Belgian Dark Strong Ale Rochefort 10 Clone

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.

gio

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2011
Messages
212
Reaction score
2
Location
Somerville
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
Wyeast 1762
Yeast Starter
3 liter
Batch Size (Gallons)
5.5
Original Gravity
1.098
Final Gravity
1.016
Boiling Time (Minutes)
90
IBU
27
Color
45 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
2 weeks @67-73
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
6-8 weeks @50
Tasting Notes
Probably as close as you can get to rochefort 10 brewing at home, An amazing beer
Malts:
11.25lb Belgian Pilsner
1.0lb Flaked Wheat
1.5lb CaraVienne
1.5lb CaraMunich
0.25lb Belgian Debittered Black

Sugars:
1.5lb Amber Belgian Candi Syrup (10min)
2.25lb D2 Belgian Candi Syrup (10min)

Hops:
8 AAU Styrian Goldings (80min)
4 AAU Hallertauer Hersbrucker (10min)

Spices and Other:
0.25oz Crushed Coriander (10min)
4tsp Yeast Nutrient (10min)
1/2tsp Irish Moss (10min)

Wyeast 1762 Rochefort
Batch size: 5.5 gallons
OG: 1.098 (75% efficiency)
FG: 1.016 (estimated)
IBU: 27
SRM: 45
Boil time: 90min

Enhanced Double Decoction Mash (rests at 122, 153 and 170)
- mash in @ 104, rest 5 min
- decoct, heat removed mash to 122, rest 10min
- heat removed mash to 155-162, rest 15-20min
- boil removed mash for 10-20min
- add in enough boiling mash to hit protein rest @ 122, rest 15-20min
- add in remaining boiling mash to hit 153, rest 60min
- decoct and boil removed mash for 10-20min
- add in removed mash to hit mash out @ 170, rest 15min
- sparge @ 170
- boil 90 min, follow hop/sugar schedule
- pitch yeast @66-68 let rise to 73-75 naturally, ferment for 2 weeks
- transfer to secondary, cold condition @ 50 for at least 6 weeks
- repitch 1/2 pack 1762 yeast, carbonate to 3.75 vols in bottles
 
I'm going to bottle it next weekend. I tasted it recently and it tastes great. Its definitely getting more mellow and more complex as it conditions. I'll post again once its bottled and carbonated and I have a chance to compare it with a real Rochefort 10. The big unknown is whether I used too much (or not enough) caramel malts and I'll have a better idea in a few weeks.
 
any updates into this one? was thinking about throwing in a half pound of date sugar to primary after the krausen. Thoughts?
 
Well dont want to thread jack but I just pitched my own Rochefort clone!

OG: 1.095 (With the second D-180 addition)
FG: ???

14# Pils
2# D-180 Candi Syrup
1# D-90 Candi Syrup
1# Wheat, Flaked
.2# Special B
Wyeast 1762 Yeast
1.5 oz. Styrian Goldings- 90 min (3.5%)
1 oz. Hallertau- 30 min. (3.8%)

Pitch at 77 degrees F and let it run rampent! In fact right through the airlock. Smell is quite amazing as is the taste! Saving 1 # D-180 for after Krausen and speaking of which, had it form in an hour. Some yeast cant wait! So far from what I have had out the top of the airlock it is quite good!
 
Well aside from the fact that my blowoff tube went crazy for 6 days just about, its coming along nicely! Lots of dark fruits in the nose along with some alcohol detecable- hell at 82 deg F I would be shocked if it werent detectable! Going to take gravity reading tommorow and transfer to a slightly cooler place (my closet from the garage). Also removing the blowoff tube for standard airlock and taking a little sample. So far it can be summarized by a verryyy vigorous fermentation with lots of pleasing aroma and a big mess.
 
Well dont want to thread jack but I just pitched my own Rochefort clone!

OG: 1.095 (With the second D-180 addition)
FG: ???

14# Pils
2# D-180 Candi Syrup
1# D-90 Candi Syrup
1# Wheat, Flaked
.2# Special B
Wyeast 1762 Yeast
1.5 oz. Styrian Goldings- 90 min (3.5%)
1 oz. Hallertau- 30 min. (3.8%)

Pitch at 77 degrees F and let it run rampent! In fact right through the airlock. Smell is quite amazing as is the taste! Saving 1 # D-180 for after Krausen and speaking of which, had it form in an hour. Some yeast cant wait! So far from what I have had out the top of the airlock it is quite good!

Hey

How did you do your grains?
 
Ground em in a coffee grinder across all the range of particle sizes but mostly coarse. Man that was not fun grinding up all that grain a few oz at a time...
 
30 min at 135, 40 at 145, then 20 min at 160, then 10 at 170 for mahout.

Ok thanks for that!

Forgive me for asking a possible obvious question - but I just need to clarify something.

When you say 30 mins at 135 then 40 at 145, does that mean you use strike water to get your grains up to 135, hold for 30 mins, grab some of the grains and heat them to a certain temp so that when you add them back to the mash the whole thing hits 145, then do the same for 160 then 170?

Something like the way this guy does it?



Thanks again :)

Hunt
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yup. I hit my target temp with strike water (135) held for 5 min then decocted and boiled part of my mash to raise the temp to the next temp., rinse and repeat.
 
Has anyone made their own dark candi syrup? How many pounds of sugar will I need to make 3 pounds of candi? Am I better off buying the stuff or making it?
 
Has anyone made their own dark candi syrup? How many pounds of sugar will I need to make 3 pounds of candi? Am I better off buying the stuff or making it?

hope no one minds a noob answering this - in my experience I actually came out with slightly more, ie - like -.07 - .10 lbs more syrup/hard candy than sugar because there is some water in it - so, if you use 1lb of cane sugar, you might end up with 1.07 to 1.10 lbs of candi syrup/hard

if I may suggest - buy a commercial version of what you need - like 1 lb of it, and then if you already found out by now about Snick's DAP thread for maillard reactions - make yours and compare side by side. I've compared an amber I made to the 45 and others thought mine was sweeter and more unique while 45 was just toasty or "carmelly" - all well and good but from the sounds of the debate - not as diverse as what it could be with the yeast nutrient

I actually further altered Snick's ideas and added a steeped spice mix at the cool down stage before ramping up to soft or hard crack as I think it adds a deeper flavor - I made a pumpkin candi sugar for a pumpkin saison and the DAP method of making your own sugar along with my mods really contributed to aroma and flavor while still letting the style stand out as well. I think if you do the testing and spend (I think mine was $6 for a lb) then you may just find yours is deeper in flavor, and your beer will be even more of your own creation, plus I think I spent .75cents to a dollar a pound making it myself. Just make sure you have a deep enough pot and a candy thermometer, along with a cooldown pan or whatever you want to shape it in
 
has anyone thought of using hints of black licorice or amaretto in a dark strong / quad profile? Would be interested to hear peoples thoughts on this flavor for this type of brew.
 
I wouldn't add licorice, i haven't brewed this one but I have done a couple of similar brews and the licorice taste is very present, yet pleasant.

As far as amaretto now you are giving me ideas.
 
I wouldn't add licorice, i haven't brewed this one but I have done a couple of similar brews and the licorice taste is very present, yet pleasant.

As far as amaretto now you are giving me ideas.

thanks for sharing your experience with licorice - the more I hear from everyone on this the less I want to use it in my BDS

the amaretto is a really intriguing pairing for me with this style - I'm going to implement amaretto in two places for my upcoming BDS brew:

First - Adding it to Candi Sugar (Adapted from Snick's #5 Sugar):
4lbs
Over medium heat bring to a boil
1.5 lbs Cane Sugar, 1lb unrefined Cane, .75 lbs Date Sugar, .5 lbs Turbinado, .25 lbs Dark Brown Sugar
3 Cups Water
2 Tbsp DAP
Raise this to the terminal temperature of 290F. At 290F begin stirring and add in:
1& 3/4 Cups Water, 1/4 cup of Disaronno
Continue stirring until the sugars are dissolved. Again, bring the solution up to 290F over medium heat. At 290F begin stirring and add in:
1& 3/4 Cups Water, 1/4 cup of Disaronno
Stir this until the sugars are dissolved and the temperature starts to rise a couple degrees. This Should be right at or just above soft ball (240F). This is when the syrup is done. Stop the cooking by submerging the pan in cool water or by transferring the syrup to a preheated mason jar.

Second - At Bottling Time
I have really enjoyed my recent combination (5 gal batch): 4 oz Cane and .75 oz Turbinado dissolved in 2 cups of water for bottling bucket.

This time, I'm going to add .25 oz of Amaretto

- not sure how much this will add to taste, but, I think with 4.25 oz of Amaretto used total for this Batch, I might get a hint of something - its only .007% of the batch. I may have to tweak the amount in the Candi sugar - in my experience, when you add outside flavors and spices to the candi sugar, it absolutely will impart additional flavors on the brew - sort of in a back door, "there's a hint of X" sort of way.
 
Woah! Is this still the Rocherfort 10 thread? You should not be adding spices or spice extracts to the R-10, (or the R-8 for that matter). BLAM states that Coriander is used in the R-8 but I have never detected Coriander (Green or white variaties), in any Rochefort over the last 6 years so if was once used it is no longer being used.

Brewed well with the right adjuncts and grains, and bottle conditioned over time you should be able to achieve these flavors via esters and yeast+grain+candi syrup combination. WLP 540 will produce these subtle esters at the right ferm temps. I've had pronounced licorice turn up in an English stout using only maris otter, D-180 + Munton's Chocolate Malt so it's not theoretical.
 
Back
Top