Westvleteren 12 clone competition & swap

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

saq

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2008
Messages
783
Reaction score
51
Location
Tucson
For those new or just following start with this thread: Westvleteren 12 Group Brew & Swap

This swap & competition is for people who are participating in the project, or meet some criteria outlined at the bottom of the post.

Its about that time!
Hopefully if you brewed on time your beers should be in, or almost done with, the "lagering" or conditioning phase and you are getting ready to carbonate. I'm looking to start receiving bottles September 25th, that is a full 7 weeks from now, which should be plenty of time.

I will hold the tasting/competition with some other VERY experienced local brewers, and probably do some kind of live chat from the event. It's not going to be a full on competition, but we will critique the beer knowing who submitted it. The date of the judging may not be until the middle of October, but we'll see. The idea is to do an open discussion/judging of how the beer rates on its own (BJCP style), and also how it compares to the real deal.

I have two bottles of Westvleteren 12, and some of the guys I'll be tasting with will have an additional bottle or two we will use for comparison at the tasting.

One of my bottles of Westvleteren 12 I am going to give as a prize to the person who gets closest to the real thing, as agreed to by the judges.

Please state your intentions of participating in the judging and swapping. We will arrange the swap after the judging is done in case you have multiple entries and only want to swap the one you feel is the best.

I'll work up a paper form to rubber-band to your bottle(s) and a brewing notes sheet to fill out with your entry. The brewing notes will be important as most people are doing things a little different and on their own, and these differences might help us track down the best way to reproduce this amazing beer.

Depending upon how successful this event is, it could become an annual HBT regular non-official competition :)

What to Enter & How Much

I think two (12oz to 16oz) bottle entry per brewing attempt will be sufficient for this, if your beer isn't 9 weeks old per the fermentation schedule outlined by Brother Joris (1 week ferment, 8 weeks lagering, 2 weeks bottle carbonation) by Sept 25th, don't worry! I'd say if your beer is at least 6-7 weeks old and you can get it bottled and shipped to me by Sept 25th that will be a fine entry. Grolsch swingtops are fine (and might be ideal if you are doing a higher carbonation level).

If you did not participate in the group brew/swap thread but have a Belgian Quadrupel/12/Dark Strong Ale style beer that closely matches the Westvleteren 12 in the following categories you are welcome to enter.


1: Uses WLP530 yeast
2: Somewhat similar grainbill as the New World or Traditional recipes outlined in the previous thread
3: Followed as best as you could the fermentation schedule outlined by Brother Joris of Westvleteren, see previous thread for info.

Please post with what you are entering, I will update the first post with the list of entrants and what the entries are.

1: saq, New World, Traditional *ENTRY CONFIRMED* *BOTTLES RECEIVED*
2: Bokonon, New World, Traditional *ENTRY CONFIRMED* *BOTTLES RECEIVED*
3: KingBrianI, Traditional *ENTRY CONFIRMED* *BOTTLES RECEIVED*
4: Sigafoos, Traditional *ENTRY CONFIRMED* *BOTTLES RECEIVED*
5: juninious, Traditional *ENTRY CONFIRMED* *BOTTLES RECEIVED*
6: Freezeblade, Traditional *ENTRY CONFIRMED* *BOTTLES RECEIVED*
 
Summary results!

Westvleteren 12 scored 122 points and was 9th in flight.

BOS: saq - New World recipe with 128 points total, 5th in flight
2nd place - KingBrianI - Traditional recipe with 123 points total, 3rd in flight
3rd place - Juvinious - Traditional recipe with 115 points (picked as the best of the 115 pointers) 6th in flight
2 way tie for 4th place - FreezeBlade and saq traditional recipe with 115 points (4th in flight and 7th in flight respectively)
5th place - Bokonon (did not get recipes from him) 103 points first in flight
6th place - Bokonon (did not get recipes from him) 87.5 points (no carb could have scored higher) 8th in flight
7th place - Sigafoos traditional 76 points (totally flat would have scored higher) 2nd in flight
 
I'm in for submission to judging and for subsequent swap. Mine is the old world recipe. It will have been "lagering" for two months this coming weekend, at which point I'll bottle. So it should definitely be ready in time.
 
I have a Traditional.

Using some Newfangled Math mine will have been in the fridge for 6 weeks on 9/8, so I'll toss 'em in then and be ready to go.

Are we doing a bottle to each person? I think we have 5-7 signed up so that'd still give me plenty to cellar.
 
I'll be bottling by the end of the month. Should be ready by the 2-3 week of September around the time in which I can ship to get it out by the 25th.

I'm interested in the swap since I've never done one before and thought it would be an interesting experience. As well as the fact that I haven't tried a Westy 12 before.
I brewed the traditional recipe.
 
I have a Traditional.

Using some Newfangled Math mine will have been in the fridge for 6 weeks on 9/8, so I'll toss 'em in then and be ready to go.

Are we doing a bottle to each person? I think we have 5-7 signed up so that'd still give me plenty to cellar.

After the judging is done we'll figure out a swap. Some people might not want to swap and some might.
 
Would it be possible to do the swap with the interested parties at the same time? This way we can taste along with you. (I promise to open a bottle of mine before I send it out to make sure I don't give people swill)
 
Would it be possible to do the swap with the interested parties at the same time? This way we can taste along with you. (I promise to open a bottle of mine before I send it out to make sure I don't give people swill)

Depending on how many people are involved I'd be willing to send beers to everyone at the same time. Since I have 2 if not 3 beers I could pick which one I think is best or just send out a random sampling.
 
I'm def still in!! I brewed up the traditional recipe using both home made and commercial candi syrup. I haven't really been on HBT much lately though as I just bought a house and have been doing an a$$ ton of work to it.

I'll be checking back a little more regularly now that my work schedule is a little more "normal".
 
I'm only going to have two beers at the competition as I tried blending and didn't come up with one I thought was better, they were both slightly different and better in their own ways.
 
I took my New World recipe to the local homebrew club last night and everyone who had it raved about it. The beer has really turned into a VERY GOOD beer. The amount of change that has happened to this beer in the past few weeks is huge, its pretty much a totally different beer.

I'm going to bottle a few tonight and then rotate in my Traditional into the kegorator to chill & carb that I can't wait to taste.
 
Here's a bump with a reminder that I want to get everyones entries by the 25th so I can do the tasting sometime around October 10th.
I'll be getting the forms together and PMing you all with my ship-to address and your entrant number and more details.
 
Okay, finally bottled yesterday. I know it's late, but work got busy this week (and we realized that oh crap we need to work on the baby's room). Despite making a bunch of stupid mistakes (like not tightening the back of the bottling spigot enough, meaning I had to shove my [clean] hand in while racking) I think it turned out okay, but I'll have to see in the future (I'll try a bottle before I send one to you, saq, and if it tastes like rat ass I'll hold off). Probably not a Westy 12 at all, but at the very least it's a decent beer that will age well.
 
I am sending everyone a PM *RIGHT NOW* with the entry details and shipping information for the competition. If you do not have a PM from me by the end of today send me a message. I am going off the amount of entries per person listed in the first post.
 
PM's are sent out, please either respond to my PM's or post in here that you received the information and you are still able to send out your bottles. Don't worry about getting them to me by the 25th as I may not be able to do the tasting until after the 10th.
 
Fill out the forms as directed in the PM, yes it is kind of a waste to only use one form on the BJCP bottle ID but that way everyones bottle ID papers are as uniform as possible so the judging is done as anonymously as possible (I'm not memorizing everyones bottle ID's)
Just fold up the recipe entry form and include it in the shipping, putting each one in an envelope with the bottle entry ID on it would be dandy but is not required.
 
Again, PLEASE RESPOND IN THIS THREAD that you are still committed and will be sending out teh bottles shortly so I can put you down for a confirmed entry.
 
Again, PLEASE respond that you are still committed and will be sending out teh bottles shortly so I can put you down for a confirmed entry.

I am committed still, but I won't be able to ship the bottles till I get back from GABF. So they will go out on the 28th or 29th
 
Thats fine, I'm going to give them some time in the fridge to properly settle etc.
 
Likewise I won't be able to ship till around the 28th or 29th, but yeah I'm still in for sending them in. I'll throw in 2 bottles of my 8 as well.
 
Thanks guys! Everyone who has expressed interest in this competition is confirmed as sending bottles soon. I'll keep you guys updated as to when I can organize the competition.
 
Hey, this is an amazing idea.

When will the results be published here?

Kind regards,
Marius
 
I'm looking to do the judging in about 3 weeks, after which the winners will be notified and they can post their judging sheets if they so wish. I will work up a report on the information gained regarding everyones differences and see if I can help identify which things went towards which effects.
 
I was going to send mine today but I got to the UPS Store exactly at closing and I figured that wasn't the best time to buy bubble wrap and try to send something against their policies :) So tomorrow after work it'll go out.

I cracked open a bottle though, and though I have no idea what Westy 12 is supposed to taste like I think it's a decent beer that will hopefully become a great beer with time. Right now the alcohol is dominant, with maybe some butteryness and a hint of phenols. Some dark fruit and very sweet (is it supposed to be dry? If so, I lose :)), which might be masked when it has more carbonation.

All in all I have no idea if this will do well in the competition, but I look forward to saving a few bottles at least five years and seeing how it lasts.
 
I was going to send mine today but I got to the UPS Store exactly at closing and I figured that wasn't the best time to buy bubble wrap and try to send something against their policies :) So tomorrow after work it'll go out.

I cracked open a bottle though, and though I have no idea what Westy 12 is supposed to taste like I think it's a decent beer that will hopefully become a great beer with time. Right now the alcohol is dominant, with maybe some butteryness and a hint of phenols. Some dark fruit and very sweet (is it supposed to be dry? If so, I lose :)), which might be masked when it has more carbonation.

All in all I have no idea if this will do well in the competition, but I look forward to saving a few bottles at least five years and seeing how it lasts.

What did your FG end up? I believe the real thing is 1.011. I ended up around 1.013 and though it tastes pretty dry to me, I've never had the real thing to know how it compares.
 
Correcting for the alcohol (I used my refractometer), 1.013. I had it at room temp with little carbonation, though, which may have affected it a bit.
 
Package shipped, should get there next Friday.

I had to lie out of my ass to get it shipped. The lady was very nice but as far as anyone need know that's some liquid bread yeast (I didn't want to get into how 'brewer's yeast' and 'bread yeast' could still make beer either way). I actually felt pretty bad, but that's because I pretty much never lie. As long as it doesn't break, hooray :) (I bubble wrapped the crap out of them and tossed in some packing peanuts so we should be good)
 
Package shipped, should get there next Friday.

I had to lie out of my ass to get it shipped. The lady was very nice but as far as anyone need know that's some liquid bread yeast (I didn't want to get into how 'brewer's yeast' and 'bread yeast' could still make beer either way). I actually felt pretty bad, but that's because I pretty much never lie. As long as it doesn't break, hooray :) (I bubble wrapped the crap out of them and tossed in some packing peanuts so we should be good)

don't tell him when you shipped or when it will get there or he'll know whose package it is and it won't be anonymous!:mug:
 
Salsa is good, BBQ Sauce and/or Marinades is good too.
 
Back
Top