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

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Hi Revvy and fellow hobbyists. I'm a long time lurker/ first time poster. I luv Leffe blonde and decided to try this clone. I rounded off to the oz on the grain bill and used said yeast. Cold crashed/gelatin after approx 1 month in primary and kegged. Og and fg are spot on and beer cleared nicely but flavor is mediocre w no banana like leffe. Fermented~ 70 and ran up to 74 according to stick-on thermometer kept in basement 68 deg. 2nd time using a Belgium yeast with not so Belgium results. Any help is appreciated. Been brewing 20 years but w/o this forum I don't think I ever would have progressed to all grain or built a keezer. U guys rock.
 
kegged 2.5 gallons with priming sugar to naturally carb (kegerator is full)
kegged the other 2.X gallons with 2lbs raspberries (in the fridge) :mug:

Poured a glass of the raspberry today and all I can say is...wow :D

Haven't tried the naturally carbed one yet
 
I tried searching in this thread, but I could not find what temperature to ferment at. So what temperature have you used?
 
I fermented it at my ambient room temp, at the time of year it was in the low 60's so I didn't need to do anything.

I can't recall where I got the 158 for 45 minutes mash....it probably came through my research into the style.

But the reason is that Beta Amylase enzymes denature at 158. This leaves more unfermentable long chain dextrins, you will have more "weight" and more mouthfeel with the 158f mash temp but about the same starting gravity. The Beta Amylase enzymes denature at 158. the final gravity will be higher as well.

You get more mouthfeel so that when you add the table sugar to the boil, you get the gravity boost but it's not "thin and cidery" there still is decent mouthfeel and even great lacing on the glass from the proteins.

Post #14
 
Finally set up for all grain. Planning this for my first ag batch Easter weekend. I have a 10g igloo for a mash tun. Do I need to make any adjustments from the OP recipe or am I good to go?
Cheers
 
What is the reason for a 45 minute mash instead of 60 minutes?

Is it just that the starch conversion is done, and an extra 15 minutes is unnecessary?
 
Category 18a Belgian Blonde.

Revvy's Blonde
Brew Type: All Grain Date: 4/25/2010
Style: Belgian Blond Ale Brewer: Michael
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Volume: 6.41 gal
Boil Time: 90 min (Pilsner malts)

Revvy, apologies in advance if this is answered elsewhere in this thread but I don't remember seeing it. I just wanted to check that your recipe is for 5 US gallons so that I can scale it to Imperial gallons for my own use. Thanks in advance.
 
Well, I used the percentages given in the recipe to tweak it to my preferred brew size and target efficiency and then brewed it up last night. I didn't hit my target efficiency so I ended up with an OG of 1.060. We'll see how it goes.
 
I brewed this on May the 8th. I had an OG of1.072, but also way overshot my mash temperature at the beginning. 163F instead of 158 for the beginning of the mash. I added cold water to get closer to 158, but was maybe still a little high. I pitched two packs of rehydrated Mangrove Jack's M47 Abbey ale. A week later, activity seems to have stopped and SG has been at 1.022 for three days. I'm going to leave it for at least one more week anyway, but do you think that'll drop any further? I'm at 68% attenuation, while the yeast specs are 73-73%.

Also, was planning to rack some of the beer onto some strawberries or raspberries. Would the fruit help fight the sweetness or accentuate it?
 
Just cracked my first bottle and this is definitely close to the original! Great recipe that will go in a permanent rotation!
 
Making a batch of this again today, trying with mangrove jack's M47 for a change.

I've used their dry Saison strain - used to be M27, now M41 (apparently) - to very good effect with this recipe. M29 would probably also be a good choice. Will be interested to know how M47 works out; it will probably be a very different beer than Leffe. M27 gave a spicy/peppery profile that was (I thought) a pretty good match for Leffe. M47 is likely to be more fruity/bubblegum.
 
Any updates on this would be much appreciated. Ferm temp, attenuation, and of course flavour!

Just cracked my last bottle, used M47 - what can I say? Defenetly, grainbill&hops are spot on. Mine turned out a little bit more phenolic than original - I haven't used M47 earlier, so can't say - may be this due to low temp at the begining of fermentation - I started at 66 and kept it for 2 days then raised to 71-72.

For sure, will brew this recipe more, thanks Revvy!

P.S. Attenuated 77%, pitch rate - 0,66m cells/ml/°P (consider 1 gr=20billion cells, works fine)
 
M47 is def the go to dry yeast, it tasted pretty much the same as previous batches using 530 and I kept it smooth going at 22 celcius for 3 weeks before bottling. bonus is that it floc's better than 530.
 
Brewed this for the second time. First batch flavor was spot on. Second batch is overly malty with almost no yeast flavor. It’s actually not bad but definitely not Leffe like. Guessing I fermented to low on this one with the first use of my new (used chest freezer) temp control chamber.
 
M47 is def the go to dry yeast, it tasted pretty much the same as previous batches using 530 and I kept it smooth going at 22 celcius for 3 weeks before bottling. bonus is that it floc's better than 530.

I still haven't tried any Mangrove Jack stuff...the one store that carries that line it seems to always be out of all their stuff. I guess if I luck out one day and they have it in stock I'll snag some even if I don't brew this for awhile.
:mug:
 
Just cracked my second bottle. Even without the Belgian yeast profile this is still a great beer. Almost a nut brown flavor to me. Very good and can still go into Christmas six packs that almost became Christmas four packs!
 
Low attenuation with WLP540:

OG 1.062 ( efficiency was down 8% from usual)

I mashed at 156-157
1L stirred starter to 220B cells. Pitched at 66 and aerated wort with a town of shaking. Free rise to 70. Gave it another good shake at 12 hours.

Day 3 SG 1.021 -- pretty pleased.

Day 5 SG 1.020 -- not so pleased -- temp up to 75, lots of shaking.

Day 7 SG 1.019 — dangit. held at 75

Day 12 SG 1.019 — Arrr muddle fuddle.

Now what? It’s def too sweet to keg now.

Add some dry safale us-05? Pitch a pack of wlp500?


I wanted to use this as my starter beer for a Westy 12 clone soon - but now I really dont trust this yeast.
 
Low attenuation with WLP540:

OG 1.062 ( efficiency was down 8% from usual)

I mashed at 156-157
1L stirred starter to 220B cells. Pitched at 66 and aerated wort with a town of shaking. Free rise to 70. Gave it another good shake at 12 hours.

Day 3 SG 1.021 -- pretty pleased.

Day 5 SG 1.020 -- not so pleased -- temp up to 75, lots of shaking.

Day 7 SG 1.019 — dangit. held at 75

Day 12 SG 1.019 — Arrr muddle fuddle.

Now what? It’s def too sweet to keg now.

Add some dry safale us-05? Pitch a pack of wlp500?


I wanted to use this as my starter beer for a Westy 12 clone soon - but now I really dont trust this yeast.
If you look back a page I had the identical issue with wlp530 and this recipe. Heating to the mid 70s didn’t seem to help. I finally added a tiny bit of amylase enzyme and it brought it down to 1.013. I also mashed at 156 so maybe that accounts for it too... let me also add I am not in the wort shaking camp. It’s not real practical for me and i don’t trust the level of dissolved O2 it imparts to the wort so I’ve been using an O2 kit for the last 18 months or so. I’ve been pleased with the consistent vigorous ferments. Regardless, if you followed good sanitation and this beer tastes good I would not hesitate to use it for your westy 12.
 
Last edited:
Brewed a beer with this as the inspiration. Very slight variations to the recipe, including aromatic malt in lieu of the melanoidin (my research found they were the same or very similar?), and rounding so percentages were just off, but very close.

All in all it was quite a disastrous brew day. Missed volumes, temperatures (mashed at 151F), PH was high due to volumes being off, and OG came in at 1.060 (Beer Smith predicted 1.069). Had boil overs even though I used FermCap. It was just OFF!

Glad to say despite me, the beer has turned out quite well. The hydro sample after two weeks gave me promise. It sat in the primary just under 3 weeks and finished at 1.006. This was kegged last Tuesday and set to 12psi at 38F. I have agitated the keg at least twice a day and hooked it up to the tap last night. I feared it would be too dry and almost bite back. I was surprised it had a decent body, not thick or heavy, but also not too thin. It has a pleasent aroma and a great taste. I will be trying to improve my process and see how well I can make this beer after this keg goes. Excited to have and share this on Christmas day. Thanks Revvy!
 
Looks like my WLP500 version has pooped out at 1.017. I bumped the temp up to 74F and stirred up the yeast, but after 48 hours gravity hasn't changed.

This is 69.5% attenuation but the specs say it should be 75-80%.

Though, I have never done a mash this hot, either.

Any ideas?

EDIT TO ADD: I should mention that I screwed up my recipe input and my OG was only 1.058, but still using the same 10 oz of sugar. Beersmith's predicted FG for the grain bill and 158F mash temp is 1.014, which isn't tooooo far off.


DOUBLE SECRET EDIT: I checked gravity with a hydrometer today, and found I did in fact drop a few points after turning up the heat, and am now at BeerSmith's estimated FG. I thought I was stuck, but I was checking gravity with a refractometer--I knew the number would be wrong, but I thought that if I lost a few gravity points, I'd see the refractometer value drop somewhat. Well, that wasn't true; on my refractometer, with this beer, 1.017 and 1.014 both look like 1.030. I'll give it a couple more days but I'm finally in the home stretch.
 
Last edited:
Just had to dump a full keg of this. :(
First dumper in 43 batches.

I brewed it in the fall last year. Not sure what I did wrong:
  • Maybe I picked up the tbsp instead of tsp when adding lactic acid to the mash? There definitely was a sour (an not pleasant sour) to the taste.
  • Maybe got infected when the bucket fermentor top blew off and sat for 12 hours open in a basement where I saw fruit flies while cleaning up (though not in the immediate area of the bucket)? If that were the case I would have expected a change in the taste over time, which I didn't see.
It was a real shame because the color and clarity were brilliant.
I put the recipe back into my "To-Brew" folder to try again later this year.
 
Lactic Acid??

Just had to dump a full keg of this. :(
First dumper in 43 batches.

I brewed it in the fall last year. Not sure what I did wrong:
  • Maybe I picked up the tbsp instead of tsp when adding lactic acid to the mash? There definitely was a sour (an not pleasant sour) to the taste.
  • Maybe got infected when the bucket fermentor top blew off and sat for 12 hours open in a basement where I saw fruit flies while cleaning up (though not in the immediate area of the bucket)? If that were the case I would have expected a change in the taste over time, which I didn't see.
It was a real shame because the color and clarity were brilliant.
I put the recipe back into my "To-Brew" folder to try again later this year.
 
I typically use 6 ml of lactic acid in a 4 gallon batch, and my pH is still a little high -- but my water is pretty bad to start with. A teaspoon sounds about right.

A usually put in about a tsp+ in a 5.5g batch.
Given how acidic this batch tasted, I'm wondering if I put in three times the amount (tbsp instead of tsp).
 
Anyone brewed this recently and got a picture of it? It's on the slate for brewing this weekend. The only thing I tweaked is the grain bill to add acidulated malt to get the mash pH down to 5.3.
 
Here's a quick picture of my current batch. It doesn't look quite as dark to the eye. Haven't compared to a Leffe side by side but it is certainly close.

hZVtaZ0.jpg
 
That's awesome! Thank you for the picture.

So did you follow the recipe to a "T"? I had to go with WY3787 instead of the WLP530 so we'll see how it comes out. Brewing it tomorrow.
 
DAAB3DD3-D996-4D33-A6DB-BE99BC6023A1.jpeg
Anyone brewed this recently and got a picture of it? It's on the slate for brewing this weekend. The only thing I tweaked is the grain bill to add acidulated malt to get the mash pH down to 5.3.

Funny you should ask-just discovered a few more bottles in the basement and brought them upstairs for drinking. Nearly 3 years old and still doing fine!
 
So I read through all of the pages of this thread and I heard some different opinions. Some pretty quickly so I may have missed the answer I'm looking for below.

How strong do the esters/phenols come through in this and what temp did you ferment it at? I know what the recipe says to ferment at. I'm more interested in personal experiences with this. This is my first Belgian style anything.
 
That's awesome! Thank you for the picture.

So did you follow the recipe to a "T"? I had to go with WY3787 instead of the WLP530 so we'll see how it comes out. Brewing it tomorrow.

My version of the recipe was very close but I had to mix Saaz hops to use up some old stock.

invCYvg.png


For the yeast, I used Imperial B48 which is supposed to be the same as 530. It worked well for me, but next time I make this I want to try to kick its ass to make more potent Belgian flavors. I did 68F for 2 weeks, then kept it at 72F until it was finished. I would love to hear what others have done with this strain.
 
Brewed this on Saturday. OG ended up at 1.070 as opposed to 1.068. The WY3787 is a monster of a yeast. My blow off tube has been getting a workout for 2 days straight. Looks like it's finally starting to settle down!
 
Back
Top