Westvleteren Abt 12

16.75 lb (7.59 Kg) Belgian 2-row Pilsner Malt
18 oz (510 g) Belgian Cara-Munich Malt
8 oz (226 g) Belgian Aromatic Malt
7 oz (198 g) Belgian Biscuit Malt
4 oz (113 g) Belgian Special B Malt
2 oz (57 g) British Chocolate Malt

1 lb (453 g) Belgian Clear Candi Sugar
4 oz (113 g) Belgian Amber Candi Sugar
6 oz (170 g) Malto Dextrin
1 oz (28 g) Styrian Goldings @ 5.2% AA (5.2 HBU) (bittering hop)

.25 oz (7 g) German Hallertau Hersbrucker (flavor hop)
.25 oz (7 g) Styrian Goldings (flavor hop)
1 tsp (5 ml) Irish Moss

.25 oz (7 g) German Hallertau Hersbrucker (aroma hop)
.25 oz (7 g) Styrian Goldings (aroma hop)

Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale yeast (preferred) or
Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity yeast

Mash 2-row pilsner malt and specialty grains at 150°F for 90 minutes. To the boil, add the Candi sugar and Malto Dextrine. Add the bittering hops at 90 minutes. Add the flavor hops and Irish Moss at 15 minutes. Add the aroma hops at 2 minutes.

Pitch yeast at 70°F (21°C). Ferment at 70-72°F (21-22°c) 7 days. Siphon into secondary and condition approximately six weeks. Pitch additional yeast into secondary 3 days before bottling.

Prime with 1.25 cups (300 ml) extra light dry malt extract boiled ten minutes in two cups of water. Condition at 70°F for about six weeks to fully carbonate.


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I haven't tried this yet, but it's on my list for a near future brew.

where did the recipe come from?

It's the recipe from Beer Captured.

That is a seriously complicated recipe. I don't know if it would be spectacularly deep and complex, or a muddy mess.
I have read that if you are using more than 4 grains, and 2 hops, you are using too much. Sometimes less is more, but I am surely interested in hearing how this comes out.

BigKahuna said:

That is a seriously complicated recipe. I don't know if it would be spectacularly deep and complex, or a muddy mess.
I have read that if you are using more than 4 grains, and 2 hops, you are using too much. Sometimes less is more, but I am surely interested in hearing how this comes out.

Click to expand...

Do you know where you read that? Is it a style specific thing or not? While I wholly agree that less can be more, for a lot of Belgian styles complexity still can come from grain variance.

Most of the Dark Strong recipes I've been looking at are pretty complicated. I have read a lot of discussion from babblebelt about people trying the "true" Westy 12 clone of 50% pils, 50% 2-row and the D2 syrup and it still coming up somewhat short. I think korndog may have done this, but not certain. Something about the brewing style of those darn monks...

PseudoChef said:

Do you know where you read that?

Click to expand...

No...as a matter of fact I do not, but I'm fairly sure I can find it. It was said by one of the big 3, so I should be able to find it in a day or 2.

**Edit
after a full10 minutes of exhaustive searching...I can't find it. Sorry to let you down PseudoChef.

Cool...just curiosity. Was it something about all styles or do you know if it was Belgian specific?

Sounds like it could be something in DGB.

I'm hoping for spectacularly deep and complex, or at least strong and malty, which aptly describes the brew that it seeks to duplicate. It'll be a while before I get to brew it, as I have two other brews already lined up ahead of this one. I'll let you know how it turns out.

BigKahuna said:

That is a seriously complicated recipe. I don't know if it would be spectacularly deep and complex, or a muddy mess.
I have read that if you are using more than 4 grains, and 2 hops, you are using too much. Sometimes less is more, but I am surely interested in hearing how this comes out.

Click to expand...

I've heard this too. Jamil makes this point in "Brewing Classic Styles" when discussing his Strong Belgian Dark beer; he first brewed it when he was new to making beer, and came up with a very complex recipe. He says in the book that if he'd been more experienced at the time, he would have kept the recipe simple. But he goes on to say that he's glad he didn't, as although it's a very complex recipe he thinks it's fantastic.

So his message is both keep it simple, and don't keep it simple.

I think that, more to the point, it's about amounts (proportions) rather than how many different grains. In other words, if 50% of your grain bill is specialty malts, then it's probably gonna be messy---but I don't see anything particularly negative about a grain bill that has 10 lbs pils, 4oz crystal 120, 4oz crystal 90, 4oz crystal 10 and 4oz crystal 20, versus a grain bill that has 10 lbs pils and 1 lb crystal 60.

The general "rule of thumb" that BK posited is something I've never heard before and has not been my experience. Some of my greatest beers have been very simple (1 or 2 grains and 1 or 2 hops) and other great recipes have had 8 malts and 6 hops. On the other hand, I've totally f*cked up recipes by using too high a proportion of specialty (especially roasted!) grains.

As to this recipe in particular, I think the proportion of specialty grains relative to base grain and simple sugars is just fine.

PseudoChef said:

Sounds like it could be something in DGB.

Click to expand...

It might have been...I've been re-reading all of my books front to back of late...just for good measure.

I think mostly, the author was talking about hitting the point of diminishing returns. When ever I start fighting for that last level of depth....I usually tip the scale toward the muddy end.

I am certainly not saying that a complex recipe is not do-able, but IMO, A Belgian could only be cloned at it's original brewery. They seem to rely heavily on local factors for much of the nuances.

Someone smarter than me...but it would be cool to simplify a recipe like this, and see how close the 2 come. Forget the Belgian clone...see if you can clone a complicated recipe with 25% fewer ingredients.....

MMMM


Off to do more research.......