Belgian Dark Strong Ale Westvleteren 12 Clone - Multiple Award Winner

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LakesideBrewing said:
DSC_0046_zpsckvcattt.jpg


Yep, great recipe! :mug:

I just took 1st place in the Belgian Strong category with this beer at the 20th Annual Boston Homebrew Competition. Thanks for all your research, CSI!

-Mike
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Congratulations Mike!

How long did you have the beer bottle conditioned for?
 
brew_darrymore said:
Congratulations Mike!

How long did you have the beer bottle conditioned for?
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Thanks!

It's been in the bottle for one year now. I remember cracking one open at around the 6 month mark and it just wasn't there yet; even the carbonation was a little off. But it is hitting its prime right about now.
 
LakesideBrewing said:
DSC_0046_zpsckvcattt.jpg


Yep, great recipe! :mug:

I just took 1st place in the Belgian Strong category with this beer at the 20th Annual Boston Homebrew Competition. Thanks for all your research, CSI!

-Mike
Click to expand...


Did you follow the fermentation schedule pitch at 65 and slow ramp to 80 in 7 days
 
My first attempt is close to a month in the keg and its already fantastic! How am I going to keep my paws off of it
 
CSI said:
Grist/Fermentables
----------------------------------
8.00 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Belgian (2.0 SRM)
7.00 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) Belgian (3.0 SRM)
2.50 lbs D-180 Candi Syrup (180.0 SRM)

Mash Steps
---------------
Mash at 149.0 F 90 min
Fly or batch sparge 168.0 F

Boil Steps
---------------
Boil 90 minutes
Add hops and Servomyces per schedule, (make sure to open the Servomyces cap).
Stir-in adjuncts at 10 minutes prior to flame-out, (alternatively, stir in adjuncts at flame-out)

Boil Ingredients
---------------------
1.00 oz Brewer's Gold [8.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.00 oz Hallertau Mittelfrueh [5.00%] - Boil 30 minutes
1.00 oz Styrian Goldings [4.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min
1.00 Items Servomyces - Boil 5.0 mins


Yeast Ingredients
----------------------------------
320 Billion cells or 3200 ml stir-plate starter seeded with 1.0 vial Abbey Ale (White Labs #WLP530)
***Krausen yeast method to be added here


Clear wort boil-down notes (Optional Step):
-------------------
(Optionally) perform a separate boil-down of 1.00 gallon of vorlaufed wort into a syrup using the following steps:
1. Extract 1.0 gallon of wort at the beginning of clear runoff into a 3-5 gallon pot.
2. Boil the wort down until it becomes a dark mahogany brown and is bubbling with large bubbles.
3. Be careful NOT to burn the maltose syrup.
4. The result will be approximately 24-26 ounces of syrup.
5. Re-crash the syrup by adding wort from the ongoing main boil.
6. Pour the dissolved liquid back in to the main boil.


Fermentation Pitch Notes:
---------------------
Chill wort to 63-64F
Oxygenate chilled wort to 8-10PPM by diffusing pure O2 via .05 micron diffuser for 90-120 seconds.
Pitch decanted yeast starter, adding chilled wort to the yeast flask to clear remaining yeast as necessary.
Ramp fermentation temp (evenly over time) from 63 - 80F over 7 days.


Fermentation Process Notes
---------------------
1/5/2012 - Primary Fermentation (7 days at 63F ending at 80.0 F)
1/23/2012 - Secondary Fermentation (3 -10 days at 78.0 F ending at 60.0 F)
1/26/2012 - Tertiary Fermentation (40 days at 50.0 F ending at 50.0 F)

Final Aged Ale
---------------------
In the end you should have a mohagany dark ale that is fragrant, malty, plummy, with a pillowy tan head and considerable Belgian lace. Like the pic below:
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Sweet! Starring this one too! :mug:
 
A couple of questions for CSI:
1.) I dig your krausen capture setup! For those of us that don't have your gear, would it work to take either snug tubing or stopper/tubing combination in the vial on the stirplate, and run it to a similar vial set a little higher than vial #1? Provided it's airtight and sanitized.
2.) How long can I store the "top-cropped" yeast before making a starter, while maintaining the high yeast vitality?
 
kdw2pd said:
A couple of questions for CSI:
1.) I dig your krausen capture setup! For those of us that don't have your gear, would it work to take either snug tubing or stopper/tubing combination in the vial on the stirplate, and run it to a similar vial set a little higher than vial #1? Provided it's airtight and sanitized.
2.) How long can I store the "top-cropped" yeast before making a starter, while maintaining the high yeast vitality?
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I experimented with 9 mm pyrex tubing and bending it with a torch. It actually worked fairly well. (Make sure and fire-glaze the tubing ends for stopper insertion). 1 hole and 2 hole stoppers can be purchased and drilled to fit the larger tubing. Storing the krausen is fine for a few days. Chilled krausen maintains fairly high vitality for a week or so, (I haven't tested it beyond 1 week).
 
Came back from work last night to find this.

First blowoff ever that stained the ceiling :rockin:

This was day 2 after pitching WLP530 in a 4-gallon batch, sitting in a 6-gallon carboy.

20150604_013708.jpg


20150604_013741.jpg
 
brew_darrymore said:
I made a 1.8 litre starter. I've always had blowoffs using WLP530, but this time that beast of a yeast reached new heights! Pun intended.
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That pitch rate seems kind of low even iff your starting cell count was 100 billion cells. With the blow out I hope you get it to finish dry enough.

Are you doing a slow controlled temp ramp or are you pitching low and letting it get to the 80's in a couple of days?
 
brew_darrymore said:
I made a 1.8 litre starter. I've always had blowoffs using WLP530, but this time that beast of a yeast reached new heights! Pun intended.
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A regular blow-off tube did not work well for me. I obtained the largest diameter tube that would fit directly into the mouth of the carboy (1-1/4" OD), and elevated it a couple of feet above the carboy. The other end went into a pail with water. I found that this was the only way to prevent losing a lot of beer.

Westvleteren Blowoff Tube.jpg
 
I'm a little unclear about the secondary. I've reached 1.012 at day seven with the slow ramp. I've just been lowering a couple degrees per day since then til I reach 68 I guess.
 
jtp137 said:
That pitch rate seems kind of low even iff your starting cell count was 100 billion cells. With the blow out I hope you get it to finish dry enough.

Are you doing a slow controlled temp ramp or are you pitching low and letting it get to the 80's in a couple of days?
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You're right, I did underpitch by a bit. The 1.8 litre starter was stepped up from another starter from 2 weeks ago, so I assume I was close to an initial 90-100 billion cells. According to yeastcalc.co starter calculator, the 1.8 litre starter was close to 280 billion cells, and I needed 343 billion for a 4.2 gallon batch.

So, it seems I underpitched by 63 billion cells which is around 20%. I believe that's fine.


To answer your second question, I chilled the wort on Monday night to pitching temperature of 63-64F, and let it rise on its own. No temperature control. Since then, the temperature has been slowly going up by 3-4°F per day. Today is day 4 and it's at 75°F. I don't think it will go further up on its own, so I'm planning on using a fish tank heater to bump it up to 80°F on the weekend. Even without temperature control, it seems it will take a week to go from 64°F to 80°F.
 
What is a good Wyeast substitute for WLP530? Some say Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity and some say Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey Yeast II. Which one would be more accurate? My local store does not carry white labs.
 
weizenman said:
What is a good Wyeast substitute for WLP530? Some say Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity and some say Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey Yeast II. Which one would be more accurate? My local store does not carry white labs.
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3787 is the same Westmalle strain as WLP530 and I'm in love with it.
 
mclaughlindw4 said:
I'm a little unclear about the secondary. I've reached 1.012 at day seven with the slow ramp. I've just been lowering a couple degrees per day since then til I reach 68 I guess.
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Secondary for this ale is primarily for final approach to FG, removing the now high gravity beer off of the dead yeast, and a short diacetyl rest. If already at 1.012, the ale can be moved off the primary yeast directly to a brightening stage by crashing to 45F until the brightening is finished, (2-8 weeks depending on the health of the yeast).
 
CSI said:
Secondary for this ale is primarily for final approach to FG, removing the now high gravity beer off of the dead yeast, and a short diacetyl rest. If already at 1.012, the ale can be moved off the primary yeast directly to a brightening stage by crashing to 45F until the brightening is finished, (2-8 weeks depending on the health of the yeast).
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I see. Is there anything wrong with reaching final gravity in 7 days? Or perhaps I pitched to much yeast.

Actually I have the feeling I'm going to pass the 1.012 when all said and done. I do think I was a couple points short to begin with, closer to 1.090 I think.
 
mclaughlindw4 said:
I see. Is there anything wrong with reaching final gravity in 7 days? Or perhaps I pitched to much yeast.

Actually I have the feeling I'm going to pass the 1.012 when all said and done. I do think I was a couple points short to begin with, closer to 1.090 I think.
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I actually wish I had your problem both times I made this it stalled around 1.016. I would rather have it dry than sweet
 
jtp137 said:
I actually wish I had your problem both times I made this it stalled around 1.016. I would rather have it dry than sweet
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I think I mashed at the prescribed temp, hit it with O2 at pitching and again about 6 hours later. Maybe you try lowering mash temp a degree or two next time? I also followed ferm schedule to a tee. Although the first couple days it was so vigorous it was raising my temp (including giant water bath) by a but more than the two and some change degrees Per day I was aiming for.

Krausen dropped at like day 6.
 
I know it wouldn't be a Westy "clone", but has anyone used Chimay yeast with this recipe? I just realized that the BSD I'm going to make with my Chimay yeast is damn nearly the exact recipe as this.
 
Beerswimmer said:
I know it wouldn't be a Westy "clone", but has anyone used Chimay yeast with this recipe? I just realized that the BSD I'm going to make with my Chimay yeast is damn nearly the exact recipe as this.
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The first BSD I made had 3 pounds of d-180 a 80% belgian pilsner and 15% munich with the chimay yeast and it was incredible. Go for it
 
jtp137 said:
The first BSD I made had 3 pounds of d-180 a 80% belgian pilsner and 15% munich with the chimay yeast and it was incredible. Go for it
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Chimay and Pils with the darker candi syrups are incredible. Although not a Westy it is insanely good. The temps will be lower with Chimay and the primary much longer.
 
Mine is all pale ale with 3lbs D-180 and Chimay yeast. I'll do this one next week and see how they are at New Years.
 
Beerswimmer said:
Mine is all pale ale with 3lbs D-180 and Chimay yeast. I'll do this one next week and see how they are at New Years.
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It will be great you will be surprised how just using D-180 and pilsner turns out. For me the Chimay yeast is easier to work with pitch mid 60's and ramp to low or mid 70's
 
Going to bottle 2.5 gal of this on Saturday and my co brewer will do the same. He used a Serbian yeast and I used wlp530... We shall see what the difference will be as to flavors and gravity.
 
catdaddy66 said:
Going to bottle 2.5 gal of this on Saturday and my co brewer will do the same. He used a Serbian yeast and I used wlp530... We shall see what the difference will be as to flavors and gravity.
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Ended up with 12 bombers and four 12 oz bottles from 2.5 gallons. OG was 1.091 and FG was 1.011, giving it 11.3% abv. Flavor was complex and impressive, raisins and plumb sweetness with a all bite of alcohol. Very excited to try this in a month but will probably cave in at 2wks. Lol
 
catdaddy66 said:
Ended up with 12 bombers and four 12 oz bottles from 2.5 gallons. OG was 1.091 and FG was 1.011, giving it 11.3% abv. Flavor was complex and impressive, raisins and plumb sweetness with a all bite of alcohol. Very excited to try this in a month but will probably cave in at 2wks. Lol
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Sounds great! 11.3% is impressive, but it will still need some aging. So, hide a stash for 8-12 months.

I am bottling next week as well.
 
brew_darrymore said:
Sounds great! 11.3% is impressive, but it will still need some aging. So, hide a stash for 8-12 months.

I am bottling next week as well.
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The problem is that this recipe produces an excellent beer even before it is aged. But it really mellows and develops complexities when it is aged.

I recently came across a couple of bottles from last year that I thought were gone. Jackpot!
 
Can I age this in a carboy at room temperature, after fermentation? I just can't see myself assigning a keg in my keezer for it for months
 
I tried one bottle at 2 months today, and it made a bit of a geyser when opening, even though I bottled only after 1 month in the fermenter and the gravity had been stable at 1.008 for 2 weeks.

The beer has good flavours, but is not there yet, one thing though, you picture is a very dark colour, like the original, while mine is more pale amber. any idea what would have caused such a colour difference?
 
Kharnynb said:
I tried one bottle at 2 months today, and it made a bit of a geyser when opening, even though I bottled only after 1 month in the fermenter and the gravity had been stable at 1.008 for 2 weeks.

The beer has good flavours, but is not there yet, one thing though, you picture is a very dark colour, like the original, while mine is more pale amber. any idea what would have caused such a colour difference?
Click to expand...

Do you have a pic that can be posted here?
 

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