belgian yeast. three batches

I have read a lot about washing yeast and want to tackle this. To make this clear, I want to make three batches of three different Belgian recipies. I have heard Belgians taste better in their second and third generation. I wanted to get your feedback if you think the flavors will carry over to much or wont work.

first batch:
ale with candi sugar or muscovado sugar

second batch:
I have wine grapes growing my backyard and froze like 10 gallons of them. I was thinking of adding these to a recipe, for the fermentables and aroma.

third batch:
belgian IPA. just go all out and make an ipa.

we aerate wort, have a conical and we are very good on sanitation. I think we can do the washing but i am worried that the last two beers are too different for each other.

the yeasts i am thinking of finding
WLP500 or WLP530.

i am thinking the WLP530 will be nice, it finishes out kind of dry and since we are making a few batches, a drink ability may be on our minds.

thanks!

jesse

That plan sounds okay. I've done similar things using High Trappist WY 3787 with Patersbier (1.048 gravity), a Tripel (1.082 gravity) and a soon to be brewed Dubbel (~ 1.062 gravity). I am just going for 2 generations.

I pitched from pouch directly into the low gravity Patersbier. From this cake, I washed half for the Tripel. I had lag time of 2 hours here and blew the bucket lid overnight (this with Fermcap S added). The other half of the Patersbier cake I washed and stored in the fridge for the Dubbel. I didn't grab any yeast from the Tripel since it would have been pretty stressed out with the high ABV.

I would go lightest color & lowest ABV to darkest color & highest ABV.

Maybe your ale first (is this a blond, Patersbier. or ?). Then maybe your IPA if it has the medium level of ABV. And then your grape idea (sounds like the strongest of the 3). I'm not sure you could wash out the grape flavor for the IPA if you went that route. Other ideas for a 3rd brew are Belgian Strong Dark Ale, Dubbel , or Tripel (any of which the grapes would likely go with).

Also I wonder if Denny Conn still checks in (username Denny). I bet he'd have some great advice for this one.

I'm bottling a belgian IPA tonight, actually, made with WLP530. It's supposed to be a clone of Stone's Cali-Belgique, which is actually just their normal Stone IPA made with a belgian yeast. I also suspect it's dry hopped differently, but there's no way to tell. I picked the 530 because I had it laying around, but looking at the options it's the one I would have picked if I was really trying to clone that beer. It finishes very dry with all the right spice and floral belgian yeast characteristics, but it's not super "belgian-y" like the other Abbey Ale yeasts are, and neither is the Cali-Belgique.

I'm currently using Wyeast Trappist High Grav, in combination with ECY08 and stepping up from Single (1.047) to Dubble (1.064) to Tripple (1.080). With Candi sugar additions in the Dubble (5%) and Tripple (10%). Plan is to run the yeast through the gamut twice and compare ...

Not knowing much about Belgian IPA's, I researched and see many of the commercial examples are 7-11% ABV. If you target that range, especially the high end of that range, you might want to go with your original plan of Belgian IPA last.

thanks for all your feedback guys.

and solbes, i also read that the alpha acids coat the cake or do something weird. i am still reading up on this. also, with a proper yeast washing you think all the aplha acids would be near the trub and such. well figure out i guess.

we will figure out soon enough. maybe we'll scrape the grape idea and save them in the freezer for a few weeks.

thanks again!

goodwood - If it were me I'd do the brew with the grapes. Stone 10.10.10 Vertical Epic was done with juice from 3 different grapes. When I first had it I thought it was OK. I just shared a bottle that a friend stashed away for a year and it was awesome. The residual sweetness was much less and the balance was amazing. One of my favorite beers I have had in a while.

daksin - the Craft of Stone Brewing book talks about the Cali-Belgique and that it is dry hoped with different hops than the IPA. I think it was Chinook rather than the Centennial in the IPA but I can't remember for sure. I'm curious how yours turned out since this is on my short list to brew. If you love Stones brews the book is worth getting. They include homebrew recipes for some of their brews, but not all. I wish they included Bastard, Sawyer’s Triple and many that were not in the book.

WLP 500 is a very fruity strain (Chimay). WLP 530 is more in the spicy line (Westmalle). I prefer 530 to 500, that is just my take, as I find the esters of 500 overpowering. However, I think 530 mutes hops a bit. I would look at 550 if you have not purchased any yeast. It has a similar flavor profile to 530, but I think it plays better with hops.

we ened up making a citra/amarillo ipa instead. heard about a hop shortage coming up so we'll probably get sick of hops in a few batches, then try it. we also made a saison with the wlp565.

ill check out the stone book. And when i get this "series" brewed, ill write it up.

thanks

Citra and amarillo with a Belgian yeast is an epic combo! I've done one with wlp550, probably my best beer to date?