Belgian Dark Strong Ale Easy Chimay Blue clone

[Natron008]

I think that recipe cost me about $50 at my local Home Brew Store. Try finding any decent Belgian for $25/case!

 

[HellenicHomeBrewer]

Anyone else done this recipe, I'm itching to give this a whirl SOON so I can bottle condition it for a few months?

 

[HellenicHomeBrewer]

I'm getting ready to do this recipe from Beer Captured but I have a question. The recipe calls for first choice WYEAST 1388 and second choice WYEAST 1214. The question/delimma is according to WYEAST's website lists Chimay Grande Reserve as the commerical example using 1214.

 

[LennonsPub]

Lanyon,
Did you figure out what was sub'ed for the Belgian Aromatic?
Thanks

 

[teubank]

Ok, I just tried this recipe. I pitched the yeast around 80 degrees. It was taking me so long to get the tempoerature down, that I was impatient. Other than that I followed the recipe, oh and belgian candy iinstead of the syrup. It has been 24 hours and nothing but sludge. to be expected?

I shook it around for a few minutes to airate it when I first put it in the fermenter.

How long do I wait before I suspect something?
thanks

 

[Bendbiker]

Since I found this I figure I have to try it. I have washed WLP 500 yeast in the fridge to boot, so that should save me a few bucks.

Since my LHBS only has Light malt extract I think I`ll just use 3kg of LME plus 4oz of caramel 40 and an extra pound of munich in the mini mash to make up for what I`m missing in your amber and munich extracts.

UPDATE-

So I made it last weekend. LHBS had no Caramunich so I substituted Honey malt which is supposedly very munich tasting and I had to sub fuggles for the styrian goldings, which I am unsure was a super great decision but time will tell. I also couldn't get any Lyle's so I made 2 pounds of my own belgian candy sugar, which turned out a nice deep red color and tasted great. Hit 1.070 and has been bubbling away for quite a while now. I pitched about 2 liters of starter that I built up twice with my washed wlp500.

UPDATE2-
2 months later I finally bottled it. I think the yeast got a bit stuck at 1.026, but after rousing and finishing off fermentation at 26C and adding some more active yeast, I think things finished off at 1.020. At bottling this tastes fantastic and I actually drank more than a liter of it flat. It's exactly what I was hoping for and am convinced it'll age well...

 

[CaptZav]

I followed the recipe and ingredients exactly, with the exception of having to make my own lyles out of 16oz water, 1lb white sugar and a dash of lemon. I brewed Saturday night, so 5 nights ago and my beer closet smells of bananas. I pitched the yeast at around75 degrees F, and my apartment has stayed about 72ish this whole time. Is this normal?

 

[wanlord1]

Can anybody explain why the recipe calls for 2 packets dried wine yeast as nutrient at 45 mins instead of using a yeast nutrient like the one made by Wyeast?

 

[TheSofaKing]

Yes, i'm a little confused about the 2 packets of dried wine yeast as well. You add them to the boiling wort at 45mins?

What does that do for the beer? Would the yeast be killed by the boiling wort?

 

[extexan]

I think that the wine yeast was used as a yeast nutrient. The boiling wort will kill the yeast, yielding a nice additional food supply for the pitched yeast after the wort is cooled.

 

[kiowawarrior]

Brewing this one today.

 

[Crimsonwine]

I think that the wine yeast was used as a yeast nutrient. The boiling wort will kill the yeast, yielding a nice additional food supply for the pitched yeast after the wort is cooled.

Why not just pitch yeast nutrient at the end of boil?

 

[kiowawarrior]

LOVE IT!!!! No issues with the recipe. I personally added far to much priming sugar so it was a bit sweet in the end but that had nothing to do with the recipe and the amazing beer still shines through. I am already getting the ingredients for the next batch......minus all that priming sugar.

 

[deafmonk]

I am excited about this recipe as you can tell from my moniker.

I am a newbie. Just bottled my first brew yesterday (Belgian Quad kit from Williams Brewing). Bottle in 70 degrees for 20 days and then 55-58 degree for 3 weeks.

Now my question for this Easy Chimay Blue clone. Aged in the bottle at what room temperature and for how long. Are there stages in aging like my first kid (Belgian Quad), i.e., first stage at 70 degrees and second stage at cooler temperature for this Easy Chimay Blue clone?

 

[deafmonk]

I have some more questions that I hope you will help a newbie.

My questions are: for the first step, steep the grain in 156F for 40 minutes. Then the next step is to remove the grain and add a gallon of water. And add two kinds of malt extracts. Still at 156F? For how long? Then 1 oz Hallertauer (60 mins) 1 oz Styrian Goldings (30 mins). 60 mins and 30 mins? At which temperature?

Can someone clarify the instruction/directions? Thanks.

 

[Broken]

deafmonk,
When you add your extract you boil it. In this case for 60 minutes.
When hops has a (60 mins) after it, or (30 mins) after the type, it means that is how long you boil the hops for. So in this case when you have 30 minutes left in your boil, you add the last hops.

 

[Broken]

So if I want to do a partial mash on this, would it be the same thing to sub out the munich malt extract with more munich malt grain?
4 lb Amber Dry Extract
8 lb Munic Malt grain (this is pushing my limit on partial mashing space)
Then the rest as listed. This would put me at around 9% ABV.

Thanks!

 

[adagiogray]

Hi - I just started home brewing, and I chose this as my first recipe, since Chimay Blue is among my favorites. Had I read a little further, I might have picked a recipe with a little shorter turnaround time - 6 months bottle aging? yikes. Maybe I'll try it at 2 or 3.

I just put this recipe in the fermenter, with only 2 substitutions:

1. - yeast was substituted, Wyeast 3787 Trappist instead of White Labs WPL 500 Belgian Trappist. I saw some other Wyeast strains suggested here, hope I haven't made a grave error. I wonder how the 3787 compares to the 1214.

2. Styrian Goldings hops were subbed with our local brew shops 'Traditional' German hops. It's what they recommended for a sub, anyway.

The Lyle's Golden Syrup was actually a bit of a pain to find - I'm in the Columbus, OH area, and the only place that carried it was World Market. Couldn't you sub a LME? I had also read you could do 1 part molasses to 2 parts Karo syrup in *cooking*, but wasn't sure about how that would work for brewing, so I pursued the real deal.

I also had a mishap where the rubber stopper/seal on my 7 gal pail lid where the airlock plugs in dropped down in my wort when I went to put the airlock in. You'd think the rubber would float, but nooooo.....had to resanitize and strain it, pour it all out, and back in after the yeast was pitched. I sanitized well and use decent aseptic technique (I'm a nurse), but these things always make me nervous. Hop I didn't just drop $60+ worth of ingredients into a bad batch.

Also, if my calculations are right (and they probably aren't), looking at the difference in the OG and FG it only looks like about a 6% recipe - shouldn't a Chimay Blue clone be more in the 9-10% range? Add more ME next go, or?

 

[likwidbliss]

I made this recipe and I am at 6.7% ABV. I might up the LME in the future to get the higher ABV. I am going to do an all grain too soon.

 

[adagiogray]

6 days in the primary, hydrometer says 1.040, still sweet, still a bubblin'. Any bets this thing is gonna go another 2-3 weeks minimum?

 

[paradoxic]

I've got these ingredients coming in. Anyone else completed this one yet?

 

[Broken]

I just brewed my partial mash version of this. The following stats are my results of brewing.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.50 gal
Actual OG: 1.100 SG
Estimated Color: 21.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 19.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 79.00 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.00 lb Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 27.12 %
8.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 54.24 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3.39 %
0.50 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 3.39 %
0.50 lb Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 3.39 %
0.25 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 1.69 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer [3.90 %] (75 min) Hops 10.3 IBU
1.00 oz Styrian Goldings [4.00 %] (45 min) Hops 9.3 IBU
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 20.0 min) Misc
2.00 tbsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 20.0 min) Misc
1.00 lb Invert Sugar (0.0 SRM) Sugar 6.78 %
1 Pkgs Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500) Yeast-Ale

I was going for 60 min boil but I had to much water left so I boiled for another 15 minutes to try to get close to 5 gallons. I intended this to be 9% ABV, but my efficiency was a lot higher then I expected. This will be more like 10%. I guess I am getting better at mashing. I wll let you know how it turns out.... in about 2 months!!

 

[paradoxic]

I just brewed my partial mash version of this. The following stats are my results of brewing.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.100 SG
Estimated Color: 21.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 19.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 79.00 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.00 lb Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 27.12 %
8.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 54.24 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3.39 %
0.50 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 3.39 %
0.50 lb Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 3.39 %
0.25 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 1.69 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer [3.90 %] (75 min) Hops 10.3 IBU
1.00 oz Styrian Goldings [4.00 %] (45 min) Hops 9.3 IBU
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 20.0 min) Misc
2.00 tbsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 20.0 min) Misc
1.00 lb Invert Sugar (0.0 SRM) Sugar 6.78 %
1 Pkgs Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500) Yeast-Ale

I was going for 60 min boil but I had to much water left so I boiled for another 15 minutes to try to get close to 5 gallons. I intended this to be 9% ABV, but my efficiency was a lot higher then I expected. I guess I am getting better at mashing. I wll let you know how it turns out.... in about 2 months!!

Thanks for the info!

 

[adagiogray]

I've got these ingredients coming in. Anyone else completed this one yet?

I used the Wyeast 3787 High Gravity Trappist with this recipe, and I like what I'm seeing. I'm on week 3 in the primary, it's still bubbling along about every 20-30 secs, and SG was down to 1.024 on Saturday. It smells great, and every week it's tasting more and more like Chimay. I'll probably rack to secondary here in a week or 2, then bottle after another couple of weeks, the wort is still *very* yeasty and a little sweet. Can't wait til this one's done!

 

[Broken]

My version has been sitting for 10 days. Fermentation after 3 days was at 1.034. After 10 days it is 1.032. I also noticed that my wort is very "chunky". It seems I have lots of stuff/hops suspended still. Also when I took a big whiff it smelled like hard alcohol, or rubbing alcohol. I actually had to cough after that.
So I tried a sample. Tastes fine as far as I can tell.

Anything to worry about? Any bad signs cause of the floaties or smell? Maybe its normal? This is my first time with a Belgian.

Thanks

 

[adagiogray]

My version has been sitting for 10 days. Fermentation after 3 days was at 1.034. After 10 days it is 1.032. I also noticed that my wort is very "chunky". It seems I have lots of stuff/hops suspended still. Also when I took a big whiff it smelled like hard alcohol, or rubbing alcohol. I actually had to cough after that.
So I tried a sample. Tastes fine as far as I can tell.

Anything to worry about? Any bad signs cause of the floaties or smell? Maybe its normal? This is my first time with a Belgian.

Thanks

I'm jsut a newbie, but this was my first batch, and so far it's coming along well. It took until near the end of week 3 for the krausen/foam head and 'floaties' to settle out for me, but I also used a slightly different yeast (Wyeast 3787 Brlgian Trappist High Gravity). It has a strong smell, but it's also a strong beer.

 

[bknifefight]

The 3787 will give you more of a spicy flavor that the suggested yeast (WLP500, I'm not sure the WYeast sub #). Chimay Grand Reserve is a very fruity beer and WLP500 gives you that flavor. I am sure you will have good beer but it won't be very close to Chimay.

I bottled my batch up on Saturday and having done many Belgians before, this is still a very good beer. With the lower ABV, there is no need to age it for 6 months. I will probably start drinking it a 1 month if it's carb'd well enough. There were no off flavors or sharpness to age out in this beer.

 

[adagiogray]

The Wyeast 3787 actually ended up tasting very similar to the Chimay Blue, very fruity yeast, I just put this to bottle yesterday with a FG of 1.013, pretty darn close to the recipe's estimation. Although Chimay Blue is a 9% beer, this recipe as shown only hits about 7.5%(assuming OG of 1.068 and fg of 1.011). I'm pretty happy with it thus far, I guess the proof is in the tasting after the bottle carb's done. I completely agree, at only 7.5% I think it'll be ready in a few weeks.

I'd be curious to try this recipe again with the WLP500 to see if it makes much of a difference. Anyone have any suggestions on how to get it closer to hitting the 9-10% range? More light or dark ME, pitch a bigger starter?

 

[paradoxic]

I've had this in the primary for about two weeks, using the WLP500 yeast. It definitely is missing those dark fruit tastes and is a bit sweet still (as of saturday, my last sample) but tastes excellent. Wishing I had used the Wyeast 3787

 

[bknifefight]

The fruitiness comes more from the temperature you ferment at if you read the yeast descriptions on WYeast or White Labs websites.