First Trappist Ale = Awesome

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krduckman

krduckman

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Just tasted my first Trappist Ale that I brewed. All I can say is "AWESOME!" I wanted to clone Chimay but integrated several ingredients that other HBT peps used in their recipes. Below is the recipe I used and comments are welcomed.

Recipe: All-grain
5 gallon batch
SRM: 7
IBU: 31.3
ABV: 8.5%
Boil - 90 mins
OG - 1.084
FG - 1.020
mash in 152 F

14 lbs 2-row Pilsner, Belgian
15.4 oz Munich Malt
2.4 oz Candi Sugar, Amber
2.0 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker 4% - 60 min
1.0 oz Styrian Goldings 5.4% - 2 min
1 pkg Trappist High Gravity (Wyeast Labs #3787) - no starter



2 weeks in primary 64 F
3 weeks in secondary
 
I love Belgians and brew them often.

Your recipe looks good. I like simple. Is that 2.4 oz sugar or 2.4 lbs?

Put some away to age. They just keep getting better with age. The first one I brewed I drank most of it pretty quickly. I had a few bottles that I saved and now I am pissed that I drank most of it young. I always put at least half of each batxch away to age.
 
It was 2.4 oz. It probably didn't do much but the more I added in Beersmith it made it darker. I wanted it to be lighter. I might try adding more next time and not worry about color.

I'll definitely save some for aging.
 
krduckman said:
It was 2.4 oz. It probably didn't do much but the more I added in Beersmith it made it darker. I wanted it to be lighter. I might try adding more next time and not worry about color.

I'll definitely save some for aging.
Click to expand...

If you wanted it lighter then you could have just used regular table sugar. The sugar helps dry out the beer. Which is something that helps Belgian brews taste the way they do. Most use 10-20% sugar. Something to consider for future brews.
 
I had the same reaction to the sugar addition, it's usually a lot higher. I've had good results making my own candi sugar as well, although I haven't compared the final beer to one with the more expensive syrups.

Did you hit your FG? That's a pretty big beer for not using a starter. I know Belgians are intentionally underpitched sometimes but I don't know how significantly you can do so and still attenuate all the way without raising the temperature. I've used that same yeast and fermented hot, mid 80s, and its deliciously estery.
 
I was actually trying to hit 1.018. So I was 2 points shy.

I'll plan on experimenting with more candy sugar in future batches. I was concentrating more on color at the time.
 
Is a month to five weeks total about average for fermenting a Belgian? I brewed a Chimay Red clone yesterday. I'm trying to plan when to transfer. OG was 1.071. I pitched 2 packs of Wyeast Belgian Abbey 1214 with no starter. They didn't swell as much as I thought they should have before I pitched.
 
Old-Ned said:
Is a month to five weeks total about average for fermenting a Belgian? I brewed a Chimay Red clone yesterday. I'm trying to plan when to transfer. OG was 1.071. I pitched 2 packs of Wyeast Belgian Abbey 1214 with no starter. They didn't swell as much as I thought they should have before I pitched.
Click to expand...

Depends. I use wlp530 which is a high flocculating high attenuating yeast. It needs to be at least 75 degrees to spit out enough flavor to taste best, preferably higher. That being said, I like it more than 500, the Chimay yeast, which is very slow to floc, gives less dark plum, and needs to be kept cooler.

I always reach FG in less than a week, even on quads. The thing is that dubbels and quads need a long time to age after that. A tripel or blonde can be ready in two months after brew date, but a dubbel or quad really needs at least 3 months, if not more.

To OP: try using candi syrup inc D-45. I used this on my last dubbel and I really think it is the magical ingredient for dubbels. It's still young, but I think it will potentially be much better than my all-malt and table sugar dubbel. I also tried D-90 before but it was too raisiny.
 
Old-Ned said:
I pitched 2 packs of Wyeast Belgian Abbey 1214 with no starter. They didn't swell as much as I thought they should have before I pitched.
Click to expand...
how old were the packs, i.e. when was the production date? if they were really old, them maybe there weren't a lot of live yeasties in there.
 
sweetcell said:
how old were the packs, i.e. when was the production date? if they were really old, them maybe there weren't a lot of live yeasties in there.
Click to expand...

The date was 27 DEC 11. I've been reading that it could take this strain a while to swell, and I only had it smacked and at room temp for 6-7 hrs. This is my first Belgian, and the only other smack packs I've used were good to go after 4-6 hrs. I was slightly concerned, but the more I read the better I feel.
 
rexbanner said:
Depends. I use wlp530 which is a high flocculating high attenuating yeast. It needs to be at least 75 degrees to spit out enough flavor to taste best, preferably higher. That being said, I like it more than 500, the Chimay yeast, which is very slow to floc, gives less dark plum, and needs to be kept cooler.

I always reach FG in less than a week, even on quads. The thing is that dubbels and quads need a long time to age after that. A tripel or blonde can be ready in two months after brew date, but a dubbel or quad really needs at least 3 months, if not more.

To OP: try using candi syrup inc D-45. I used this on my last dubbel and I really think it is the magical ingredient for dubbels. It's still young, but I think it will potentially be much better than my all-malt and table sugar dubbel. I also tried D-90 before but it was too raisiny.
Click to expand...

I'll give it a try. I'm going to be brewing more Belgian's in the future.
 

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