This sure has been a popular recipe thread. But who can resist wanting to make a Chimay Blue clone, especially when it has the word easy attached to the title. I dont know if anyones still following this discussion, but thought I would share my go at this beer.
As for me, Im a new-oldy, a word Ive just coined to describe someone who brewed beer years ago (more than 20 in my case, all using extracts, specialty grains, etcnever got into the all-grain business at that time) and has just started back into it. I still had all the gear in the basement and just needed to clean it and pick up ingredients from my local brew supply store. The first beer I made, two weeks ago, was an Oatmeal Stout from a Best Brewers kit. Its now sitting in a secondary carboy waiting another couple of weeks before bottling.
This Chimay Blue is thus my second recent effort. Ive followed the OP recipe fairly closely, even down to using the Lyles syrup (which set me back $9 for two small jars, yikesmore on that later). I did increase the extract quantities, adding 3.3 lbs of Munich LME (since thats how its sold locally) and 5 lbs of Amber DMEusing an extra lb over the OP recipe because a few posters have said it needed the added oomph (also Fattylivers popular version also increases the extract in order to get a target OG of 1.090 (though he uses 6 lbs of LME which is roughly equal to 5 lbs of DME, or so Ive read). I also added two teaspoons of Fermaid (a yeast nutrient) instead of the wine yeast and I used ½ tsp of Irish moss instead of the Whirlflock tablets (same effect according to my local shop guy). After getting it all done up and into the primary, with cold water to bring it to the 5 gallon mark , I got a pretty surprising OG of 1.096; and the wort tasted quite good, sweet but flavourful.
As for the fancy (and pricey) syrup, you can apparently make your own quite easily with a bit of sugar and a food acid (like lemon juice)many recipes online. Ill do that next time. Or I will use a pound of amber Belgian candi sugar (as Fattyliver did). Or, even better, you can make Belgian candi sugar and syrup too in a process similar to making Lyles syrup. That is most likely what I will do next time, cheap bastard that I am.
In fact, my next brew is going to be a Ginger Saison (taken from Extreme Brewing by Sam Calagione). That beer looks fantastic, and should be nice to have ready for the spring and early summer. It also calls for light Belgian candi sugar so I will get my chance to make my own and use it there.
On a final sweet note: Id appreciate any comments or advice about the sugar adjuncts in particular to this type of beer recipe (strong ales, dark Belgians, etc) : what have you had experience with or what has worked well for you? How much of a difference does a pound of any kind of sugar actually make in a five gallon batch?
. I will post back later once I have this up and running 
