Allagash Curieux Clone

[joyceman]

My batch of this has been in bottles for about 3 months now. It was pretty harsh at first but really mellowed around June/July. I say its excellent now.

I might try another batch with oak cubes instead of the smoking chips, but all in all im pretty happy with the way it turned out.

 

[cegan09]

I have a suggestion for a variation. Allagash makes a beer occasionally called James Bean. It's Curieux with coffee added. http://www.allagash.com/beer/james-bean/ The don't make it often, and it hardly ever goes outside the brewery, however it is amazing, even better than regular Curieux. The coffee taste isn't super strong, but it's there prominently in the start. If you ever have the chance to visit the brewery when it's on tap, go.

So, if you're looking for a way to try something new with home brew Curieux, try a little coffee.


I need to get a few more brews under my belt before I try this clone recipe, but it looks awesome. Thanks for posting it here.

 

[MotorcycleMatt]

Just a small update, a few weeks ago when I was up at my parents, we opened a bottle of the clone, which is almost three years old now, and a bottle of curieux, and it was almost spot on. I need to brew this again

 

[tellyho]

Attempting the James Bean variation with a current batch of this recipe. Half standard Curieux, and half James Bean with coffee added. Will necessitate some experimentation with how much cold brewed coffee to add at bottling, a task I am happy to undertake for the betterment of all! Will report back.

 

[tellyho]

After 6-9 months of bottle aging, the balance on this was just about right. Unfortunately, not much was left at that point...

 

[MotorcycleMatt]

After 6-9 months of bottle aging, the balance on this was just about right. Unfortunately, not much was left at that point...

how much coffee did you add at bottling? I will be re brewing this soon as an 8 gallon batch that i will split into 4 gals of regular curiex and 4 gallons of the James bean

 

[tellyho]

I wish I remembered. It was slightly ad hoc. I would probably cold brew some coffee and add that, if I were to do over.

 

[HomemadeSauce]

I haven't read through the full thread yet (only the first 15 pages or so) so I apologize if any recipes updates have been posted. I was listening to a recent podcast episode of Good Beer Hunting where Rob Tod was being interviewed. It was a fascinating interview but he also talked a little about the tripel's simplicity: 2-row, candi sugar, Saaz.

I haven't brewed a tripel in a while, and haven't experimented with oak at all, but this thread has gotten me excited to do so.

 

[dcuccia]

Wow. Been fermenting this recipe now for 36 hours at 65 degrees and if I'm reading my refractometer and converting right, it's already gone from 1.074 to 1.018. Tried my first double-aeration and learned the hard way what disturbing the dissolved CO2 can do at high krausen...started with 3" of head space in my Catalyst, and ended up with yeast overflowing about 10 seconds in.

 

[dcuccia]

Wow. Been fermenting this recipe now for 36 hours at 65 degrees and if I'm reading my refractometer and converting right, it's already gone from 1.074 to 1.018. Tried my first double-aeration and learned the hard way what disturbing the dissolved CO2 can do at high krausen...started with 3" of head space in my Catalyst, and ended up with yeast overflowing about 10 seconds in.

Slowly stepped up temps - now at 1.003 on Day FOUR. 9% ABV and I'm hoping it doesn't move much more...

 

[dcuccia]

Question for the group: if the goal is to extract oak flavor, why not just use the bourbon to do the extraction and pour in the liquid bourbon only? The other aspect of barrel-aging would be the "breathing" of O2 into the beer, which we're not going to get here anyhow. Why not cut out the middle man?

 

[tellyho]

I've certainly never heard of achieving oak flavor through extraction rather than aging the beer directly on oak. Though I'm perfectly aware that there are many brewing practices that persist because "it's always been done that way". I think you should work up a double blind experiment and report back!

 

[twage]

Question for the group: if the goal is to extract oak flavor, why not just use the bourbon to do the extraction and pour in the liquid bourbon only? The other aspect of barrel-aging would be the "breathing" of O2 into the beer, which we're not going to get here anyhow. Why not cut out the middle man?

I think with the oak cubes you are going to get more of the oak flavor for the amount of bourbon flavor being imparted. I think if you pour in some bourbon that's been sitting on the oak, you'll mostly just be getting the bourbon with less oak coming through. Which might be good if that's what you're looking for, but I'd second the suggestion someone try it out and see what the difference might be.

 

[cegan09]

Old thread revival.

I finally, finally brewed this yesterday. I have a yeast question. Everything I can find says 3522 and WLP550 are the same strain. LHBS only had 3522, so I went with that. has anyone tried making a batch with both, and then making a batch with only one to confirm if there really is a difference? Not worried about it, just curious if it's a factor you don't really need.

I do have some allagash yeast that I've built up from their white (They bottle white with the house strain, not the bottling strain they use everywhere else), and I think I'll use that next batch. I used it to make my Allagash Odyssey clone and the yeast character was dead nuts on to the real deal, so it's definitely their house strain.

I did miss my OG. My pre-boil gravity was right on. And I boiled off a touch more than I should have, but i still came in 0.01 under... Thinking something was up with the sugar I bought. Still 1.071 OG will make a fine beer. My goal is not a full blown Curieux clone on this round. I've wanted a tripel on tap for a while, and I love Allagash's version. So all 5 gallons are going into the keg when done and I'll add the last ounce of cubes that I've had soaking in Eagle Rare for almost a year. (the smell in that container is out of this world right now). Should be a great tripel with just a touch more complexity.

 

[dcuccia]

@cegan09 FWIW if you wanted a second strain to add, I ended up pitching wlp575 alongside wlp550, and it turned out wonderfully. Eagle Rare sounds delicious. In my case, pitching 4 oz of the the oak-soaked bourbon itself added some nice character IMO. Good luck with the fermentation!

 

[cegan09]

I'm going to let it ride on the one. Pitched last night around 7pm, looks like it really took off midday today judging by the brewpi graph. You can usually tell because it switches from just heating to keep up to temp to cooling as the fermentation launches.

 

[cegan09]

Well, my curieux light is finally carbed and tapped. It's fantastic. I added the last 5 oak cubes that I had and a little of the bourbon they were soaked in. Honestly if there is any oak character it's lost in the background, but the beer itself is awesome. It was a little harsh at first, there was some off flavor at the end I didn't like. But it's mellowed out just fine and is incredibly drinkable. My only complain is that it has horrible head retention, but that's something I've been dealing with for a few brews now, i'll get it tracked down.

I don't think this is going to last the several months others are letting theirs sit. It's waayy too drinkable where it is now.

 

[captnmorg]

Looking to do this one next -two questions:

1. Recently got into water profiles,any suggestions for what to use?

2. Anyone try doing a James bean variant? If so how much coffee?

 

[allanmorgan]

Buying ingredients tonight.

 

[VaBrewer]

Looking to do this one next -two questions:

1. Recently got into water profiles,any suggestions for what to use?

2. Anyone try doing a James bean variant? If so how much coffee?

I've done a James Bean clone several times. I make cold brewed coffee: 1 cup of beans ground coarse, 3 cups of water at room temp for a day. Refrigerate and then strain. I add 1 cup of this to the 5g keg and rack.

 

[VaBrewer]

Latest iteration of Curieux - this is a 53g Knob Creek barrel.
My portion is 10 gallons of which I am making James Bean with half.
This is my fourth time doing this recipe. Love this beer!

 

[seilenos]

I planned on doing this last year but never got around to it. I had put 3 oz of cubes on Jim Beam starting on 2017-04-26 and have been topping off / changing out the liquid every so often since then. I can't believe how heavy these cubes are now. Looking forward to brewing in a few weeks and setting aside to bottle a case of bombers for holiday gifts.