mbbransc
Well-Known Member
Most ppl say the beers are infinitely better if they are bottle conditioned. That said, I racked mine to a keg and let it sit 6-mo or so on gas and bottled with a beer gun.
Brewed this last night, all went well except I only got 1.070 efficiency issues . Hopefully will turn out well, I did get about 6+ gallons into the fermentor though.
Does everyone bottle this? or just keg it? I havent bottled in awhile now and was thinking of just leaving this in a keg in the basement?
I kegged it and it is quite good. Drinking it along with ABT 12, Chimay Blue, and other Belgians and frankly this recipe is as good as the commercial beers...maybe better. I have a keg of this that I am sipping on right now. I also have a bottle of ABT 12 that I am comparing it to. The ABT 12 has more carbonation from the bottle conditioning, however this recipe has a little more flavor than the ABT 12. Cheers!
So I brewed a 11 gallon batch yesterday, decided to clone the westy 8 instead off westy 12 butt still the CSi recipe.
The reason I decided for the 8 clone is the ABV, 11,2% against 8% so I can drink more often this amazing recipe
Ended up with 11 gallon @1068 the Wpl 530 was going crazy this morning final SG off 1010 is planned
I've told myself I won't touch my 12 for a year. That changed to 6 months. I'm really thinking of changing that to 3 months
Nice, let us know what you think of the 8 after some conditioning time.
I've told myself I won't touch my 12 for a year. That changed to 6 months. I'm really thinking of changing that to 3 months
Mine was stuck at about 1.022.
i tried a new starter with us05 and champagner yeast..nothing happend
Then i tried Wlp099.
And it is now at 0.996.and maybe not even finished
This is really a monster..
Do you think it will be a good beer?
The first batch is almost 1.5 years old and is tasting incredible. Luckily I have about 10 bottles left so those will be spread out over the next year or so while I brew some more batches. Such an amazing recipe! Thanks for posting.
Cheers.
My first version finished at 1.012. WLP530 is a fermenting beast when you give it a beer like this to rip through. It won two gold medals at different competitions after 6 months in the bottle. It would have done much better at best of show but carbonation was noted as an issue with my first batch. The second and third time I brewed this recipe, I force carbonated and it was much better. I took 5 gallons of the recipe and added it to a keg with an entire bottle of Malbec and it was incredible. The wine notes played perfectly with the beer. Next time I will add about 1.25 bottles and some oak chips to see how that wine barrel character plays with the beer.
The first batch is almost 1.5 years old and is tasting incredible. Luckily I have about 10 bottles left so those will be spread out over the next year or so while I brew some more batches. Such an amazing recipe! Thanks for posting.
Cheers.
Brewed this last night, started waay too late and did not finish until 3 am...so in half-zombie mode at work today, but i'll get past it hopefully.
Brewed a 42L batch (11.1 gallons), but used too much sparge water and ended up with 46L (12.1 gallons) in fermenters (Not complaining, and extra gallon is always nice). Hit an O.G. of 1.088, which was expected due to too much sparge water. Hopefully 10% ABV if all goes well.
Now...my concern:
I set my fermentation chamber (Fridge with STC-1000 and a heating cable inside) to 24.3C (75.5F) and disconnected the heating. The idea was that i thought i had read somewhere that you should let it free rise to max temp. 24.3C to accomodate the 0.5C i allow it to "swing" away from my set temp, which should effectively limit it to 24.8C (About 80F) max.
Checked in on it 4 hours later and it had gone up 1.5C (About 3F), clear signs of started fermention (krausen).
Now i am sitting at work and fearing the monster in my fridge will climb out of my fermenters before i get home plus get bad tastes due to the fact that i just read that you should ramp up the temp EVENLY over 6-7 days (details...damnnit)
I know i should avoid cooling this thing down again to not have a stuck fermentation, but should i stop it at whatever temp it has when i get home in 5 hours and keep it there for a few days perhaps?
RDWHAHB is a good rule to live by, but right now i would greatly appreciate some advice to calm my nerves or if I should jump in the car and go home to limit the rise?
I have brewed the recipe three times, and all three times I had a blowoff while actual fermentation temperature, measured by a probe inside the fermenter, was kept at 17C-18C (63F-65F). So, the answer to your first question is yes, you can expect to see the monster crawl out of your fermenter at your temperatures.
My suggestion is let it be. If I were you, I would just leave it at room temperature, which for me at this time of the year is 24C-26C (76F-78F). I don't think it's a good idea to try to cool it down as it may stall your fermentation. With good aging (8-12 months or more), this beer will become amazing. I won't worry about off flavours.
Just a FYI to those who want to try and brew this:
This was expected, but i was hoping i had left enough headroom in my fermenters to avoid it.
Using 30L (7.9 gallons) fermentors filled to 23L (6.1 Gallons) and these pictures were taken at about 30 hours while the fermentors are still kept at 19.5C (67.1F)
If you want to avoid blowoff or...a mess in your fermentation chamber (Especially since i decided to go with open fermentation), you need ALOT of headspace. I would guesstimate about 12L, or 3 gallons...atleast.
On the plus side, i harvested some krausen which i am going to store to make a starter when time comes to bottle this thing
Inside Chamber
Top
Bottom
I guess I have to wait for Christmas to drink this one, which will be hard with my impatience.. Will definitely swap a few bottles with you Mocda
Is this recipe truly grain to packaging in 50-60 days? Thinking about giving this a go in a couple of weeks if it'll be ready that quickly.
Enter your email address to join: