagne bottles is that they are bigger (fewer bottles to fill), and they're more fun to drink. It's fun to crack a champagne bottle of your homebrew and fill a few glasses for you and your friends. That's my opinion, but you may find others somewhere on this site. Try searching "champagne bottles" and see what you get.

Hmmm.... I just did that search myself, didn't find much useful info. But as far as I'm concerned, no real benefit. Again, just one man's opinion, but it's been tried, and it seems to play out.

rewster451 said:

P.S. Brewdoc, what does the "ETOH-ics" acronym mean? This is the only forum I use, so I'm lost on a lot of acronyms. Most of them I can figure out, RDWHAHB, for instance, but this one I don't get.

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I'll go ahead and field this one. ETOH is a commonly used (at least in the medical/health field and probably others) for ethyl alcohol. Therefore, ETOH-ics = alcoholics.

weberju said:

Also, how important is it to get champaigne type bottles? I was hoping to just use regular beer bottles. Will this work. I'm assuming that I won't be able to carbonate as much. Is this right?

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I don't know a very good answer to this one, but I'll try to offer what I can. The champagne bottles are necessary if you are planning on surpassing a certain amount of CO2 per bottle (something like 3.5 volumes) because the regular 12 oz bottles aren't thick enough and may break.

I read that somewhere when I was searching for champagne bottling info for my wedding beer (just because I thought it would be cool to be able to pop corks at the wedding). However, I haven't ever bottled something with very high volumes of CO2 and also have never had a regular bottle not be able to handle the CO2, so I've got no personal experience with this.

ETOH stands for alcohol (ethyl alcohol or ethanol), thus the ET, and -OH is a chemical designation of part of the actual ethanol molecule itself. ... it's amazing what one can learn from the show, ER.

This DT clone turned out so well, that I was wondering if anyone had a recipe for a Delerium Nocturnum clone?

cowain said:

I believe the point is to ensure that enough yeast are left to ensure appropriate carbonation without the possibility of off flavors due to too mutation or strain on the yeast.

This practice is common amongst trappist breweries and many others have picked it up as well.

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I'm doing a tripel this weekend and was thinking of doing this. What's the best way to store the starter till its time? Refrigerate?

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast Labs 1388
Yeast Starter: Yes
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.089
Final Gravity: 1.021
IBU: 22
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 41
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 65
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 21 65


Recipe: Delerious Belgian tripppel
Asst Brewer:
Style: Belgian Tripel
TYPE: All Grain


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.46 gal
Estimated OG: 1.089 SG
Estimated Color: 4.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 22.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
12 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 75.00 %
1.25 oz Styrian Goldings [5.25 %] (60 min) Hops 16.9 IBU
0.50 oz Styrian Goldings [5.25 %] (15 min) Hops 3.4 IBU
0.50 oz Saaz [2.70 %] (15 min) Hops 1.7 IBU
0.50 oz Saaz [2.70 %] (0 min) Hops -
4.00 gm Ginger Root (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
4.00 gm Seeds of Paradise (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
12.00 gm Coriander Seed (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
4 lbs Cane (Beet) Sugar (0.0 SRM) Sugar 25.00 %
1 Pkgs Belgian Strong Ale (Wyeast Labs #1388) Yeast-Ale


This is what I did..I searched in the northern brewers brew talk and they have been experimenting with recipes for years now and this seemed to be the closest that most had come up with. It is not exact but very close..Several of the brewers were experimenting with reusing the yeast from the bottle..it is the only way to get it exact..What I read was that this strain of yeast (1388) was the closest but not the same. Mash around 148 to 149. and age for a long long time...repitching yeast is recommended becasue of how long you have to keep in carboy

Jay

An addition to this old thread:
The use of champange bottles is to keep them from exploding from the higher carbonation in this beer. You should use heavy bottles if you are carbonating beers very high and value your fingers.

I am a newbie and have a couple of questions...

1. what temp should the primary be at during fermentation? and how long in the primary?
2. what temp should the secondary be?
3. how much yeast should I pitch before bottling? I used one vile in the primary. Should I use another whole vile a week before bottling?
thanks

mgr1047 said:

I am a newbie and have a couple of questions...

1. what temp should the primary be at during fermentation? and how long in the primary?
2. what temp should the secondary be?
3. how much yeast should I pitch before bottling? I used one vile in the primary. Should I use another whole vile a week before bottling?
thanks

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I'm new too, but I brewed a DT clone as my 2nd AG.

1. I started it at 67F for two days and slowly ramped up to 75 over the next 2 weeks. Actually, these were targets I shot for using frozen soda bottles in a cooler. I cold crashed mine in the primary for a week.

2. I dunno, under 70? I mistakenly forgot to secondary mine.:cross:

3. I used 2 vials of WLP530 in a 1qt starter. That's probably the LEAST you would want to pitch. Pitch it all at, well, pitching time. Use a blowoff rig.

Despite my beer's 1.010 FG, it's plenty sweet. It has a lot of the Westmalle (530) yeast character, especially in the nose. Mine was bottled 5 weeks ago and it's mellowing nicely.

944play said:

I'm new too, but I brewed a DT clone as my 2nd AG.

1. I started it at 67F for two days and slowly ramped up to 75 over the next 2 weeks. Actually, these were targets I shot for using frozen soda bottles in a cooler. I cold crashed mine in the primary for a week.

2. I dunno, under 70? I mistakenly forgot to secondary mine.:cross:

3. I used 2 vials of WLP530 in a 1qt starter. That's probably the LEAST you would want to pitch. Pitch it all at, well, pitching time. Use a blowoff rig.

Despite my beer's 1.010 FG, it's plenty sweet. It has a lot of the Westmalle (530) yeast character, especially in the nose. Mine was bottled 5 weeks ago and it's mellowing nicely.

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Thanks for the quick reply 944. My question for #3 was about the reference to the original poster saying to hold back some yeast and to pitch again about 5 days before bottling. How much yeast should I pitch during that 5 pre-bottling pitch? Did you even pitch more yeast pre-bottling? Also how long did you leave in the bottle before drinking?

either take a small portion of your starter and step it up for pitching at bottling or buy a new vial and make a new starter at bottling.

since this beer will need some time to ferment and condition before bottling time, i'd suggest just buying a new vial at that time.

i'd leave it in the primary for a month before even thinking of going to secondary. and make sure you FG is hit before you rack.

At what ABV do you need to re-pitch for bottling? Why does this beer require it and other 9%'s don't (a Tripple for example)?

I did not repitch. It did take a LONG time for the bottles to carbonate, but the yeastie beasties came through even with ~9.4% ABV.

Brew day was 8-17. Bottled 9-11. It's 10-14. The bottle I drank tonight was ok. Very ok. I'm sure if I let it sit up for a couple more months it'll be awesome.

Disclaimer: I was planning on aging it in secondary for a couple months, but I totally effed that up.

I have some harvested DT yeast. I'm planning on doing one of these recipes in a few weeks.

DeathBrewer said:

either take a small portion of your starter and step it up for pitching at bottling or buy a new vial and make a new starter at bottling.

since this beer will need some time to ferment and condition before bottling time, i'd suggest just buying a new vial at that time.

i'd leave it in the primary for a month before even thinking of going to secondary. and make sure you FG is hit before you rack.

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Thanks for all the advice guys. DeathBrewer, I did not use a starter, I just used one vile of whitelabs. I am now thinking this was not enough. Can I add another vile to my primary? It has been two days since I started my brew. Anybody have a link to a topic on how to create a starter or how to clone from a bottle of beer. I am very new to this and am trying to learn as much as possible. Thanks in advance.