Belgian Blond Ale - split WLP 530/550

[kchomebrew]

Brewing a 10 gal. batch of a Belgian Blond recipe I came up with. Here's what I've got:

2 tsp CaCl to strike/sparge H20

Efficiency: 90%
Attenuation: 80%+
OG: 1.064
FG: 1.013
SRM: 5.91
IBU: 23.9
ABV: 6.77%

Pils malt - 16lb
CaraPils - 2lb
Aromatic - 1lb
Flaked Oats - 1lb
White Wheat Malt - 0.5lb
** mash 150F **
** 90m boil **
2oz Hallertau - 60m
1oz Tettnanger - 20m
1lb table sugar - 15m

> chill to 64F, split between 2 6gal carboys, aerate each 1min, pitch yeast
> Batch 1 = WLP 530 - ferment 3 days @67F, raise to 70F 2 weeks, transfer to secondary for 2 weeks, cold crash 1 week - will bottle condition entire batch and will add Brett B to half the bottles.

> Batch 2 = WLP 550 - ferment 3 days @67F, rraise to 70F 2 weeks. At this point I'm going to rack to two separate 3 gallon secondaries.

>> Batch 2, Secondary 1 = Will leave in secondary for 2 weeks, cold crash 1 week, and then will bottle condition. Will add Brett B to half the bottles.
>> Batch 2, Secondary 2 = Will receive addition of 12oz of Sauvignon Blanc Grape Concentrate and Brett B directly to fermenter. Will move to basement location @65/66F for 2-3 mo. and then bottle and condition for another 2 to 3 mo.

 

[kchomebrew]

Good brew day. 1.064 on the money. Everything is cleaned up now. Time for a beer.




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[kchomebrew]

X

 

[kchomebrew]

550 batch took right off in about 8hrs. 530 batch took about 32hrs to start fermentation. Both are at 66f. Will let these ferment till Friday and then will raise to 70f


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[kchomebrew]

Moved both batches to heating pad to ramp from 67f to 72f till


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[tonyscha]

keep posting, we are all waiting for the final result... beer!

 

[kchomebrew]

I racked the 530 batch to a secondary and am cold crashing for the next 3 days and then will bottle half the batch as is and half with Brett B in the bottles. Gravity was 1.010.

The 550 batch was racked to 2 separate secondaries. Gravity was 1.008. I've got half cold crashing right now and I will bottle all of that (half of the bottles will also get some Brett B inoculation). On the other half, I've decided to go another route and not do sauvignon blanc grape concentrate. What I did instead was add 2lbs of frozen strawberries and 2 lbs. of frozen rhubarb. I thawed them out and then smashed them up before dumping them into the secondary. Going to let this get up to 75F as I figure fermentation might start back up with the addition of the strawberries. Figure this will be good to bottle in about another 2 to 3 weeks.

 

[kchomebrew]

Bottled the regular 550 and 530 batches after 3 days of cold crashing. I'll give these a sample in a couple of weeks and see how they are once they carb up. Checked on the 550 batch on the rhubarb and strawberries and it's started a small second krausen. I'll let that batch sit for a few more weeks and then I'm going to bottle the entire batch and add some brett to half the bottles.

 

[kchomebrew]

Rhubard/Strawberry batch now has a pinkish color to it and I think I'll bottle this the week of 4/7. Nice aroma coming off it as well. Should be interesting.

 

[kchomebrew]

Bottled the rhubarb strawberry. light pink color and aroma/flavor is tart strawberries. Very nice so far. finished from 1.064 down to 1.006

 

[eonsend]

Sounds tasty! Definitely interested in how the strawberry/rhubarb variation comes out.

 

[kchomebrew]

I'll get some photos and tasting notes of all 3 variants on this batch (550, 530, and rhubarb/strawberry). All have come out fantastic. The 550 is definitely a belgian blond and looks, smells, and tastes the part. The 530 is a dead ringer for a Chimay White clone, so definitely a Belgian tripel instead of a blond. Very pleased with how everything has turned out on this batch.

 

[kchomebrew]

Well the 530 batch has now officially turned into the most winningest batch of beer I've ever made. Placed gold medal 4 times and won two second place BOS medals. All four medals scored over 41/50 by various judges. Highest score was a 45/50.


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