Orval-ish

In my typical approach, I buy special releases from Wyeast and build recipes around them. Have a pack of the Trappist Blend in the fridge that's just dying to be used, so here goes. This blend is a mix of a Belgian Sacch strain and Brett.

80% Pilsner
10% Caravienne
10% Sucrose

Aiming for an OG of around 1.060 with 32 IBUs.

Mash 60 minutes at 152.

Goldings or Saaz all the way through @ 90, 15 and dry hop (although I'll likely use Galena or similar clean bittering hop at 90 for simple economy and less vegetal mass in the kettle).

What say you?

I brewed a beer with that strain on Monday. It will be dry hopped so it is obviously Orval inspired but it is by no means a clone. It looked something like this:

8lbs Pilsener
2lbs Munich
1lb CaraVienna
1lb beet sugar

I also threw in a pound and a half of Belgian pale ale malt just cause I wanted to use it up. Pitched it at about 65 and by the time it had started fermenting it moved up to 68. The bulk of the fermentation took place at 75, so it should have a good Belgian character. I had six ounces of Styrian Goldings so I bittered with two and put one ounce in at 15 and 5 each. The other two I will dry hop with. I am pretty excited about this beer and would be down to do some "same strain trades" 6-12 months from now.

Just to throw this out there. This article just came out recently. I guess the recipe was in a zymurgy a few years back.

Beer Examiner: Homebrew recipe for Golden Valley Epiphany Ale – an Orval type beer

This is the last article in a series about orval and its a good read. The first article is here:
Beer Examiner: Orval Trappist genius in Belgium’s Golden Valley

Finally getting around to brewing this tomorrow, with some modifications.

I want a more robust Brett character, so I'm going to mash around 156 and eliminating the sucrose on the logic that the Brett will do plenty to dry it out.

The grainbill will be:
70% Pilsner
10% Munich
10% Special B
10% Caramunich

Permission to speak freely granted.

What are the SRMs of it with that much special B? Looks like it might be darker than Orval...which is fine, just not sure if you are going for a clone here or if you are just doing your own thing.

Mine has been in the secondary for a week or two now and the Brett is already pretty active. There was a bit that didn't fit in the secondary so I bottled those up and it's super good right now. I dry hopped after primary ferment slowed down and right now it is really hoppy with just a touch of Brett...I assume the two of those will trade places in the following months.

What are the SRMs of it with that much special B? Looks like it might be darker than Orval...which is fine, just not sure if you are going for a clone here or if you are just doing your own thing.

Click to expand...

According to BTP, I'm looking at like 16 SRM. Definitely not a clone. As the recipe evolved, I wanted something substantially Brett-ier than Orval and the grainbill is very different from that of Orval.

The percentages listed are approximations, and may change substantially between now and mash-in. I'm already considering reducing the Special B down to approximately 5% of the grist and adjusting the rest of the proportions accordingly.

I actually just edited the title of this thread to be more appropriate.

I wasn't really going for an Orval Clone with this, but my efficiency was down the day I brewed it and the abv is right about the same as Orval. I took a bottle to our club meet yesterday and it tastes exactly like a young Orval, so I guess I made a clone afterall. Another 6 months from now and I will be a pretty happy man.

Fermentation started going gangbusters about 10 hours after pitching - good thing I rigged up a blowoff tube 'coz this one's explosive. :rockin:

The yeastie lava lamp is very transfixing.