Anyone Brew This Chimay Blue?

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The grain bill looks similar to the one posted in "Beer Captured".

But the hops are different.


The recipe, a clone of Chimay Grande Reserve from the Abbey of Notre Dame, came from Tess and Mark Szamatulski's Beer Captured.
Grain Bill

* 13.33 lb. Belgian 2-row
* 8 oz. Cara-Munich
* 6 oz. Belgian Aromatic
* 4 oz. Belgian Special B
* 2½ oz. British Chocolate
* 1½ lb. Dark Belgian Candi Sugar

Hop Bill

* ½ oz. Northern Brewer 7.5% AA whole leaf 90 minutes
* 0.4 oz. Centennial 9.3% AA whole leaf 90 minutes
* ½ oz. Hallertauer 4.0% AA whole leaf 15 minutes
* 1/8 tsp. Grains of Paradise 15 minutes
* ¼ oz. Hallertauer 4.0% AA whole leaf 2 minutes

Yeast

* 15 oz. Grand Cru slurry from Cambridge Brewing Company. Most likely White Labs WLP500

Results Summary

* Batch Size - 5 gallons
* O.G. 1.088
* S.G. 1.016 11 days
* F.G. 1.008 - seems a bit low
* Days in primary fermenter - 11
* Days in secondary fermenter - 2.5 months

Detailed Procedure

1. Mashed all grains at 149°F for 90 minutes.
2. Sparge took 1 hour with 170°F water to make 6 gallons for the boil
 
Yeah, I think someone reference that recipe in that thread. It is quite a bit darker than I anticipated, but I could not stop sticking my finger in the bucket during sparging. I am going to do a few weeks in the primary (last belgian I made fermented actively for 3 weeks) and then maybe throw it in a corny for a year or so.
 
My kegs are all full so I gotta be particular. Two 5-gallon big brews coming up (999 Barley & this Chimay).

I'm picking up 2 more kegs next week so this will round me out at 20.

OMG, if I picked up 20 kegs I'd end up asking if homeless shelters take in homebrewers after SWMBO found out. :D

Good luck with the Chimay clone.

- Eric
 
I like it. Everyone needs 20 kegs. If we all get 20 kegs then it will be "standard". If it is standard then it is ok to buy.:mug:
 
In March '07 we made the Chimay Blue clone from Beer Captured and it came out damn fine.

I don't have the calendar in front of me, but I think we primaried for a month and secondaried for two, then let it sit in 1-L bottles another 3 months before drinking it. We tried it side-by-side with the real thing, and they were close. Not exactly the same; I think ours a was a little mellower and sweeter, and the commercial was a touch more bitter. We used the Wyeast 1388 Strong Belgian yeast (which also makes a fine trippel).

I have two more batches in the basement in secondary; we used homemade dark candi in one so it's fermenting more slowly than the other (it was also 0.010 OG higher). I think I know what's coming for Christmas...
 
yeah, I would be interested to hear about using something aside from the $5/lb dark candy I used...
 
At the risk of a threadjack...

Comparing the homemade dark candi to commercial stuff, ours was a bit stickier (which just means it didn't get all the way up to hard crack) and more roasty or caramelly. There are instructions on this forum to make light (clear) candi, but they don't quite do dark candi. The problem we had was getting it hot enough to reach hard crack (300 F) without scorching/darkening it. In the Chimay Blue it will be fine, I think--the beer is strong and dark enough that the color won't matter, and the flavor will go nicely. We also had extra (2 lbs vs 1.5 lb) of the homemade stuff, so the OG on that batch came in higher.

I am not a candymaker, but it looks to me like commercial candi is actually cooked to darken (or not) but then crystallized from the syrup. Using traditional candy techniques may make something that looks similar but is not quite the same.
 
Just bottled this Chimay clone last night - the taste and ABV are both dead on, can't wait til the carb is done!
 
I made the extract version of this from the beer captured book (pilsen dme) and it is one of the best beers I have ever brewed (extract or all grain)

It tasted very very close to the real Chimay. Just make sure you carb high to get the same effect as the real stuff.

I think they get the specialty grains and other additions right, but IIRC, Chimay gets a lot more attenuation in their actual beer and has lower OG and FG. I think maybe the sugar gets added near the end of fermentation to keep the yeast going and dry out the beer.
 
Man do I love Chimay Blue! I am a beginner and can't imagine even doing an AG at all yet, let alone something like this. It makes me really excited to learn as much as I can about brewing just to tackle a beer like that! Those monks have got things pretty well figured out.
 
I made a version of this recipe. Mine dried out extremely nicely, starting at 1.087 and finishing at 1.010! It's been in bottles for about 10 months and is fantastic -- big and complex but highly drinkable because of the low FG. Great stuff.
 
I like this recipe so much I'm brewing it again. I'll actually let it age properly for a few months this time, though. It was a little spicy and harsh early on, but it mellowed into some very fine brew. Looking at the recipe as-is, the ABV will end up around 7.5%. I threw a little extra DME in to up the starting gravity to 1.074, which ends up around 8.5%, closer to the 9% ABV that a Chimay Blue is.
 
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