Belgian Dark Strong Ale Rochefort 8 clone (as close as you can get)!

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10.92 lb Pilsner (2 row) Belgian (2.0 SRM) 70.24%
1.73 lb Caramunich Malt (46.0 SRM) 11.13%
0.58 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) 3.75%
0.58 lb Special B Malt (114.0 SRM) 3.75%
0.23 lb Carafa special dehusked (302.0 SRM) 1.47%
1.50 lb Dark Belgian candy sugar (100 SRM) 9.65 %
1.73 oz Styrian Goldings [4.20%] Boil 60 min
0.75 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [3.50%] Boil 30 min
0.39 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [3.50%] Boil 5 min
0.38 oz coriander seed Boil 5 min (Crush first)

MASH PROFILE

Protein rest Add 12.64 qt water at 156.2F to get 142F for 30min
Saccrification Add 11.23 qt water at 170.2F to get 154F for 60 min
Mash out Add 9.83 qt water at 205.6 to get 168F for 5 min
Begin Vorlauf then drain Mash Tun
Sparge with 0.73 gallons of water at 168F

Carb with 4.83 oz corn sugar

This is the award winning recipe by Hermann Holtrop from a Rochefort 8 clone comp that was held in the Netherlands. I think it's very close to the original Rochefort 8. A little darker then the original, but just as tasty... enjoy! If you can't find Carafa Special, Carafa l (337.0 SRM) will work well but will be a bit darker so scale back a bit.

On the yeast package it says that it's enought for 5 gallons. Should I use 2 packs in this case? Or just 1? Thank's
 
I made this recipe on 2/9/16, with the same ingredients as posted originally by Magic Larry, but with the quantities listed by SteelRinger. Just rounded up basically. Pretty smooth process. Ended up mashing in a little low at 150, so I fired the burner back up beneath by keggle mash tun, and stirred, until it got to 154. Flame off. So the first 10 minutes or so were 150, then up to 155 for the last 65 minutes. 75 minutes mash in total. Ended up boiling for 90 minutes. Fairly quick chill (20 minutes) down to 67, and pitched 2 packets of WL530 Abbey Ale yeast. Left outside until it dropped to about 66 degrees, then brought the carboy inside. About an inch and a half of krausen after day 1.

After about 40 hours in the carboy, I came home from work and the airlock was full of krausen. Pulled it off slowly to clean it, and the carboy sprayed on me and the walls. Joy. Cleaned up the airlock, myself, and the wall, and now I'm sitting here for about an hour so far, watching the krausen bubble over and down the sides, sorta cleaning up as I go. It has slowed down some. Hoping to get the airlock back on soon, as watching krausen bubble is not too exciting.

Hoping this turns out nice! OG came in way high at 1.092. 90 minute boil probably has something to do with that.

Comments/thoughts welcome. My first attempt at a Belgium Dubble.

Cheers!
 
The first comment has to be look into a blow off tube and save yourself trouble and mess especially with Belgian yeasts
 
Ha. yes, nettekdl. Of course I ordered it the day after I started this monster. It's showing up tomorrow, but too little, too late. I should be good on that front the next go around. I think it was a good experience for me to see how it can go with that yeast and the OG so high. All good.
 
Pulled a gravity sample just now, and it reads 1.032 at 65 degrees, so temperature adjusted to 1.033. Should it be around there at this point? It's been 13 days since going in the fermenter, and I started way high at an OG of 1.092. Tastes like it's headed in the right direction. Still fermenting away in the primary.

In going to the secondary next week, do I need to do anything other than just siphon the wort off the yeast bed that has settled? I've never used a secondary before.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks, guys.

-George
 
Pulled a gravity sample just now, and it reads 1.032 at 65 degrees, so temperature adjusted to 1.033. Should it be around there at this point? It's been 13 days since going in the fermenter, and I started way high at an OG of 1.092. Tastes like it's headed in the right direction. Still fermenting away in the primary.

In going to the secondary next week, do I need to do anything other than just siphon the wort off the yeast bed that has settled? I've never used a secondary before.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks, guys.

-George

1.032 is pretty high. Based on your OG, that's only 63% attenuation, which is well below that yeast's capability, especially given the pure sugar content. It's not very common for an ale to keep dropping gravity points beyond a couple weeks (on its own), but certainly not impossible. When you say it's still fermenting, what are you basing that on? That it's still bubbling? That could just be continued CO2 off-gassing.

If you feel you must do a secondary ... I'd be careful not to move it to secondary too early. Before you go moving it, check the gravity to make sure it's stable over the course of 2-3 days - no sense taking it off the primary yeast before it's done attenuating. Even then, taste it to make sure the yeast have had enough time to clean-up.

And, if it's not getting down into the low 1.020's I'd say it's worth considering taking measures to help it along.
 
Hi Hex, thanks for the reply and the input. I'll take another gravity reading today, and another tomorrow, and see where I'm at.

I don't really have an opinion on the secondary, that's just what is called for in the recipe on the first page. I think it is pretty cleared up as of now. And I was leaving it on the yeast in the primary for a total of 23 days, like the recipe calls for. I guess I assumed there was some master purpose to this. I'm really jumping in head first with all of this, so I apologize if my responses come across ignorant. Trying to put all the pieces together. :)

What can I do to help it along, should it be stuck up over 1.030?
 
Hi Hex, thanks for the reply and the input. I'll take another gravity reading today, and another tomorrow, and see where I'm at.

I don't really have an opinion on the secondary, that's just what is called for in the recipe on the first page. I think it is pretty cleared up as of now. And I was leaving it on the yeast in the primary for a total of 23 days, like the recipe calls for. I guess I assumed there was some master purpose to this. I'm really jumping in head first with all of this, so I apologize if my responses come across ignorant. Trying to put all the pieces together. :)

Nah, your questions are good ones. I'm just not a fan of fixed timelines or secondaries. Just trying to provide some options. Last time I brewed this was several years ago, so I had forgotten about that.

What can I do to help it along, should it be stuck up over 1.030?

Options in order of increasing complication. It's always best to take these measures in sequence, trying the next thing only if the previous one failed:

  1. Gradually raise the temperature; this is a good idea for most fermentations anyway, doing so after the main fermentation has slowed.
  2. GENTLY stir the yeast back into suspension
  3. Re-pitch healthy yeast. Since much of the character is already locked-in you could use a clean-fermenting alcohol-tolerant, easy to use yeast like US-05. Even more extreme would be a champagne yeast, but that could dry it out.
  4. Add enzymes, but only if you suspect a wort fermenatability issue

Obviously don't bother with any of this if it's not stuck!
 
Thanks, Hex. I took another reading tonight, and it was at 1.030, so I think it's dropping. Then I thought about it for a minute, and wondered if I read the wrong line on the hydrometer yesterday. Not likely, but certainly possible. I'll take another reading tomorrow, and see where I am at.

I have a shirt over the fermenter, to keep light off it as much as possible. Today, I added a hooded sweatshirt over that, to see if I can bring the temperature up a little. I'll try and keep my house a little warmer tonight too, and see if the sweatshirt can keep it at a little high temperature tomorrow. Gotta do what you gotta do, right? A temperature control system is in my near future. This seems like a silly thing to have to worry about, and very avoidable.

I appreciate your help and suggestions. I'll report back tomorrow (you're excited, I know).
 
WLP530 can take quite a while to get the last handful of points. I wouldn't be too concerned at this point. Hex made some good suggestions; I'd go with #2 then #1.
 
Thanks, Hex. I took another reading tonight, and it was at 1.030, so I think it's dropping. Then I thought about it for a minute, and wondered if I read the wrong line on the hydrometer yesterday. Not likely, but certainly possible. I'll take another reading tomorrow, and see where I am at.

I have a shirt over the fermenter, to keep light off it as much as possible. Today, I added a hooded sweatshirt over that, to see if I can bring the temperature up a little. I'll try and keep my house a little warmer tonight too, and see if the sweatshirt can keep it at a little high temperature tomorrow. Gotta do what you gotta do, right? A temperature control system is in my near future. This seems like a silly thing to have to worry about, and very avoidable.

I appreciate your help and suggestions. I'll report back tomorrow (you're excited, I know).

After the yeast have finished the bulk of fermentation, putting on insulation won't do much. You'll have to actively heat. A really simple and cheap solution to heating is a brew belt.
 
Yea, Hex, I've noticed not much happening with temperature with the sweatshirt over the fermenter. Makes sense. I closed the door to my "fermentation room" (aka, the guest bedroom) last night, and had the heat up in the house a bit to try and warm it up. Naturally, I left the house this morning without checking the temperature. I'll check the temp tonight, and pull another gravity sample.

I see the brew belt isn't recommended for glass carboy, which, is naturally what the beer is in. I've read some people use a lamp to warm it up, or the plastic tub with aquarium heaters. I'm not super interested in investing in that sort of set up at this point, as I plan on getting a chest freezer and thermostat for fermentation in a couple of weeks. Still need to figure out the best way to heat in that set up, but that's another discussion for another post.

Thanks for the help and suggestions, guys. Much appreciated.
 
Gravity at 1.027 today. Could it still be going down? I've been checking it, and it seems to be dropping a hair every day. Seems hard to believe, but I guess so. It's been 21 days in the fermenter today. Air lock not making a peep, not that that means much. I was hoping to bottle tonight, but I can keep waiting, I supposed. Tasted good. Definitely some booze in there. :)
 
Gravity at 1.027 today. Could it still be going down? I've been checking it, and it seems to be dropping a hair every day. Seems hard to believe, but I guess so. It's been 21 days in the fermenter today.

21 days is nothing for this beer. Keep waiting. Heat it up if you can. You're not going to hurt anything leaving it on the yeast for 6 weeks.

I've brewed this 3 times now, and in the end, I've given up on it.

Problem (1) If that Rochefort yeast even thinks about getting over about 68F, you end up with banana-flavored rocket fuel.

Problem (2) Bottle carbonation is miserable. This yeast really doesn't want to do anything after it's done. Adding something like EC-1118 gets you bottle carbonation, but in spite of what they say, if you didn't fully attenuate, EC-1118 will finish the job for you, and make your bottles go boom.

Problem (3) When it all goes right, it still tastes nothing like Rochefort to me.

I've since moved on to brewing the Westvleteren clone that's getting a lot of attention around here (the version that's basically nothing but 2-row and candi syrup), and I've been really, really happy with it. Most authentic Belgian homebrew I've managed.
 
Hi berck, I tested the gravity again in the afternoon, and it was still at 1.027. I might have jumped the gun a bit, but I bottled it last night. The recipe on here called for almost 5oz of priming sugar, and beer smith said almost 4oz of priming sugar, so I split the difference with 4.5oz. We'll see how it goes. It certainly tasted good. Not too sweet. A little boozy, but I wouldn't call it hot. Fingers crossed. My first time attempting a Dubbel, or a Belgian beer at all, for that matter.

Thanks for your input. Next time, I'd probably just leave it be in the primary for a little while longer. Better safe than sorry.
 
I brewed this 13days ago,with yeast cultured from very fresh bottle of Rochefort 6 and stepped into 3lit starter for 4gal batch..i must say im astonished by hydrometer reading i did yesterday..it came from 1.078 to 1.003.that puts it around 9,9%abv,aroma and taste is nice and has that ethanol aftertaste a bit , but not overpowering.i just hope it isnt infection that brought it so low. What do you guys think?
 
Dang, yeah that is a crazy low reading. Maybe take another reading with a different hydrometer? haha. Belgian yeasts have been known to do some crazy things, and since you made a starter from a bottle sample something weird may of happened there... Did you use any temperature control during fermentation? What temperature did it ferment at? Did you smell or taste your sample/starter yeast before using it?
 
Yeah, i controlled the temperature, first two days at 18,9c, later let it selfrise to ambient which was 24,25c. Taste and smell are very very nice.caramelly malty.also all stepped up starters smelled ok, clovey mostly and had unusualy little trub.date on the bottle was 6 months old.
 
I'll be brewing this soon, can anyone confirm the 1762 yeast is the strain Rochefort uses? Otherwise I'll harvest sediment from a bottle to brew this clone.
 
Thanks OP for recipe (and for Halltrop too), made a lot of attemps, last two batches brewed with 1762 and they were very good. Also used home made Candi (with DAP). All bathces had AA 78-79%. On my opinion, best IBU/SG is 0,42.

Will brew again!
 
I'll be brewing this soon, can anyone confirm the 1762 yeast is the strain Rochefort uses? Otherwise I'll harvest sediment from a bottle to brew this clone.

It is.

I have the actual Rochefort 6 recipe, straight from the brewery, which I got from a fella at the AHA forum who took a tour of the brewery in ‘06 and snapped a picture of a brew sheet with Gumer Santos’s permission.

I made a spreadsheet scaling the 6 recipe up to the 8 and 10.
 
Can you show it?
Belgium 2006 034.jpg

Capture.JPG


EDIT: Just to clarify something above: Pure Malt is a Sinamar style malt extract/colorant. Technically it contributes to gravity, but realistically it is a small enough amount compare to the total grain bill that it really just adds color.

The Rochefort 8 and 10 "scale ups" I performed don't include any other malts, but surely you could back off on Sinamar in a homebrew version and add back a malt like Special B. I would steer clear of roasted malts and use Sinamar for color.

EDIT: I started a new thread to discuss Rochefort:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/realfort-6-8-and-10-rochefort-recipe-discussion.662105/

I didn't want to jam this thread up with discussion.
 
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