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

Mine is on tap now and it's fantastic!

Sorry it's sideways but you can see it's got a nice color and a nice head

I just picked some WLP530 up. Been meaning to try and brew thus for sometime now. Very excited.

Brewing this right now. I dropped the table sugar because I don't want the ABV too high because I don't need wedding guests swinging from the rafters. I'm also adding some raspberries in the keg.

zmanzorro said:

Brewing this right now. I dropped the table sugar because I don't want the ABV too high because I don't need wedding guests swinging from the rafters. I'm also adding some raspberries in the keg.

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The sugars there to balance the body...leaving it our is going to make for a "heavier" feeling beer. It's less about the alcohol and more about thinning it a tad since it's a rich, dextrinous gainbill for such a "light" colored beers...

Revvy said:

The sugars there to balance the body...leaving it our is going to make for a "heavier" feeling beer. It's less about the alcohol and more about thinning it a tad since it's a rich, dextrinous gainbill for such a "light" colored beers...

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Thanks, I might just boil some table sugar and water on the stove and add it in.

zmanzorro said:

Thanks, I might just boil some table sugar and water on the stove and add it in.

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I say it all the time, especially with people wanting to boost a kit recipe with sugar. Recipes are about balance, everything from flavor, color, body, bitterness, head retention is a synergistic interplay of the ingredients, so leaving out, or adding more of one thing, without balancing out the other ingredients will throw the recipe off from the original...

Since we're talking a recipe here as opposed to a kit where people are stuck with the ingredients at hand, we can alter the recipe to suit our needs. Just like you can easily scale a recipe up or down to make a smaller or larger batch with beersmith or other good software, or by hand, we can alter aspects of the like in your case the ABV, without throwing off the, for lack of a better word, "integrity" of the recipe.

In beersmith, you have several buttons right at the top that allow you to convert an existing recipe to extract/pm/ag as well as adjust an entire recipe in terms of Gravity (which is the one you'd want to use) or Bitternes or even Color.... These buttons will allow you to shift an entire recipe based one on of those paramaters, but will do so while at the same time maintaining the other aspects of the recipe...

So lets say you wanted the same recipe profile of the recipe, but in 3.2 abv strength, it would shift ALL the quanities, hops, malt, sugar, etc to accommodate the lesser gravity.. It would still have the same body, bitterness, color, etc. but the abv you desired....

Think about that for future batches, and all your beers.

Revvy said:

I'm curious about Safbrew Abbaye Yeast. Here's a comparison article between it and Belle Saison yeast for a saison.

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Did you ever try this? I'm going to do back to back batches and pit it against the WLP 530 I have... Just wondering if I should build a starter for the dry yeast since I will be for the liquid yeast (I have two expired vials)...

Edit: I'll probably just pitch it after rehydrating, per instructions http://www.fermentis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SFB_Abbaye.pdf

Revvy said:

I say it all the time, especially with people wanting to boost a kit recipe with sugar. Recipes are about balance, everything from flavor, color, body, bitterness, head retention is a synergistic interplay of the ingredients, so leaving out, or adding more of one thing, without balancing out the other ingredients will throw the recipe off from the original...

Since we're talking a recipe here as opposed to a kit where people are stuck with the ingredients at hand, we can alter the recipe to suit our needs. Just like you can easily scale a recipe up or down to make a smaller or larger batch with beersmith or other good software, or by hand, we can alter aspects of the like in your case the ABV, without throwing off the, for lack of a better word, "integrity" of the recipe.

In beersmith, you have several buttons right at the top that allow you to convert an existing recipe to extract/pm/ag as well as adjust an entire recipe in terms of Gravity (which is the one you'd want to use) or Bitternes or even Color.... These buttons will allow you to shift an entire recipe based one on of those paramaters, but will do so while at the same time maintaining the other aspects of the recipe...

So lets say you wanted the same recipe profile of the recipe, but in 3.2 abv strength, it would shift ALL the quanities, hops, malt, sugar, etc to accommodate the lesser gravity.. It would still have the same body, bitterness, color, etc. but the abv you desired....

Think about that for future batches, and all your beers.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I get that. With this recipe, I'm not as concerned OG/IBU ratio, as the style tends to be more on the malty side (since the added sugar would throw off the current bitterness). I wasn't necessarily going for an exact Leffe Clone with this brew, just a proven Belgian Pale Ale. Thanks again for the recipe!

I just discovered the "convert button" on Beersmith which will convert recipes from one form to another, so I just attempted to convert this recipe from AG to Extract...this is what came up...

If anyone wants to brew the all extract version and let us know, that would be really helpful. I'm surprised it doesn't use pilsner extract, but if this works it's easier for most brewers to get than pilsner extract.

Extract version.

5 lbs 9.9 oz Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 2 57.8 %
5.9 oz Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) Extract 3 3.8 %
3 lbs 7.1 oz Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 4 35.4 %
1.18 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 19.3 IBUs
0.62 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 6 5.7 IBUs

Just bottled my first batch of this - prob the best tasting pre-carbonated batch I've tasted yet! Can't wait for a few weeks to go by...

I have a batch fermenting in the carboy right now. Ended up with a higher OG than anticipated (1.073-1.074) but other than that everything looks good. It was fermenting like crazy for the first 24h, went up to 74F. I cooled it down a bit, its around 68-70right now, fermentation has slowed too but its still chugging away.
I will rack half of the batch on raspberries, and bottle the other half.

Anyone added some lactose to their fruit version of this beer? Im thinking it might be help balance things out in case raspberries have too much tartiness? This is my first time trying a fruit beer...

Its been 2 weeks today...that thing is still peacefully burping away, taking its time, telling me to sit back and let it do its thing! The foam has fallen a lot though, I expect that it'll be almost done in another week. Ill probably bottle in 2. It fermented at around 70-72 for the first week, and I pushed it slightly up to 72-75 this week.

View attachment 1458398355749.jpg

I bottled 2.5 gal of the batch about 17 days ago. I opened a first bottle yesterday. Sadly it wasn't carbonated at all!
I left the bottles to condition in my room, which was definitely not at 76F, maybe closer to 68, so maybe that's the issue. I moved them to another room and put the thermostat to 76F so I'll try another one in a week.
However, I must say, even without the carbonation I really liked what I tasted! I can't wait to taste it when its properly conditioned!
I also left about 2 gal of the batch on 2lbs of raspberries (fresh, which I froze and then put in the secondary) 1.5 weeks ago. I bottled it today. The smell coming the beer is awesome, very strong but nice raspberry scent. The taste isn't that strong however, but still quite decent. I believe it`ll be very nice once conditioned. I also added about 1/4lbs of lactose to the beer. We'll see how it turns out!

This is one of my best beers yet - thanks Revvy! It's entered in a local competition which started today: very curious how it'll do!

Holy ****snacks this is a good beer

Due to a stuck sparge and subsequent boiling down I overshot my numbers a teeny bit (17.2% Brix = 1.0706 OG). Which is strange given i overshot raising the temp back from 64 after dough in to 68 (it actually nearly reached 73 for a bit). Anyways, the iodine said all was gravy so that put my mind at ease.

I used the hops as per the recipe but they have been sealed airtight in the freezer for about 6 months now. Given that I'm "no cooling", I reckon/hope the reduced acids in the hop pellets will be made up for in the no cool method which took about 10 hours to get from boiling to 20C).

Anyways, the next day I popped it open to get the OG and a small taste sample and it was absolutely lovely. I couldn't really detect any hop taste though - does that come through more later?

Lastly, when I opened up the yeast and took a sniff... oh my word!!! This yeast shall be cared for and loved and recycled and loved and... it's just so damn gorgeous!

Can't wait to get this bad boy bottled and conditioned!!!

Just to update on my batch which was split between the original recipe and one with added raspberries.
I added about 2lbs of fresh raspberries (to about 2 gal of beer) which I rinsed before hand in oxysan, then froze, and then thawed before racking on them in the secondary.

At bottling I added about 100g lactose, and carbed to a vol of around 3.

The beer is great! My gf really likes it, which is definitely good! It has a little tart taste in the background, but not overly aggressive, I find it just well balanced (might have been too much without the lactose).

The beer is definitely thick though, and I think the rapsberries may shine better in a different recipe, but since its my first one I can't say for sure. I will most likely do this one again. I'll probably carb just a little bit higher too, maybe 3.5. One other thing, put the raspberries in a mesh bag of some sort in the secondary. It was a pain to bottle with the racking cane and the mesh bag wrapped around it...

Cheers!

Another update on my raspberry batch. Its definitely my most-loved beer up to now. Everyone who tasted it loved it. However this evening I opened two bottles and got big gushers! Im not sure of the reason the taste is still very good but I guess an infection/contamination? is quite possible ...:-/ I'm putting all of the ones I have left in the fridge...lets hope its not too late...

pmaster said:

Another update on my raspberry batch. Its definitely my most-loved beer up to now. Everyone who tasted it loved it. However this evening I opened two bottles and got big gushers! Im not sure of the reason the taste is still very good but I guess an infection/contamination? is quite possible ...:-/ I'm putting all of the ones I have left in the fridge...lets hope its not too late...

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The reason for the gushers is you likely overcarbed. I read your previous post saying you carbed around 3.0 CO2 vol. and now you wanted to go higher. My advice is: don't! I also carb my Belgian blondes and quads near 3.0 CO2 volume and find them overcarbed.

I don't think it's an infection.

One trick I learned from a recent BYO magazine is to rinse my glass with tap water before I pour a Belgian blonde in it; it helps control the foaming to some extent.

brew_darrymore said:

The reason for the gushers is you likely overcarbed. I read your previous post saying you carbed around 3.0 CO2 vol. and now you wanted to go higher. My advice is: don't! I also carb my Belgian blondes and quads near 3.0 CO2 volume and find them overcarbed.

I don't think it's an infection.

One trick I learned from a recent BYO magazine is to rinse my glass with tap water before I pour a Belgian blonde in it; it helps control the foaming to some extent.

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What I meant by big gusher is that it wasn't just foaming when I poured the beer. Basically I had to open it in the sink, and half the bottle emptied on its own as it overflowed like a big geyser standing upright. I doubt its normal for a beer carbed at a vol of 3.0? Unless I was seriously off in my measurements... Anyhow I will drink them off quickly just in case (any reason is good right?) ;-)


A

Hi Revvy,

I can't find anywhere where you say how much to priming sugar to use. What's the aim here? 2.5 Volumes of C02?

Also, I can't get my FG below 1.018 because of the following excerpts from my Brewlog

10 April 2016
16:40 - Dough in at 68C. Woops, that's target temp. Should've doughed in at 72C to get to 68C. PH was 7.5
17:00 - Cooker overhit trying to raise back to 68 and went up to 72. PH is 5.2
17:16 - Got temp back on target to 68C
17:28 - Begin raising temp to 75C for Mashout after Iodine test showed full conversion (phew!)
17:40 - Refraktometer reads SG of 1.0702. Begin vorlauf 17:48
Beer at 20C next morning so move to basement. SG is 1.0706. Tastes and smells super! Aerate and pitch yeast

Temp drops to 16C but bubbles start so hoping the yeast activity will bring my temp up to 20C.

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After a fortnight I moved the beer upstairs and roused the yeast. The beer has been at approx 20C for about a month now but it won'T go below 1.018.

Do you guys think it's safe to bottle?

Well I went ahead and bottled and primed for 3 vols of CO2 but...

I think I may have an infection

It was tasting fine when I was sampling with the hydrometer but when I took the lid off my fermenter to rack to a bottling bucket I got a really strong smell... almost like whiskey or brandy.

However, it still tasted good and that smell I was detecting is at worse at a very slight aftertaste.

I've collected the yeast to freeze for future use so when I decant the wort I'll give it a sniff to see where we're at.

Am I buggered? Or will bottle conditioning work it's magic?

So, I decided to do this recipe as my first ever attempt at brewing. Very nice details in the instructions, and the fact that Leffe makes some of my favorite beers made it seem like a good choice.

Brew day was May 28, and it went pretty well (measured by my complete ignorance anyway ). I ended up with a OG of 1.071 and pitched the yeast (decanted) from a 2,5 liter starter I made a couple days earlier using DME.

I'm fermenting in a temp controlled chest freezer at 17C (62.6F).
Fermentation was quite active for the first week or so, but has slowed down now. The smell has been quite pleasant - easty/fruity

Today I decided to take a sample. SG is 1.021. A bit of yeasty foam on top.
The taste is definately NOT as I dreamed it would be. Bitter, almost sour - could be the apple notes that are often mentioned in immature beer.

Should I worry that there still seems to be quite a long way down to FG of 1.010 or that the taste is far from the blonde I dreamed of?

Are you using 3711 or equivalent? 17C is below the preferred temperature range for that yeast, so it may be stressed, which can lead to funky flavors. Sometimes those will clear up if you raise the temp, rouse the yeast, and give it time.

edit: Just realized the original recipe calls for WLP 530. Same advice holds though - it should be started around 20C and can run up to 24C. Try ramping it up over a few days, rouse it if necessary, and it should perk up. 530 is tough stuff.

Oh yeah.. Completely missed that on the yeast data.. I guess recipes should be read with a sound mind.. Thanks for pointing it out.

Took a stab at this style a few weeks ago. Substituted a few malts / hops but my brewing process was essentially the same. Ended up using WY1388 (Belgian Strong Ale) over the Westmalle strain, and the differences are huge. Still ended up with absurd attenuation (~87%), but the balance of esters and phenolics is completely different -- instead of the plum perfume from the Westmalle strain, I'm getting huge whiffs of pepper and leather. Makes for a very interesting character, and not at all what I was expecting. As an aside, I think this beer would make an excellent base for a delicious golden sour.

http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/1253871/leffe-hand-of-god

Gave this one another run today, I'll re-do it with raspberries, but will use some capden tablets this time on the fruits before adding them to the secondary. Hit an OG of 1.070-72.

Hi!

First post here... Just had to say thanks for that great recipe! This was my 14th batch (1st AG). Bottled it up today and wow! I will make this again for sure. Can't wait to taste it once conditioned!

Cheers!

613Brew said:

Hi!

First post here... Just had to say thanks for that great recipe! This was my 14th batch (1st AG). Bottled it up today and wow! I will make this again for sure. Can't wait to taste it once conditioned!

Cheers!

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Glad you liked it!!!! Thanks for the kind words!!!!

I got the nicest PM from someone last week who said he's never brewed before and was looking for a leffe recipe to brew for I think his father and heard that my clone on here was supposedly the best and most famous on the web.... I laugh because as you guys can probably see, by all the deleted posts in the beginning and my sarcastic "legal boilerplate" in the first post, the day I posted this recipe I got trolled heavily by some folks (who I don't even know if they're still active or even brew) the kind of armchair trolls I've tried to counter in all facets of life... the kind who have opinions without even trying something... anyway I worked hard on this recipe before releasing it, and I put it up, like I do most everything on here, to share and to help people, not really for my own ego gratification... I'm proud of this recipe, and I'm really surprised, and honored by the fact that it's such a well liked and respected recipe.

Thanks all!!!

This was my first AG brew way back...I made some silly mistake with my hydrometer so added more candy sugar (as my gravity was way too low , or so i thought, never let sample cool) and ended up with a fantastic beer but at 8.5% whoops.. cheers Revvy

I'm thinking about brewing a blonde with lallemand belgian abbaye yeast and I am wondering if anyone has tried it with this recipe?

Thanks

stever1000 said:

I'm thinking about brewing a blonde with lallemand belgian abbaye yeast and I am wondering if anyone has tried it with this recipe?

Thanks

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I've done it several times over the years with that yeast. It's a good handy dry yeast for it. It's pretty much been my goto yeast on it for the last few batches, since no starter/prep is required for it.

Revvy said:

I've done it several times over the years with that yeast. It's a good handy dry yeast for it. It's pretty much been my goto yeast on it for the last few batches, since no starter/prep is required for it.

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Excellent, a perfect response

Legal Disclaimer This is the author's interpretation of the beer, his homage, it is not an officially SANCTIONED clone recognized by the official clone sanctioning body of beery nirvana (EAC), and shouldn't be thought of as one. It may not even use ingredients similar to the original recipe, but it will contain the following, grain, water, hops, yeast. Your Mileage may vary. All prior agreements, discussions, representations, warranties, and covenants are merged herein. There are no warranties, representations, covenants, or agreements, express or implied, between the parties except those expressly set forth in this agreement. Any amendments or modifications of this agreement shall be in writing and executed by the contracting parties. If you drink, don't drive. If you fold, spindle of mutilate this recipe, you will violate your warranty. This disclaimer does not cover misuse, accident, lightning, flood, tornado, tsunami, volcanic eruption, earthquake, hurricanes and other Acts of God, neglect, damage from improper reading, incorrect line voltage, improper or unauthorized use, broken antenna or marred cabinet, missing or altered serial numbers, removal of tag, electromagnetic radiation from nuclear blasts, sonic boom, crash, ship sinking or taking on water, motor vehicle crashing, dropping the item, falling rocks, leaky roof, broken glass, mud slides, forest fire, or projectile (which can include, but not be limited to, arrows, bullets, shot, BB’s, paintball, shrapnel, lasers, napalm, torpedoes, or emissions of X-rays, Alpha, Beta and Gamma rays, knives, stones, etc.). No license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any Intellectual property rights are granted herein. The Brewer Revvy (TBR) disclaims all liability, including liability for infringement of any proprietary rights, relating to use of information in this specification. TBR does not warrant or represent that such use will not infringe such rights. In fact, that’s a very strong possibility.
Nothing in this document constitutes a guarantee, warranty, or license, express or implied. TBR disclaims all liability for all such guaranties, warranties, and licenses, including but not limited to: fitness for a particular purpose; merchantability; non-infringement of intellectual property or other rights of any third party or of TBR; indemnity; and all others. The reader is advised that third parties may have intellectual property rights that may be relevant to this document and the technologies discussed herein, and is advised to seek the advice of competent legal counsel, without obligation to TBR. In other words, get your own #$^%#$ lawyer before you hurt yourself. These materials are provided by TBR as a service to his friends and/or customers and may be used for informational purposes only. If you brew it you will make a beer that tastes close to the afore mentioned beer, so stfu and brew it already. This is intended for the use of the individual addressee(s) named above and may contain information that is confidential, privileged or unsuitable for overly sensitive persons with low self-esteem, no sense of humor or irrational religious beliefs. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying of this email is not authorized (either explicitly or implicitly) and constitutes an irritating social faux pas. Unless the word absquatulation has been used in its correct context somewhere other than in this warning, it does not have any legal or grammatical use and may be ignored. No animals were harmed in the transmission of this email, although the yorkshire terrier next door is living on borrowed time, let me tell you. Those of you with an overwhelming fear of the unknown will be gratified to learn that there is no hidden message revealed by reading this warning backwards, so just ignore that Alert Notice from Microsoft: However, by pouring a complete circle of salt around yourself and your computer you can ensure that no harm befalls you and your pets. If you have
received this email in error, please add some nutmeg and egg whites and place it in a warm oven for 40 minutes. Whisk briefly and let it stand for 2 hours before icing. Don't you just love when the legal cover your ass boilerplate is longer than the actual commercial? That's what you get when you have people like the folks below on this planet sucking up all the air, and making you have to write drivel like this when you could be sipping coffee and helping new brewers not **** themselves because their airlock is not bubbling. And as always, viewer discretion, is advised.

Tried to read this in its entirety but I could feel the oxygen being absquatulated from the room I’m sitting in!
I really enjoyed this disclaimer and will now be forced to attempt this recipe.

Made a mistake and misread the recipe, leaving out the last 13oz of pilsner (9lb instead of 9lb 13oz) oops...

used 1 lb of sugar to help compensate

OG:15 brix/1.064 SG

Pitched Danstar Abbaye belgian ale yeast

Excited to try this out

Revvy said:

I've done it several times over the years with that yeast. It's a good handy dry yeast for it. It's pretty much been my goto yeast on it for the last few batches, since no starter/prep is required for it.

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I forgot to ask, what sort of temperature range/schedule have you had good results with for this yeast?

Thanks!

Just tapped a keg of a version of this... Pils/Munich/victory/melanoidin. I also mashed on the lower end @152 because I wanted it fairly dry. Very tasty recipe. Thanks!

Brewed this beer late in November of 2015 and I loved it. I did this same this year so I've pretty much decided it will be my annual Christmas brew. I was out of town during the fermentation this year and didn't remember the sugar until I was kegging (I was planning to add during fermentation obviously). As last year though this beer turned out great!

Got 6 gallons fermenting away - thanks for the recipe. :rockin: