Planning second (and third) brew

[EddieB428]

Since I'm using the 5 gallon Better Bottle as my primary for my first brew I have an idle fermenting bucket. Just can't have that sitting around empty . I'm planning out my second brew. I'm looking at doing a Unibroue La Fin du Monde clone and if I get anywhere close I'll be very happy. I have a couple brothers and a nephew that love La Fin so I'm thinking ahead for Christmas presents. Since it takes 4-5 months for fermenting and conditioning I need to start this soon. I found the following recipe:

La Fin du Monde
Steeping Grains
4 oz Gambrinus honey malt
3 oz German dark Munich malt
2 oz Belgian aromatic malt

Malts/Sugars
7.5 lbs Munton's extra-light DME
1.2 lbs cane sugar
1 lb Belgian clear candi sugar

Hops/Extras
60 minutes
1/2 oz Northern Brewer
2/3 oz Styrian Goldings
15 minutes
1/4 oz sweet orange peel
1/4 oz Styrian Goldings
1/4 oz German Hallertau Hersbrucker
1 tsp Irish Moss
1/2 tsp crushed coriander seeds
2 minutes
1/4 oz Czech Saaz
1/3 oz bitter orange peel

Yeast
Wyeast 3964-PC Canadian Belgian Ale yeast

The directions say to prime the beer in the secondary with the same yeast 3 days before bottling and bottle when fermentation finishes. The SG should be 1.083-1.084 with a FG of 1.012-1.013. Is this the FG after adding the yeast to the secondary or is that what what it should be before racking to the secondary? By adding yeast a second time does that increase the chance of bottle bombs? It also calls for priming with DME, would using corn sugar affect anything?

I have to make a trip to my LHBS to pick up caps, priming sugar, and a thief. I don't think they have all the grains, orange peels, or the sugar. Trying to plan out a calendar to sneak a quicker beer in there, probably a brown ale for SWMBO.

 

[birvine]

Correct me if I am wrong others, but...

The FG would be at the end of the main fermentation prior to adding priming sugar/DME.

You can use corn/table sugar to prime vs the DME; do a quick search for the conversion since you would need a lower volume of corn/table due to its higher fermentability (is that even a word?!).

B

 

[dcp27]

I'm pretty sure that 2nd yeast is just to ensure healthy yeast for bottle carbonation. That FG should be where you are before moving to secondary.

btw, do you already have that yeast strain? its a limited release and no longer out.

 

[EddieB428]

I'm pretty sure that 2nd yeast is just to ensure healthy yeast for bottle carbonation. That FG should be where you are before moving to secondary.

btw, do you already have that yeast strain? its a limited release and no longer out.

I figured that would be the FG prior to transferring it to the secondary but wanted to make sure. As for the yeast, the recipe is a few years old. I knew the yeast strain was a limited release but I thought I had read somewhere that it was released seasonally. I'll need to look at the recipe again but there is a second yeast option. I don't remember the stock number but I think it's a standard Belgian Abbey yeast.

Edit: Just did some more looking about the yeast, it looks to be occasionally offered between April-June. I know the yeast makes all the difference, but like I said, if I get anywhere close I'll be happy.

 

[EddieB428]

Just got back from the LHBS. Picked up a wine thief and some ingredients for a brown ale. Going to make a 2.5 gallon batch for SWMBO since I'm not crazy about brown ales. The recipe is one I found for a Pete's Wicked Ale but my LHBS was out of Brewer's Gold hops and anything that her chart said could be used as a substitute so she recommended Cluster.

I'm going to try a partial mash with this attempt so I picked up a 3 pounds of Briess 2-Row Pale malt. Is there anything special I'll need to do to the grains prior to mashing? The recipe also calls for 4 lbs of LME (so 2 lbs for my half batch) and all they sell are 3.3lb cans so I'm switching that to DME. After doing some looking I found that when going from LME to DME you divide the lbs of LME by 1.25 to get the amount of DME to use so I'd use 1.6 lbs of DME. That would make the recipe call for 2.1 lbs of DME, rather than buy another bag of DME would I notice very much difference just using 2 lbs? I'd hate to open a bag of DME just to take out 1/10th of a pound.

I'll post the recipe I'm using later once I copy it off my other computer.