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

It is Saturday night, the kids are in bed and I am drinking a Leffe Brun while brewing up this Leffe Blonde. Life is good!

Thanks for sharing the recipe Revvy. I am looking forward to drinking this one, which will have a an extra bonus of being the first batch to go into my fathers day gift, a cobra kit/keg

Didn't brew today but drank plenty of the fruit of my labor. That's good enough for me!

Brewed Revvy's Leffe Clone this afternoon and hit my target Original Gravity exactly!

How long have you guys been keeping this in the fermentor? 1 month? Anyone put this in a secondary fermentation or just straight in the bottle?

BungalowBrewBro said:

Brewed Revvy's Leffe Clone this afternoon and hit my target Original Gravity exactly!

How long have you guys been keeping this in the fermentor? 1 month? Anyone put this in a secondary fermentation or just straight in the bottle?

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Mine went into the bottles at 20 days and carbonated in about 2 weeks but the beer was really at its best at about 90 days fully conditioned it's been kicked for awhile, time to brew more

BungalowBrewBro said:

Brewed Revvy's Leffe Clone this afternoon and hit my target Original Gravity exactly!

How long have you guys been keeping this in the fermentor? 1 month? Anyone put this in a secondary fermentation or just straight in the bottle?

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Mine did a 4 week primary, no secondary... but I normally secondary everything. It took a good 8 weeks in bottles until it started to really hit its peak (was carbed when I first checked at 4 weeks, but was still pretty green).

I think I have two bottles left... time to brew this again!

Sorry for being a bit blond here. Can you clarify one thing for me. After the mashing of the grain is the liquor seperated from the grain before boiling with the hops or is the grain left in place as the hops are added?

As i don't have seperate vessels for mashing and boiling I will carry out the mash in my 34l pot then remove the liquor to my fermentation (plastic) tub then add back to the pot for the boil.

Do you think this would work: 1. initial mash with 14q water at 158F for 45 mins. Remove a gallon (to my plastic bucket) then extract the remaining sugar from the grain with 3 lots of 1.5gal water at 168F for 15 mins each.
2. take the combined liquors (1gall + 1.5gal + 1.5gal + remaining liquor) and put back into the cleaned pot.
3. boil and add styrian goldings for 30 mins
4. add saaz hops and boil for 30 mins before cooling for fermentation stage.

@Revvy - sorry for murdering your 'very meticulous' instructions but I only have 1 metal pot with heating

thanks in advance for all your advice.

stevemej said:

Sorry for being a bit blond here. Can you clarify one thing for me. After the mashing of the grain is the liquor seperated from the grain before boiling with the hops or is the grain left in place as the hops are added?

As i don't have seperate vessels for mashing and boiling I will carry out the mash in my 34l pot then remove the liquor to my fermentation (plastic) tub then add back to the pot for the boil.

Do you think this would work: 1. initial mash with 14q water at 158F for 45 mins. Remove a gallon (to my plastic bucket) then extract the remaining sugar from the grain with 3 lots of 1.5gal water at 168F for 15 mins each.
2. take the combined liquors (1gall + 1.5gal + 1.5gal + remaining liquor) and put back into the cleaned pot.
3. boil and add styrian goldings for 30 mins
4. add saaz hops and boil for 30 mins before cooling for fermentation stage.

@Revvy - sorry for murdering your 'very meticulous' instructions but I only have 1 metal pot with heating

thanks in advance for all your advice.

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stevemej,

I suggest you read up on BIAB (Brew In A Bag). The basic process is to put a mesh bag into your pot, add the grains for your mash. When the mash is done you simply lift out the bag of grains, let them drip for a bit (some will squeeze the bag to get the extra wort out of the grain) and then start your boil. It is much simpler process that allows for the use of one vessel.

Chris

You are correct, don't boil the grain. Sparging run off into a secondary vessle, BIAB, or creating a new mash tun are all viable options that will result in beer.

Your described way may be a longer brew day as you still need a way to heat sparge water. Small pot on the stove? BIAB is a pretty good system for one pot households that have limited space. However I prefer to mash in a cooler as the timeline is compact and still can be done with a single burner and pot.

Also wanted to say that yesterday we brewed the households 200th gallon of RevyLeffe.

starman said:

Also wanted to say that yesterday we brewed the households 200th gallon of RevyLeffe.

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Holy cap that's more than I've even brewed of it!!!

Brewed this up on Saturday. Thermometer was busted so my mash temp was off, first too high then too low... Like a reverse step mash. Still hit the numbers within 3 points. Pitched a little over 1L of starter at 68 degrees. It is now going strong and free rose to 72 degrees. Entering this one in my local brew club competition in mid-July. Hope it will be keg conditioned by then.

You did better then I did. I mashed to high and ended up at 1.050. Fermentation is going well in my new temperature controlled chamber. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. I love Leffe for a drink or two maybe, but I personally do not find it very sessionable. Maybe I will accidentally create a sessionable version of this beer?

Do doubt that Leffe isn't really sessionable... it will sneak up and knock you on your butt! Heh, I missed my numbers a bit when I brewed it, but I came in heavy on the OG... ended up right around 8%, as I recall.

Still an awesome beer.

starman said:

You are correct, don't boil the grain. Sparging run off into a secondary vessle, BIAB, or creating a new mash tun are all viable options that will result in beer.

Your described way may be a longer brew day as you still need a way to heat sparge water. Small pot on the stove? BIAB is a pretty good system for one pot households that have limited space. However I prefer to mash in a cooler as the timeline is compact and still can be done with a single burner and pot.

Also wanted to say that yesterday we brewed the households 200th gallon of RevyLeffe.

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Thanks so much for the reply. i will have a go and report back.

steve

Just ordered my ingredients and i am VERY VERY excited.

Easily the best beer that I've made. Thanks for the absolutely delicious recipe Revvy.

Cheers!

stevemej said:

Just ordered my ingredients and i am VERY VERY excited.

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Well the wife is away with her friends in Spain for a few days so I had my brew day.

It was slightly more complicated than I thought it would be:
My pan, which I thought was 34l, actually turned out to be only 22l when I got it out of the attic. This was ok for the mash as my mash consisted of 14q followed by 3 X 1.5 gallon for 15 mins for the 'sparge' section of the mash.
I simply used an electric kettle to boil 3 x 2l water then topped up with 800ml to bring the vol to 6.8l (1.5gal) and 70C. I have solar panels and the sun was out so it didnt even cost me anything for this energy.

For the 90 min boil I used my 22l pot and a 9l pot from my still. The boil was not a rolling boil but a gentle simmer.

My final OG came out at 1.058 which is a little under the target of 1.068 but I'm quite happy with this. The theoretical abv will turn out at about 7.5% which is not too far away.

The temperature of the mash did go higher and lower than the target temps (as I learnt how my stove behaves). For the first part of the mash the temp went up to nearly 80C at one point for maybe 5-10 minutes.
At the 2nd part I would say the temp was 70C +/- 4C for most of the 3 x 15 mins.

My boil volume was spot on with 29l I have now put the liquor in a plastic 25l fermentation vessel and also a glass gallon demijohn. Both are now happily bubbling like mad. I have a heated pad around my vessel and the temp is set to 25C.


I need to start cleaning my cooker and kitchen now. The floor is sticky as hell and the cooker covered in dried liquor. My wife comes back in 5 hour so I'd better crack on.

Thanks for the recipe Revvy. Just a couple of questions:

1. I'm considering using the 1gallon to make a fruit beer. Do I just rack it on top of fruit when it stops fermenting?
2.How much fruit (I'm going to make frambosen (raspberries))
3. Also how long do i leave the beer on the raspberries and
4.do i crush the berries first or just leave them whole?
5. When I finished the final boil I left the dead hops in the liquor overnight whilst it was cooling. is this ok or will it impart too much bitterness?
6. I filtered the wort before putting in the fermentation vessel. Is this correct or should i have just placed the whole lot in, hops and all?

Just woke up and found that the fermentation in my plastic tub has stopped (and it is starting to settle). Temp is still 24C.

any ideas?

stevemej said:

Just woke up and found that the fermentation in my plastic tub has stopped (and it is starting to settle). Temp is still 24C.

any ideas?

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What do you mean by fermentation has stopped? You don't mean airlock bubbling do you? Please say you don't mean airlock bubbling, please say you know an airlock is a vent and not a fermentation gauge, that airlocks stop and start for all manner of reasons, and that airlock bubbling is just excess co2 being released, and that it doesn't mean fermentation has stopped, just because the airlock has. And that fermentation can still be going on without excess co2 needing to vent out the top.

Revvy said:

What do you mean by fermentation has stopped? You don't mean airlock bubbling do you? Please say you don't mean airlock bubbling, please say you know an airlock is a vent and not a fermentation gauge, that airlocks stop and start for all manner of reasons, and that airlock bubbling is just excess co2 being released, and that it doesn't mean fermentation has stopped, just because the airlock has. And that fermentation can still be going on without excess co2 needing to vent out the top.

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Yes i mean airlock bubbling (but it does seem to be settling). I think i made a mistake by putting a jacket around my vessel (I have turned it off now!). the temperature has more or less been 75F for the last 2 days and did touch 80F. SG is 1020. hopefully it will continue fermenting .

Should I just take the sg in a week and see if its come down? What is the answer if it doesnt come down?
thanks in advance for any advice.

stevemej said:

Yes i mean airlock bubbling (but it does seem to be settling). I think i made a mistake by putting a jacket around my vessel (I have turned it off now!). the temperature has more or less been 75F for the last 2 days and did touch 80F. SG is 1020. hopefully it will continue fermenting .

Should I just take the sg in a week and see if its come down? What is the answer if it doesnt come down?
thanks in advance for any advice.

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I really didn't want to give a brewing 101 lesson in a recipe thread, especially of something we answer at least 50 actual threads about it from nervous brewers every day. This thread is supposed to be about discussing the recipe itself. Read THIS , and leave your beer alone for a few weeks. It's fine.

Racked my first attempt at this recipe this weekend. Because my thermometer busted at the start of the brew day, I mashed too low so it finish way low. FG = 1.008

It has a bit more hop bitterness but is still darn good. The WLP 530 blew into the airlock three times before settling down. It is great on its own but can see why it makes for a good Belgian fruit beer base. I am planning on using some of it to blend with a strong sour to balance it out a bit.

Thanks Revvy.

So being a noob I am still prone to a few noob errors. This, my 3rd batch was no exception. My OG was 1.050 and attributed it to mashing too high so I know I have some un-fermentables in there and it fermented down to about 1.018. I was going to keg it last night and went to check my notes to confirm the brew date and noticed I did not add the 15 minute sugar addition :-(
So it is now 18 days later, should I try adding sugar to my fermenter and rousing up the yeast a little or just leave it alone?
My gut says just leave it alone and drink it as is, it won't be Leffe, but it is beer. But I am curuios if anyone more experienced then myself has a take on this? Maybe adding the sugar at this point would work well?

Thanks,

Chris

Overshooting your mash temp wouldn't necessarily drop the starting gravity. That said you correct that a high finishing gravity would be expected.

People brewing ridiculously high abv beers will frequently add small doses of sugar over weeks. I think you could add the sugar now if you really wanted to but expect to have green beer longer.

starman said:

Overshooting your mash temp wouldn't necessarily drop the starting gravity. That said you correct that a high finishing gravity would be expected.

People brewing ridiculously high abv beers will frequently add small doses of sugar over weeks. I think you could add the sugar now if you really wanted to but expect to have green beer longer.

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Right. I know that, but keep messing it up in my head.

The sample taste ok, nothing special, but having said that I still don't get when I read "the hydrometer sample tastes great". It is warm flat beer. If you got that in a bar you would throw it back at the bartender. I guess I just have to learn to anticipate the final product based on the early samples.

Given I have a brand new keg (my first) just sitting here waiting to be filled I am just going to keg it and see how it goes.

Thanks for your feedback.

No problem. One other thing which is probably not what you want to hear but this beer really is best at about a minimum of 8 weeks after brew day. (4 fermentation / 4 conditioning) Each day after its sublimely better.

18 days to keg is pretty quick. Also keep in mind that once you keg and throw in cooler the process of conditioning is slowed down.

starman said:

No problem. One other thing which is probably not what you want to hear but this beer really is best at about a minimum of 8 weeks after brew day. (4 fermentation / 4 conditioning) Each day after its sublimely better.

18 days to keg is pretty quick. Also keep in mind that once you keg and throw in cooler the process of conditioning is slowed down.

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Thanks. I know the waiting is the worst part of this hobby.
If I understand it correctly, the bigger the beer the longer the wait. I know this is a short wait, but it also ended up a pretty small beer for me
I look forward to my next attempt at this recipe with my noob errors ironed out.

Hi,

I am new to home brewing.
I did a home brew using one of the starting kits a few months back, which turned out responsibly successful.

I then followed this recipe but my didn't quite get the gravity that was stated, my figures were:
Original gravity 1.068
Final gravity 1.014
Which equates to about 3.94%.

I made a few mistakes along the way could this of had this massive impact.

Mistake 1:
I only had a 3 gallon pan, so I halfed the quantity and put in this main pan and for the final boil had to transfer some to a second pan.

2:
I added all the Abbey Ale yeast in stead of also halfing that

3:
I had planned to make it on a one of my days off and didn't realise I was supposed to do the started yeast 24 hours in advance

4:
Cooling took a very long time nearly 2 hours as I only had a sink to do the cooling

Any help would be very much appreciated so that I can get it right next time

Smokey21 said:

Hi,

I am new to home brewing.
I did a home brew using one of the starting kits a few months back, which turned out responsibly successful.

I then followed this recipe but my didn't quite get the gravity that was stated, my figures were:
Original gravity 1.068
Final gravity 1.014
Which equates to about 3.94%.

I made a few mistakes along the way could this of had this massive impact.

Mistake 1:
I only had a 3 gallon pan, so I halfed the quantity and put in this main pan and for the final boil had to transfer some to a second pan.

2:
I added all the Abbey Ale yeast in stead of also halfing that

3:
I had planned to make it on a one of my days off and didn't realise I was supposed to do the started yeast 24 hours in advance

4:
Cooling took a very long time nearly 2 hours as I only had a sink to do the cooling

Any help would be very much appreciated so that I can get it right next time

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1.068 OG and 1.014 FG is an ABV of around 7.08%. Adding all of the yeast wouldn't hurt anything; in a 3 gallon batch, you might not need a starter at all with a full pack of yeast.

Relax.

stevemej said:

Just woke up and found that the fermentation in my plastic tub has stopped (and it is starting to settle). Temp is still 24C.

any ideas?

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OK so my fermentation has definately stopped. It has been at 1.020 for more than a week (in fact since day 2 of the fermentation - 14 days ago).The temperature has been maintained at 19C for the last 2 weeks by my heated jacket) I have another batch of yeast I bought. Should I try to use this?

As I see it I have the following options:
1. Just bottle it as it is.I think this gives an alcohol content of 5%. With 1 tsp sugar for the priming per pint this will add anothe .5% alcohol giving and abv of 5.5% (Not quite Leffe is it?) .. Q: Have I got mys maths wrong. is the alcohol content calculation for barley different to sucrose?

2. Add some more yeast and try to get it going again.

3. I have some 'turbo yeast' I use to ferment sugar solution for my hooch. i'd be a bit worried it would spoil the flavour of the beer and maybe ferment too much sugar.

4. White labs suggest adding some nutrient - I would be worried that if the fermentation did not restart then my batch of beer would be ruined with the taste of the undigested nutrient.

I would be grateful for any advice.

steve

stevemej said:

The temperature has been maintained at 19C for the last 2 weeks by my heated jacket
steve

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19c/~66f is a bit low to finish.

I would bump up the temp to 70F and see if they finish. Belgian strains are frequently goosed at the end.

Also, what was your mash temp? There's a chance you just have a ton of unfermentables and are stuck with a high FG no mater how much you add/rouse/pitch...

Thinking of doing this tomorrow and pitch it on top of the cake from my pomegranate with which is going into the keg hopefully tomorrow.

I probably wouldn't haven't have brewed it this week, but you guys have been talking about it everyday this week it seems. Glad you like it so much!!!!

starman said:

19c/~66f is a bit low to finish.

I would bump up the temp to 70F and see if they finish. Belgian strains are frequently goosed at the end.

Also, what was your mash temp? There's a chance you just have a ton of unfermentables and are stuck with a high FG no mater how much you add/rouse/pitch...

Click to expand...

As far as I know I hit the temps in Revvys recipe.
initial mash with 14q water at 158F for 45 mins. Remove a gallon (to my plastic bucket) then extract the remaining sugar from the grain with 3 lots of 1.5gal water at 168F for 15 mins each.
2. take the combined liquors (1gall + 1.5gal + 1.5gal + remaining liquor) and put back into the cleaned pot.
3. boil and add styrian goldings (after 30 mins) for 30 mins
4. add saaz hops and boil for 30 mins before cooling for fermentation stage.


Well I decided to chance the second lot of white labs yeast I bought for my 2nd batch. I aerated the wort with an(sterilised) electric blender (figuring this would also release trapped co2). I then checked in another vial of yeast . i will increase my temo to 21C and hope for the best.

If I start with 1.058 and finish at 1.020 what will be my EtoH content? Is malt the same as sugar - I worked it out at 4.99%

Thanks in advance.

Brewing 25 gallons tonight, halfway through the mash... Beautiful color so far!

Jeebus man, 25 gallons of that stuff? I did that good of a job that you like it that much??/

I'm speechless.

starman said:

19c/~66f is a bit low to finish.

I would bump up the temp to 70F and see if they finish. Belgian strains are frequently goosed at the end.

Also, what was your mash temp? There's a chance you just have a ton of unfermentables and are stuck with a high FG no mater how much you add/rouse/pitch...

Click to expand...

I upped the temp to 21C but the final sg stayed at 1.020 after a 2 weeks. I put my 2nd batch of yeast in and the fg remained the same after 3 days more.

Here's what I decided to do: I added 1 tsp sugar to my 4l demijohn (my batch was 25l in a plastic tub and 4 l in a demijohn) and it started bubbling again.

I decided to use this as a tester for the main bx.

I calculated how much sugar to increase the EtOh by 2%
:2% of 4000ml = 80ml alcohol
:80ml EtOh = 64g alcohol
: 64g EtOh = 64/46(rmm EtOh) mol = 1.39mol.
: 1 mol sugar = 4 mol EtOh so
: 1.39 mol EtOh = 0.3475 mol sugar
: 0.3475mol sugar = 0.3475 x 342 (rmm sugar) = 118g

I will see how this works out and if it all ferments out I will scale up to the 25l tub.

It has started fermenting again!

(In fact it's going mad - overflowed thru my airlock)
:
can't wait to bottle and see what it tastes like. My large batch should be ok in the plastic tub with the lees for a couple of weeks wont it??

Revvy said:

Jeebus man, 25 gallons of that stuff? I did that good of a job that you like it that much??/

I'm speechless.

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It really is a great beer! I can't brew that volume but info could... I would!

Brewing a 10L (2.5G) batch of this recipe now.

Leffe Blonde was one of my favourite beers on tap at one of the local pubs; really looking forward to see how this recipe turns out.

Been too long since I brewed this... it's on deck after my Oktoberfest.

Yeast question here,

Ive made that recipe and liked it! I want to brew it again this weekend but the only yeast I have is Wyeast Trapist High grav. Ive read that it will impart a "fruity note" to the beer,what do you think?

By the way, Ill wash the yeast and reuse it for a bigger beer later.

Thanks

triat00 said:

Yeast question here,

Ive made that recipe and liked it! I want to brew it again this weekend but the only yeast I have is Wyeast Trapist High grav. Ive read that it will impart a "fruity note" to the beer,what do you think?

By the way, Ill wash the yeast and reuse it for a bigger beer later.

Thanks

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I personally think that it will work great. I believe you'll get less of the spiciness and more of the fruitiness, but you'll have a nice beer.