Belgian Dark Strong Ale Easy Chimay Blue clone

[djbradle]

At 3.5 weeks I have now racked it to secondary for it's looooong conditioning time and it stands at 12% abv after a gravity check. It . . tastes . . awesome! Alcohol is nicely hidden. Curious if it will get more complex in it's aging?

 

[danbaldi]

Need advice on two fronts:

1. What should my fg be?


Og was 1.055

After 2 weeks in primary down to 1.048

After 3. Weeks still at 1.048


What should I be targeting as fg before bottling? Any general guidelines or advice would be appreciated.

Given no change in the last week, should I be re-pitching?


2. Also there has been advice regarding adding yeast at bottling time. How much should be added, and if I re-pitch should I also add more at bottling time.


Thanks much,

Dan

 

[AZOTH99]

I just put mine into the secondary after two weeks in the primary.

For some reason I hit 1.060 OG and after two weeks I have 1.016. Looks like it going where I need it so far.

I believe I have a 1.060 in the OG due to putting closer to 6 gallons in my primary bucket as opposed to 5 gallons exactly. I had approx 3/4 to the gallon mark of trub in the bottom of my primary so I think I guestimated it about where I wanted it to go into the secondary any thoughts or opinions on what I could have done a bit differently to get my OG a bit higher the route I went?

Now I'll let it sit in the secondary for 4 weeks maybe 5-6 depending on how I feel? or do you think 4 is plenty and I should keg it after that?

Ohh and temp in my coat closet has been pretty steady from 64-67 degrees.


EDIT: I based mine off of fattylivers recipe

 

[adagiogray]

Something probably happened to stop that ferment, but it's definitely not done or ready. I'd try repitching some yeast now and make sure your temp is consistent with no extreme heat or cold(rough range of mid 60s to mid 70s). There's no such thing as too much yeast, really - it will only eat and live on as much sugars as are present.

Caveat - I'm a lazy brewer, so there are some that will readily disagree with my methods. Many here are huge on a starter, and it's healthy for the yeast and helps you get a fast ferment, but I'm lazy - just pitch it right in. I have never had trouble getting a good ferment just tossing it right in to the bucket, although I sometimes get 2 vials for big beers.

You don't need to add yeast at bottling time(althouh some do). There is enough yeast in suspension that will do the work for you. The time to repitch is *now*, not at bottling time, you don't want to create bottle bombs. There's no single magic number, as there are many factors that go into the gravity. I'd look for a sub-1.020(something in the teens) gravity that stays there for a week before going to bottle.

Chris
LazyBrewer

Need advice on two fronts:

1. What should my fg be?


Og was 1.055

After 2 weeks in primary down to 1.048

After 3. Weeks still at 1.048


What should I be targeting as fg before bottling? Any general guidelines or advice would be appreciated.

Given no change in the last week, should I be re-pitching?


2. Also there has been advice regarding adding yeast at bottling time. How much should be added, and if I re-pitch should I also add more at bottling time.


Thanks much,

Dan

 

[djbradle]

I just put mine into the secondary after two weeks in the primary.

For some reason I hit 1.060 OG and after two weeks I have 1.016. Looks like it going where I need it so far.

I believe I have a 1.060 in the OG due to putting closer to 6 gallons in my primary bucket as opposed to 5 gallons exactly. I had approx 3/4 to the gallon mark of trub in the bottom of my primary so I think I guestimated it about where I wanted it to go into the secondary any thoughts or opinions on what I could have done a bit differently to get my OG a bit higher the route I went?

Now I'll let it sit in the secondary for 4 weeks maybe 5-6 depending on how I feel? or do you think 4 is plenty and I should keg it after that?

Ohh and temp in my coat closet has been pretty steady from 64-67 degrees.

EDIT: I based mine off of fattylivers recipe

Ya the extra water did it to you. Here's what you can do : boil 2 lbs of Belgian candi syrup, maybe 1 lb. of clear and 1 lb. of D-45 and add those to the secondary carefully after cooling. How much headspace in your Bright tank(2ndary) ? The key is carefully , to avoid adding oxygen to your brew. This will add maybe 15 pts. to your gravity, more complexity, and more mouthfeel depending on how sweet or cloying it already was going into secondary but with the water being too much it might have been thinner and watery. The yeast should work on that candi syrup a bit but be careful of another krausen formation if the yeast chews through the clear syrup. They probably won't do anything with the D-45. This is of course experimental.

 

[Hakan]

Hello everybody!

My name is Hakan. I live in Norway. This is my first post here. I have never brewed beer before, I was just looking for information on the Chimay Blue when I found this forum. I just had to take a go!

So, about five weeks ago I brewed Summersolstice's recipe. Yesterday I invited two friends of mine (that love trappist beer!) and made them taste...

Guess what? They loved it! And so did I. It was really close to the CB.

I have read about the need for aging, but after three weeks (where it went from 1.068 to 1.015) in the primary (no secondary) and 18 days in bottles it has carbonated well and tastes great already. This was way better than I dared hope for.

Thanks to all of you for the inspiration. This was great fun and the third badge is almost ready for bottling...

Again; thanks to all of you!

 

[gad163]

Steep the grain in 3 gallons of water at 156F for 40 Minutes:

32 oz Munich Malt
8 oz Special B
8 oz CaraMunich
4 oz Belgian Aromatic
8 oz Torrified Wheat

Remove the grains and add another gallon of water and add:

3lbs Munich Malt Extract
4 lbs Amber Malt Extract

1 oz Hallertauer (60 mins)
1 oz Styrian Goldings (30 mins)

16 oz Lyle's Golden Syrup at 45 mins
2 packets dried wine yeast as nutrient at 45 mins.
1 Whirlflock tab at 45 mins

Cool wort to 75F and pitch yeast starter. Cool to ambient temperature and remain throughout fermentation. Bottle.

Chimay blue

 

[summersolstice]

I haven't looked at this thread in a couple of years and I'm surprised at the activity and the popularity of this recipe. Believe it or not, I still have some of this original recipe in bottles in my wine/mead/beer cellar in the basement. It's now nearly 4 years old and, on a whim, I entered it in a narrow local brew club competition comprised of English Brown Ale, India Pale Ale, German Wheat and Rye Beer, and Belgian Strong Ale. During judging done by the owner and brewer of the local brewery, this Chimay clone took best of show with some pretty stiff competition. I hope everyone is having fun with it.

 

[bribo179]

Summer...would you have an all grain for this?

 

[summersolstice]

No, I don't. While I currently almost always do all-grain, this was one of my first beers and I haven't made it since.

 

[gad163]

I am a BRAND NEW brewer. I don't even have a kit yet I'm so new haha. I found this app googling the chimay blue recipe with the intention of learning but I have no idea where to begin. Any hints?

 

[danbaldi]

Still think I'm having trouble and need guidance.

Og day one was 1.055

I pitched one vial of wlp530 (not starter grown) after wort cooled

Lots of bubling during week one

After 2 weeks in primary down to 1.048

After 3. Weeks still at 1.048

After 4 Weeks, pitched another batch of single vial starter grown wlp530, dropped gravity to 1.045. Good Krausen growth and initial bubbling.

After 7 weeks (3 weeks from second pitch) still at 1.043

Temp's between 65-70 at all times.

Using refractometer for gravity measurements.

Taste is good. It seems to me I'm not getting the amount of fermentation I should, but I'm very new to this. Any ideas or suggestions for me?

 

[djbradle]

danbaldi:
Should have done a starter. I do starters all the time and get about 80% attentuation on all my beers. For this I did a 3L starter thats about triple the amount of cells as your one vial. I would check with a hydrometer, not knocking your refractometer skills but double check. To have lots of bubbling for a whole week and drop only 7 points is small work. Did you have a healthy krausen? Did you aerate the wort to begin with?

Your OG is a little low making it more like a weak dubbel.

What was the temp of the wort when you pitched? This is important. Should be in the low 70's and upper 60's.


gad163:

Read the whole thread and you'll find all the necessary info and where to start. There is the orignal recipe to start and another version halfway through by Fattyliver.

 

[danbaldi]

djbradle,

Thanks for you help. I think you are right, I should have done a starter the first time, but didn't. I did the for the second pitch. Temp at first pitch might also have been high at 78 degrees. I also may have aerated poorly by only pouring and swirling and shaking the carboy. Lessons learned I guess. I still feel like I should be able to get additional fermentation from the 1.043 point I'm at. I will try a hydrometer reading and let you know if I get a meaningfully different reading.

 

[shanlmt]

I made this beer back in August. We just drank the last one about a week ago. My family and friends really enjoyed it. It definitely gets better with age. I will probably make it again, but this time around I have decided to make an all-grain belgian trippel, which is in the secondary as we speak.

 

[djbradle]

It would be nice if someone has a good pic of the finished product . . .Summersolstice? BTW thanks for the recipe first and foremost!

 

[djbradle]

danbaldi,

When I aerate I sit down on the ground with the carboy on it's corner on top of a doubled up terry towel or something very plush and rock back and forth with much vigor for about 3-5 minutes until my arms are very tired. I cover the top with sanitized saran wrap covered with sanitized foil. The head of foam after that shaking is about 6 inches high and the wort is loaded with tiny bubbles. This is about the best I can do and probably am getting the full 8ppm of O2. It's possible my attention to this, a good healthy yeast starter, and good ferm temps have made the past brews really really good.

 

[AZOTH99]

Can a mod delete this post as I redid my post and this is a mess up

thank you

 

[AZOTH99]

well I just kegged mine tonight, I took a sample to the neighbor and he seemed to really like it. I told him it was completely flat and not carbonated and he said WOW I couldn't even tell.


Final Gravity was 1.006. Not bad I don't think

I compared the color to my bottles I brought back from europe and mine seems to be darker than the real Chimay. And theirs was in the brown bottle and mine is still darker.

The flavor did not taste the same but I was a good flavor non the less. Guess I'll just have to keep trying it until I get it. Now I just have to finish off this beer so I can start on another. I still have about 3-4 gallons of the Amber I made as well. guess it's time for a party soon.

I just put mine into the secondary after two weeks in the primary.

For some reason I hit 1.060 OG and after two weeks I have 1.016. Looks like it going where I need it so far.

I believe I have a 1.060 in the OG due to putting closer to 6 gallons in my primary bucket as opposed to 5 gallons exactly. I had approx 3/4 to the gallon mark of trub in the bottom of my primary so I think I guestimated it about where I wanted it to go into the secondary any thoughts or opinions on what I could have done a bit differently to get my OG a bit higher the route I went?

Now I'll let it sit in the secondary for 4 weeks maybe 5-6 depending on how I feel? or do you think 4 is plenty and I should keg it after that?

Ohh and temp in my coat closet has been pretty steady from 64-67 degrees.


EDIT: I based mine off of fattylivers recipe

 

[djbradle]

Tasted a bottle after 5 weeks in 70 degrees. I put it in the freezer for 10 minutes. Alcohol barely noticeable for 12.1%. Dark fruits, some yeastiness, little earthy hop foreground, good carb. Head retention will take some time to manifest. This beer is still very young after brewing on 2/24/12 and this first taste is 4/26/12.

 

[Krazykripple]

looks delicious. i can't find munich malt extract anywhere so i'm planning to do a partial mash. how much total munich malt should i mash and at what temp? thanks

 

[djbradle]

LME is 75% the weight/volume of grain if 75% efficiency is obtained. I use this method for converting AG to extract. So mash 10 lbs of Munich malt since you'd be adding the steeping Munich to the bill. If it's partial mash I'd say 148^ - 156^ for 60-75 minutes. Couldn't say for AG. Maybe the same? Good stuff! If you like BSDA's check my recent recipe for the cloister cooler . . . .I was very pleasantly pleased.

 

[Silverbullet]

I followed the OP recipe fairly closely but tweaked it to get it to the magic 9% of Chimay Blue.

I also used Amber Belgian Candy syrup instead also.

I did however split it into two 2.5 gallon batches one with WLP500 and one with WY1214

Ingredients used

Ingredients
-----------
Amber LME 3.30 lb, Extract, Extract
Aromatic Malt (Belgian) 0.25 lb, Grain, Steeped
Northern Brewer LME - Munich 6.00 lb, Extract, Extract
Candi Sugar, Amber (Belgian) 1.00 lb, Sugar, Other
CaraMunich 0.50 lb, Grain, Steeped
Munich (German) 2.00 lb, Grain, Steeped
Special "B" (Belgian) 0.50 lb, Grain, Steeped
Torrified Wheat 0.50 lb, Adjunct, Steeped

Hallertauer (Germany) 1.00 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Styrian Golding (Slovenia) 1.00 oz, Pellet, 30 minutes

This somehow hit exactly 1.09 OG. This batch was almost meant to be so far.

I am 3 weeks into the primary and the gravity is as follows.

WY1214 batch = 1.022
WLP500 Batch = 1.0215

Taste test was delicious. The 1214 batch smells a bit better, while I preferred the taste of 500 batch a bit more. By a bit I mean minuscule and I can already tell these will both be delicious.

Odds are I am going to just bottle this from primary after week 4 since my FG is hit and it already tastes magical.

I decided I am going to add some 1214 before bottling to make sure nothing dare goes wrong while conditioning.

I'll report back sometime towards the end of June after I know I will cave in and try some of each early.

Thanks for the initial blueprint.

Been a long time lurker but this recipe finally got me to register. Digging up an older post and getting ready to brew this one up using everything listed above w/ WLP500 in a 2L starter. Most questions were covered in this thread but I was wondering, with regards to the particular recipe above, how long did you steep/mash the grains (typical 30, 45, 60) and how much water did you steep them in - 3 gallons and top up prior to boil or steep in full 6-6.5 gallons then add LME and boil for 60? Also, what were the best results for time in primary and secondary? This is a pretty big beer so I was planning 3 weeks primary and 2-6 months secondary with at least a month to bottle condition. However, if it doesn't need that much time and I can drink it sooner, so be it!

Been awhile now since some of you have brewed these up. What are your final thoughts? Really looking forward to this one!

 

[Silverbullet]

First time using Beersmith. Does this look correct based on FattyLiver's recipe?

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.98 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.093 SG
Estimated Color: 24.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 129.1 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 1 14.2 %
8.0 oz Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.6 %
8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.6 %
8.0 oz Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 4 3.6 %
4.0 oz Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 5 1.8 %
6 lbs Amber Liquid Extract [Boil for 60 min](1 Extract 6 42.7 %
3 lbs 4.8 oz Amber Liquid Extract [Boil for 60 min](1 Extract 7 23.5 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 13.6 IBUs
1 lbs Candi Sugar, Amber [Boil for 60 min](75. Sugar 9 7.1 %
1.00 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] - Boil 30.0 mi Hop 10 11.7 IBUs
1.0 pkg Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500) [35.49 Yeast 11 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 14 lbs 0.8 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 6.69 qt of water at 163.2 F 154.0 F 45 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (2.52gal, 3.74gal) of 168.0 F water

 

[ajohnson153]

Bought the ingredients for Fattyliver's recipe today. I'll be brewing this up within the next week or two. I bought the 90L dark candi syrup instead of the 45L amber candi syrup. I'm interested to see how this affects the flavor. Anyone know what the difference would be?

 

[Silverbullet]

I bought the 90L dark candi syrup instead of the 45L amber candi syrup. I'm interested to see how this affects the flavor. Anyone know what the difference would be?

Color will be much darker (44 SRM vs 23ish) and shoot your potential ABV up ~1% or more (from 10% to 11.3%) based on beersmith compared to what comes right of Fattyliver's recipe.

 

[ajohnson153]

I know to add the candi syrup in around the last 5 minutes of the boil. Last brew I added half of the LME @60mins and the other half at around 30mins. I was wondering if I should do the same with this recipe or just dump it all in at the beginning and let it go?

 

[ajohnson153]

So, I brewed Fattyliver's recipe. Everything was going well (except for that one small boilover), I made sure to sanitize all of my utensils and even had enough ice in my ice bath to cool my wort to pitching temp pretty quickly. I took my gravity reading and it exactly what I was shooting for. Couldn't have been more perfect. I smiled the entire time I was putting my wort in my fermenter. Then I walked back into the house to make sure I cleared a path to my brew closet, and stopped dead in my tracks, I DIDN'T SANITIZE MY FERMENTER! I feel like such a stupid brewer right now. I'm not going to dump it, I'll see how it turns out, but I am a bit nervous at the moment. What a rotten end to a brewday.

 

[Silverbullet]

Hopefully everything turns out fine for you ajohnson, which I'm sure it will. You at least cleaned/sanitized your fermentor the last time you used it, right? I too just brewed up fattylivers version of this on Monday. I did a mini-mash of sorts and ended up with about a gallon more than I wanted pre-boil after sparging. Ended up boiling for much longer than planned to get it down, and OG up where I wanted it. After a nearly 120 min boil, called it good enough with 6 gal going into the primary along with a 2L start that had been stepped up twice. Needless to say my poor 6.5 gallon better bottle didn't take long to start putting that blow off tube to good use!
I was initially going to double the recipe and go with a 10 gal batch but decided to do two different versions. The next one I brew (tomorrow) will use the dark candi syrup (vice the amber), double the aromatic and 2.5lbs munich malt. I'll do a BIAB style with the grains this time instead of mash/sparge and see what that does for the efficiency and will make darn sure to keep under 7gal pre-boil vs. the 8gal I started with last time.
What did your OG end up being? I came in at 1.080 w/6 gal and figure the next batch will be close to 1.090 unless efficiency drops with the BIAB approach. How long are you planning to primary/secondary? I'm thinking 14 days primary and about a month secondary with 3 weeks bottle conditioning. I know some had mentioned nearly 6 mo in the secondary but I don't think I have that kind of patience....

 

[ajohnson153]

I too did a mini mash. This was my second batch and my first one using grains. My last batch was extract only. I put 2 gallons of water at about 160F into my 5 gallon rubbermaid drink cooler figuring that adding the grains would bring it down to an acceptable mash temperature (again I have never done this before so if I did it wrong feel free to correct my method so I can do it properly on my next go round.) covered and let it steep for about 40 mins. Then sparged by submerging my drained grains in water at about the same temp as my mash water for about 10-15 mins. I then added the lot into my kettle and boiled as usual. My OG ended up right at around .091 and is now in my primary. I don't currently have a secondary fermenting vessel so I was planning on leaving it in primary for a month then bottle and age. I brewed this up to give as Christmas presents next year so I figure after aging for over a year it should be perfect when I give it to people next year. I will of course drink some during that time as well. I didn't pitch a starter I only used two vials of WLP500. Took about 24 hours for fermentation to start. The foam dropped today but my blowoff tube is still bubbling and my brew closet smells fantastic so I am just going to let it go and hope I don't have a stuck fermentation. The brew day went well except for being a bonehead and forgetting my sanitation on my carboy. I'll let you know how the Dark Candi syrup works out since that is what I ended up getting. Overall I am happy with how it ended up. Next time I will sanitize my carboy before I even start brewing so I get it out of the way before I get distracted and forget, and I will definitely pitch a starter next time as well.