Specialty IPA: Belgian IPA Houblon Chouffe aka HopChewy

Houblon · Apr 6, 2011

A little trick I found is hit the keg with 35psi for a week and then bleed down to a normal serving pressure. The beer will pour better and will be spritzy like a good bottled condition beer.

motobrewer · Apr 18, 2011

alright Houblon, now that you've conquered this...what about:

tripel karmeliet!?

Houblon · Jun 2, 2011

motobrewer said:
tripel karmeliet!?

Sorry can't help you there as I never liked Karmeliet, always thought is was too sweet. Some time ago I did a side by side tasting of a handful of triples and the sweetness was too much for my taste.

motobrewer · Jun 2, 2011

yes, i agree it is sweet, but in a fruit kind of sweet, like apple/pear.

xxHelderxx · Nov 3, 2011

Houblon- How much lactic acid and gypsum do you typically add?

hodge · Nov 12, 2011

Just brewed this Thursday night. Used a blend of the Wyeast and White Labs. OG came in at 1.083, so a little high, but I can't wait to taste this sucker. Aquarium heater holding fermentation at 75 and the airlock is bubbling away. This was the first beer that my wife helped me brew. Thanks for the recipe Houblon!

Any chance you'll ever post that Gnome Houblon recipe?

motobrewer · Nov 12, 2011

reserve judgement until after lagering.

it really is a fantastic clone.

hodge · Jan 1, 2012

Wanted to update after lagering period... This is one hell of a beer! The interplay between the yeast and hops is perfect, with both showing up but neither one overpowering the other.

I will be brewing this again and am also interested in knocking back the recipe to a more moderate strength. I'm interested if anyone on this thread has had success with a smaller houblon beer.

I would guess right off the bat that eliminating the sugar addition would be the first step and subsequently lowering the bittering addition by a small amount to keep the malt/hop balance in check would be second.

xxHelderxx · Jan 1, 2012

I wouldn't just cut all the sugar out in an effort to make this a lower ABV beer. You need the sugar in order to make this as dry as it needs to be. Plug everything into your software and cut back on the base malt as well as the sugar, proportionally, until you get to your desired OG.

As far as hops, I would just make a note of what the OG:BU ratio of the original recipe and target that same ratio once you've removed some base malt and sugar.

Hope that helps

masqualero · May 30, 2012

Houblon said:
Sorry can't help you there as I never liked Karmeliet, always thought is was too sweet. Some time ago I did a side by side tasting of a handful of triples and the sweetness was too much for my taste.

Okay then... how about a LA CHOUFFE clone??

hotspurdotus · Sep 19, 2012

I'm planning on brewing this tomorrow, pretty excited.

I'm making a few changes.

5.5 Gallon Batch (What was your total water volume for 5 gallons?)

Magnum pellets instead of Columbus (Warrior also available)
Cascade pellets instead of Amarillo (Summit also available)

I'm also considering making a Light Candi Syrup for the 20 minute sugar addition.

Robin0782 · Sep 24, 2012

I would really like to brew this one, but I don't really think I can step mash. Any thoughts on what would be the effect if I just do a single infusion?

TyTanium · Sep 24, 2012

Robin0782 said:
I would really like to brew this one, but I don't really think I can step mash. Any thoughts on what would be the effect if I just do a single infusion?

Step mashes are actually pretty easy...start thick, then add boiling water to raise, and finish thin. Here's a great calculator: http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash/

But, a long (75-90 min) single infusion at 153 should work great.

tellyho · Jan 8, 2013

Brewed this last week and looking forward to the final product. Step mash is too much work. so i mashed at 153 for a while. Ended up collecting a little too much wort, so OG was 1.072, but the upside will be an extra 1/2 gallon of finished product. Blowoff tube was definitely necessary, but it's calmed down considerably after 2 days of heavy krausen. I'm going to "lager" in my garage in MA, so it will probably not wind up as clear. I'll report back.

Grinch · Jan 21, 2013

I'm planning on giving this a shot sometime soon... I've got T-58 dry yeast on hand, will that work?

aleksander9 · Feb 1, 2013

I am seriously considering brewing this! But, i dont have a fermentation chamber.

Is it okay to just leave it in primary for a month? I can add some irish moss to clear it a little bit at least.

tellyho · Feb 2, 2013

You can totally brew it without temperature control. However, if you want the Belgiany character, the high temp is necessary. I also think that Belgian yeasts are more finicky about temperature changes - I've had yeast flocculate early when cooled too much, before I was comfortable just running things at a really high temp.

A possible solution is to strap a heating pad to your carboy / bucket with an ace bandage. I'm currently using this treatment with a partigyle sweet stout that won't fit in my ferm chamber (even though I swear I built that thing to accommodate 2 vessels - sigh). To be fair, I don't really care that much how the sweet stout turns out, as its just the little brother of the RIS. If you run the pad for an hour in the morning and an hour at night, you might be able to keep things somewhere near 75. Adding a blanket would probably help.

Sambecker1 · Feb 2, 2013

Brewed 11 gallons today. Samples tasted great and hit numbers spot on. It was actually my best brew day yet and it was 19 degrees today. Maybe cold weather made me more hyper-vigilant.

aleksander9 · Feb 4, 2013

whats the boil size? Can i make this beer without the lagering? I dont have a fridge that fits my fermentation bucket. :mug:

tellyho · Feb 5, 2013

aleksander9 said:
whats the boil size? Can i make this beer without the lagering? I dont have a fridge that fits my fermentation bucket.

I think Houblon addresses this. I suspect it can be done without lagering. I don't think the product will taste the same.

I don't know where you live. I'm in New England, and have had three solid weeks of good lagering temps in my garage.

It's a normal length boil, so however much you need to collect to wind up with 5.5 gallons.

ulster · Feb 7, 2013

Getting ready to keg mine this weekend - thanks for the recipe! This is a favorite Belgian of mine. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

tellyho · Feb 26, 2013

Finished bottling and it's fully conditioned. To report on the garage lager, end result is very clear. Not to mention tasty. A really excellent recipe, hops balance the phenolics and esters perfectly. Very well done Houblon, and thanks so much for sharing!

idjeffp · May 26, 2013

Brewed this one yesterday... looking forward to sampling this one in a few weeks!

nickmv · Aug 6, 2013

OP, can you please change your gravity figures on this post? It completely F's up the view of the threads on the main forum, and makes the width of the gravity field ridiculously wide.

Sorry, not trying to be rude, but on small screens, it makes it difficult to read the post titles. I think the intention with the gravity field was to put a single gravity figure, (ie. "1.060", not "Anticipated Grav: 1.060, Plato 18.xx"). Those details of anticipation and plato are much more appropriate for the post itself.

ChefRex · Nov 1, 2013

I transferred to a keg for final conditioning and dry hop, gravity sample tastes great!
Thanks for the recipe.

ChefRex · Nov 22, 2013

First sample, this is nice. In a couple more days to get fully carbed I will open an original for a comparison but I'm very happy!

ChefRex · Nov 22, 2013

This is great! I was about to redirect my brew day tomorrow but i have no columbus

this will be rectified, I need to rebrew this.
I was going to have one tonight, I'm on the fifth(I think)
:ban:

:rockin:

ChefRex · Jan 12, 2014

Rebrewing this tomorrow, delicious! Built up a starter from a bottle of the original and going to give it a go!

motobrewer · Apr 6, 2014

brewed this today. brewday went perfect. I had to reprogram my ferm controller again. something about this beer....

motobrewer · Apr 7, 2014

pitched a little warm (79) but it got down to 75 pretty quickly. controller is holding right at 75F (+/- 0.2F), 29 hours after pitching it's blowing off. I pitched a whole 1600mL starter I put on the stirplate the night before brewing.

Specialty IPA: Belgian IPA Houblon Chouffe aka HopChewy

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