Belgian Dark Strong Ale Easy Chimay Blue clone

I am a BRAND NEW brewer. I don't even have a kit yet I'm so new haha. I found this app googling the chimay blue recipe with the intention of learning but I have no idea where to begin. Any hints?

Still think I'm having trouble and need guidance.

Og day one was 1.055

I pitched one vial of wlp530 (not starter grown) after wort cooled

Lots of bubling during week one

After 2 weeks in primary down to 1.048

After 3. Weeks still at 1.048

After 4 Weeks, pitched another batch of single vial starter grown wlp530, dropped gravity to 1.045. Good Krausen growth and initial bubbling.

After 7 weeks (3 weeks from second pitch) still at 1.043

Temp's between 65-70 at all times.

Using refractometer for gravity measurements.

Taste is good. It seems to me I'm not getting the amount of fermentation I should, but I'm very new to this. Any ideas or suggestions for me?

danbaldi:
Should have done a starter. I do starters all the time and get about 80% attentuation on all my beers. For this I did a 3L starter thats about triple the amount of cells as your one vial. I would check with a hydrometer, not knocking your refractometer skills but double check. To have lots of bubbling for a whole week and drop only 7 points is small work. Did you have a healthy krausen? Did you aerate the wort to begin with?

Your OG is a little low making it more like a weak dubbel.

What was the temp of the wort when you pitched? This is important. Should be in the low 70's and upper 60's.


gad163:

Read the whole thread and you'll find all the necessary info and where to start. There is the orignal recipe to start and another version halfway through by Fattyliver.

djbradle,

Thanks for you help. I think you are right, I should have done a starter the first time, but didn't. I did the for the second pitch. Temp at first pitch might also have been high at 78 degrees. I also may have aerated poorly by only pouring and swirling and shaking the carboy. Lessons learned I guess. I still feel like I should be able to get additional fermentation from the 1.043 point I'm at. I will try a hydrometer reading and let you know if I get a meaningfully different reading.

I made this beer back in August. We just drank the last one about a week ago. My family and friends really enjoyed it. It definitely gets better with age. I will probably make it again, but this time around I have decided to make an all-grain belgian trippel, which is in the secondary as we speak.

It would be nice if someone has a good pic of the finished product . . .Summersolstice? BTW thanks for the recipe first and foremost!

danbaldi,

When I aerate I sit down on the ground with the carboy on it's corner on top of a doubled up terry towel or something very plush and rock back and forth with much vigor for about 3-5 minutes until my arms are very tired. I cover the top with sanitized saran wrap covered with sanitized foil. The head of foam after that shaking is about 6 inches high and the wort is loaded with tiny bubbles. This is about the best I can do and probably am getting the full 8ppm of O2. It's possible my attention to this, a good healthy yeast starter, and good ferm temps have made the past brews really really good.

well I just kegged mine tonight, I took a sample to the neighbor and he seemed to really like it. I told him it was completely flat and not carbonated and he said WOW I couldn't even tell.


Final Gravity was 1.006. Not bad I don't think

I compared the color to my bottles I brought back from europe and mine seems to be darker than the real Chimay. And theirs was in the brown bottle and mine is still darker.

The flavor did not taste the same but I was a good flavor non the less. Guess I'll just have to keep trying it until I get it. Now I just have to finish off this beer so I can start on another. I still have about 3-4 gallons of the Amber I made as well. guess it's time for a party soon.

AZOTH99 said:

I just put mine into the secondary after two weeks in the primary.

For some reason I hit 1.060 OG and after two weeks I have 1.016. Looks like it going where I need it so far.

I believe I have a 1.060 in the OG due to putting closer to 6 gallons in my primary bucket as opposed to 5 gallons exactly. I had approx 3/4 to the gallon mark of trub in the bottom of my primary so I think I guestimated it about where I wanted it to go into the secondary any thoughts or opinions on what I could have done a bit differently to get my OG a bit higher the route I went?

Now I'll let it sit in the secondary for 4 weeks maybe 5-6 depending on how I feel? or do you think 4 is plenty and I should keg it after that?

Ohh and temp in my coat closet has been pretty steady from 64-67 degrees.


EDIT: I based mine off of fattylivers recipe

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Tasted a bottle after 5 weeks in 70 degrees. I put it in the freezer for 10 minutes. Alcohol barely noticeable for 12.1%. Dark fruits, some yeastiness, little earthy hop foreground, good carb. Head retention will take some time to manifest. This beer is still very young after brewing on 2/24/12 and this first taste is 4/26/12.

looks delicious. i can't find munich malt extract anywhere so i'm planning to do a partial mash. how much total munich malt should i mash and at what temp? thanks

LME is 75% the weight/volume of grain if 75% efficiency is obtained. I use this method for converting AG to extract. So mash 10 lbs of Munich malt since you'd be adding the steeping Munich to the bill. If it's partial mash I'd say 148^ - 156^ for 60-75 minutes. Couldn't say for AG. Maybe the same? Good stuff! If you like BSDA's check my recent recipe for the cloister cooler . . . .I was very pleasantly pleased.

FattyLiver said:

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.

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Been a long time lurker but this recipe finally got me to register. Digging up an older post and getting ready to brew this one up using everything listed above w/ WLP500 in a 2L starter. Most questions were covered in this thread but I was wondering, with regards to the particular recipe above, how long did you steep/mash the grains (typical 30, 45, 60) and how much water did you steep them in - 3 gallons and top up prior to boil or steep in full 6-6.5 gallons then add LME and boil for 60? Also, what were the best results for time in primary and secondary? This is a pretty big beer so I was planning 3 weeks primary and 2-6 months secondary with at least a month to bottle condition. However, if it doesn't need that much time and I can drink it sooner, so be it!

Been awhile now since some of you have brewed these up. What are your final thoughts? Really looking forward to this one!

First time using Beersmith. Does this look correct based on FattyLiver's recipe?

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.98 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.093 SG
Estimated Color: 24.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 129.1 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 1 14.2 %
8.0 oz Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.6 %
8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.6 %
8.0 oz Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 4 3.6 %
4.0 oz Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 5 1.8 %
6 lbs Amber Liquid Extract [Boil for 60 min](1 Extract 6 42.7 %
3 lbs 4.8 oz Amber Liquid Extract [Boil for 60 min](1 Extract 7 23.5 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 13.6 IBUs
1 lbs Candi Sugar, Amber [Boil for 60 min](75. Sugar 9 7.1 %
1.00 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] - Boil 30.0 mi Hop 10 11.7 IBUs
1.0 pkg Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500) [35.49 Yeast 11 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 14 lbs 0.8 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 6.69 qt of water at 163.2 F 154.0 F 45 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (2.52gal, 3.74gal) of 168.0 F water

Bought the ingredients for Fattyliver's recipe today. I'll be brewing this up within the next week or two. I bought the 90L dark candi syrup instead of the 45L amber candi syrup. I'm interested to see how this affects the flavor. Anyone know what the difference would be?

ajohnson153 said:

I bought the 90L dark candi syrup instead of the 45L amber candi syrup. I'm interested to see how this affects the flavor. Anyone know what the difference would be?

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Color will be much darker (44 SRM vs 23ish) and shoot your potential ABV up ~1% or more (from 10% to 11.3%) based on beersmith compared to what comes right of Fattyliver's recipe.

I know to add the candi syrup in around the last 5 minutes of the boil. Last brew I added half of the LME @60mins and the other half at around 30mins. I was wondering if I should do the same with this recipe or just dump it all in at the beginning and let it go?

So, I brewed Fattyliver's recipe. Everything was going well (except for that one small boilover), I made sure to sanitize all of my utensils and even had enough ice in my ice bath to cool my wort to pitching temp pretty quickly. I took my gravity reading and it exactly what I was shooting for. Couldn't have been more perfect. I smiled the entire time I was putting my wort in my fermenter. Then I walked back into the house to make sure I cleared a path to my brew closet, and stopped dead in my tracks, I DIDN'T SANITIZE MY FERMENTER! I feel like such a stupid brewer right now. I'm not going to dump it, I'll see how it turns out, but I am a bit nervous at the moment. What a rotten end to a brewday.

Hopefully everything turns out fine for you ajohnson, which I'm sure it will. You at least cleaned/sanitized your fermentor the last time you used it, right? I too just brewed up fattylivers version of this on Monday. I did a mini-mash of sorts and ended up with about a gallon more than I wanted pre-boil after sparging. Ended up boiling for much longer than planned to get it down, and OG up where I wanted it. After a nearly 120 min boil, called it good enough with 6 gal going into the primary along with a 2L start that had been stepped up twice. Needless to say my poor 6.5 gallon better bottle didn't take long to start putting that blow off tube to good use!
I was initially going to double the recipe and go with a 10 gal batch but decided to do two different versions. The next one I brew (tomorrow) will use the dark candi syrup (vice the amber), double the aromatic and 2.5lbs munich malt. I'll do a BIAB style with the grains this time instead of mash/sparge and see what that does for the efficiency and will make darn sure to keep under 7gal pre-boil vs. the 8gal I started with last time.
What did your OG end up being? I came in at 1.080 w/6 gal and figure the next batch will be close to 1.090 unless efficiency drops with the BIAB approach. How long are you planning to primary/secondary? I'm thinking 14 days primary and about a month secondary with 3 weeks bottle conditioning. I know some had mentioned nearly 6 mo in the secondary but I don't think I have that kind of patience....

I too did a mini mash. This was my second batch and my first one using grains. My last batch was extract only. I put 2 gallons of water at about 160F into my 5 gallon rubbermaid drink cooler figuring that adding the grains would bring it down to an acceptable mash temperature (again I have never done this before so if I did it wrong feel free to correct my method so I can do it properly on my next go round.) covered and let it steep for about 40 mins. Then sparged by submerging my drained grains in water at about the same temp as my mash water for about 10-15 mins. I then added the lot into my kettle and boiled as usual. My OG ended up right at around .091 and is now in my primary. I don't currently have a secondary fermenting vessel so I was planning on leaving it in primary for a month then bottle and age. I brewed this up to give as Christmas presents next year so I figure after aging for over a year it should be perfect when I give it to people next year. I will of course drink some during that time as well. I didn't pitch a starter I only used two vials of WLP500. Took about 24 hours for fermentation to start. The foam dropped today but my blowoff tube is still bubbling and my brew closet smells fantastic so I am just going to let it go and hope I don't have a stuck fermentation. The brew day went well except for being a bonehead and forgetting my sanitation on my carboy. I'll let you know how the Dark Candi syrup works out since that is what I ended up getting. Overall I am happy with how it ended up. Next time I will sanitize my carboy before I even start brewing so I get it out of the way before I get distracted and forget, and I will definitely pitch a starter next time as well.

Day 3 of fermentation I noticed no airlock activity so fearing a stuck fermentation I went and took a gravity reading and it was at around 1.030. I roused the yeast gently and placed the airlock back on. Sure enough not 5 minutes after doing this my airlock started bubbling again so I think it helped. I will check tomorrow to see if the activity continues. Hydrometer test sample tasted exactly like what I was hoping for out of this beer. This stuff is going to be delicious!

Just pitched the yeast on my 2nd, slightly tweaked batch. OG came in at 1.097; very nice! Stepped up a 2L starter twice and aerated for an hour with pump and stone (planned on 30 but got side tracked). Hoping this sucker kicks off hard in a few hours. First batch is still chugging away happily at 66-68 deg. and I think I'll let it sit for another week or two before taking a reading. It's looking good though! As a backup plan in case of stuck fermentation for these two Chimays I have going, I saved a bit of yeast from the massive starter and have another 1.8L starter going now that I'll save as backup should I need it.
Glad to hear yours is doing well ajohnson! Looking forward to comparing final notes/thoughts.

Day 7 and I think fermentation might be done. My hydrometer read my FG at 1.019. I plan to leave it in primary for a month before I bottle condition. Took my reading today. It tastes very good. I'll have to do a more thorough tasting and see what sort of notes I can pick up with my dull as mud palate but I drank the entire test sample that I took this morning. Obviously it had quite an alcohol bite to it but that is to be expected of a beer this green. The online ABV calculator I used puts it right around 10.5%, pretty strong stuff. One question for you more experienced brewers. Should my fermentation have finished that quickly with such an high gravity. I was expecting this sucker to take at least a week and a half to fully ferment. I didn't even use a starter. I was a bit worried because I used no temperature control at all other than the A/C in my house but judging from the flavor I think I got a pretty darn good yeast profile. I was quite impressed.

My first batch is also 7 days old but is still chugging away pretty hard. Haven't taken a reading yet but it looks like it's still several days from being done. I used a huger starter, but if anything that should have sped mine up. Looks like you finished in a good range though so I wouldn't worry about it. My second batch (pitched on the 5th) is still going bonkers with a blow off tube. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to keep them in primary for a month or rack to secondary around 2 weeks, assuming fermentation is complete, and condition for....??...as long as I can stay patient?

I don't know what your temperature is so I can only go by mine. Mine stayed at roughly 70-75 throughout the fermentation which might have made the yeast work faster (and poop out quicker causing my stuck fermentation issue as it was especially hot that week). I'll keep taking readings but I'm pretty sure the yeasts are done with this one.

Started fermentation at 72 till they got crankin and then slowly lowered temp to 66. Now slowly raising to 68 where I will hold till fermentation is complete.

Hm, I can't think of any reason other than temperature why mine might have fermented so much faster. I did use two vials of yeast but you used a starter so yours should have had more active cells than mine. I find this quite puzzling.

Ok, so I took a second reading on my hydrometer (actually I broke my hydrometer by stepping on it but it happened after I took my gravity reading) I think I must have been reading it wrong the other day because the gravity this time was 1.020 at 70F which comes out to 1.021, which is exactly what Fattyliver hit on his WLP500 batch. So, I guess what I am saying is that I hit what I was aiming at pretty dead on. I'll let it bulk condition until early August then bottle and bottle condition for the long haul. When I can afford it I am going to buy the ingredients and another fermenter so I can do the scotch ale I've been looking at. The LHBS has everything for it except the cherrywood smoked malt. That I'll have to mail order.

Took my first reading today on the first batch and it came out to 1.020 (corrected using refractometer). My insane 1.097 batch is still bubbling away very actively! Will most likely transfer the 1st batch to secondary tomorrow or this weekend. How's yours coming along? How long are you planning on bottle conditioning? I'm guessing several months based on "long haul"? Why not condition the whole batch in the secondary for longer then?

Silverbullet said:

Took my first reading today on the first batch and it came out to 1.020 (corrected using refractometer). My insane 1.097 batch is still bubbling away very actively! Will most likely transfer the 1st batch to secondary tomorrow or this weekend. How's yours coming along? How long are you planning on bottle conditioning? I'm guessing several months based on "long haul"? Why not condition the whole batch in the secondary for longer then?

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Sorry, I stopped watching this thread as dilligently as before. I brewed this to give as Christmas presents next year, so over a year bottle conditioning with samples along the way. I'm still bulk aging it in primary right now. I'm hoping to bottle this weekend. The reason I don't secondary it is because I only have one better bottle.

*Update*
Just bought a new 5 gal carboy so I racked the beer into it today after 2 months in primary (busy schedule and not having a lot of time to bottle.) to get it off of the yeast. Hydrometer sample tastes absolutely amazing. Age has really done this beer a lot of good. I detected none of the alcohol bite that the previous sample had. I liked it so much that I drank the entire hydrometer test jar full of it, warm and uncarbonated. I let my housemate try some of it and her comment was basically "WOW! I could drink this all day long, without the high yeast content (Some of the trub managed to get into the sample so it tasted extra yeasty). I hope to get this bottled soon, at least within the next few weeks since I will need that secondary for another beer I'm brewing on Tuesday. Just wanted to give you guys an update on how things are shaping up. And maybe to brag a bit.

i brewed the original recipe but used 1388 - belgian strong ale yeast since LHBS was out of other options. OG was 1.072 and FG was 1.020. bottled yesterday. tasted great! but definitely lacking some of the dubbel favors, i'm sure that's a yeast thing. still looking forward to it maturing. given it was on the lower end of the OG spectrum, i assume this will be delicious in much less than 6 months, right?

mdawson9 said:

i brewed the original recipe but used 1388 - belgian strong ale yeast since LHBS was out of other options. OG was 1.072 and FG was 1.020. bottled yesterday. tasted great! but definitely lacking some of the dubbel favors, i'm sure that's a yeast thing. still looking forward to it maturing. given it was on the lower end of the OG spectrum, i assume this will be delicious in much less than 6 months, right?

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Mine is great after two months of bulk aging. I didn't secondary mine until a couple of days ago because I didn't have a second carboy and was planning to bottle it sooner. Life has a funny way of getting in the way like that. But if I were you despite your low OG I would still treat it like you would any other Belgian. You still used a Belgian strain of yeast so I am pretty sure this is still a beer that is going to get better with age. And I would definitely attribute your lack of dubbel character to the yeast. It's your beer so drink it when you feel it's ready. You can always sample from time to time and figure out when it's ready.

I followed Fatty Liver's recipe pretty closely and made this 8/4/2012 with Wyeast 1214. At the end I hit SG 1.080@72F, after 3 weeks in primary I was down to 1.016@72F, bottled with 5oz of priming sugar. The sample from the hydrometer reading smelled/tasted great. Today I was anxious and put a 12oz bottle in the fridge. Upon opening it I immediately noticed lack of carbonation (OK, I was just too eager to give this a try). The tast/smell was great, it was definitely obvious this was a high gravity beer but the high ABV was not too much in your face. Guess I'll have to be more patient and let it age for a few more weeks, hoping that carbonation will properly develop in the bottles. Can't wait!

Thanks for the recipe!

Heiko - who made his first all grain batch this weekend with a Founders Breakfast Stout clone by DubbleDach (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/founders-breakfast-stout-clone-139078/)

Hi, brewed this today and forgot to add the wine yeast. Such an odd thing to add it slipped my mind! I have two packets of Red Star Pasteur Red wine yeast sitting here, should I add them now? It's only been in the carboy an hour.

First post by the way- thanks to all for all the advice I've gleaned just from browsing around over my first year of brewing.

wilberfoss said:

Hi, brewed this today and forgot to add the wine yeast. Such an odd thing to add it slipped my mind! I have two packets of Red Star Pasteur Red wine yeast sitting here, should I add them now? It's only been in the carboy an hour.

First post by the way- thanks to all for all the advice I've gleaned just from browsing around over my first year of brewing.

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I used no wine yeast at all and mine turned out fine. The wine yeast isn't really required. I wouldn't worry about it.

ajohnson153 said:

I used no wine yeast at all and mine turned out fine. The wine yeast isn't really required. I wouldn't worry about it.

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Thanks!

No need to worry about the wine yeast - it is just intended to be killed off in the boil as a nutrient for the live, active Belgian yeast that you put in later. Nice to have, not necessary. I usually buy and use a separate yeast nutrient with the bigger, higher gravity beers, but it's not required.

You usually don't want 2 different *active* yeasts going on. It probably wouldn't alter the flavor greatly, but I'd just let it roll at this point.

wilberfoss said:

Hi, brewed this today and forgot to add the wine yeast. Such an odd thing to add it slipped my mind! I have two packets of Red Star Pasteur Red wine yeast sitting here, should I add them now? It's only been in the carboy an hour.

First post by the way- thanks to all for all the advice I've gleaned just from browsing around over my first year of brewing.

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Ok. I did 3 weeks in primary and 3 weeks in bottle. Popped a bomber last night and wow! Best beer out of the 8 or 9 brews I've done. Just delicious. Can't wait to see how it ages. If if keeps getting better then I'm in for a treat!

mdawson9 said:

Ok. I did 3 weeks in primary and 3 weeks in bottle. Popped a bomber last night and wow! Best beer out of the 8 or 9 brews I've done. Just delicious. Can't wait to see how it ages. If if keeps getting better then I'm in for a treat!

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Take a couple and hide them from yourself. Come back in about a year and pop those. I'd bet they are fantastic then.