Belgian Dark Strong Ale Easy Chimay Blue clone

[ajohnson153]

Day 3 of fermentation I noticed no airlock activity so fearing a stuck fermentation I went and took a gravity reading and it was at around 1.030. I roused the yeast gently and placed the airlock back on. Sure enough not 5 minutes after doing this my airlock started bubbling again so I think it helped. I will check tomorrow to see if the activity continues. Hydrometer test sample tasted exactly like what I was hoping for out of this beer. This stuff is going to be delicious!

 

[Silverbullet]

Just pitched the yeast on my 2nd, slightly tweaked batch. OG came in at 1.097; very nice! Stepped up a 2L starter twice and aerated for an hour with pump and stone (planned on 30 but got side tracked). Hoping this sucker kicks off hard in a few hours. First batch is still chugging away happily at 66-68 deg. and I think I'll let it sit for another week or two before taking a reading. It's looking good though! As a backup plan in case of stuck fermentation for these two Chimays I have going, I saved a bit of yeast from the massive starter and have another 1.8L starter going now that I'll save as backup should I need it.
Glad to hear yours is doing well ajohnson! Looking forward to comparing final notes/thoughts.

 

[ajohnson153]

Day 7 and I think fermentation might be done. My hydrometer read my FG at 1.019. I plan to leave it in primary for a month before I bottle condition. Took my reading today. It tastes very good. I'll have to do a more thorough tasting and see what sort of notes I can pick up with my dull as mud palate but I drank the entire test sample that I took this morning. Obviously it had quite an alcohol bite to it but that is to be expected of a beer this green. The online ABV calculator I used puts it right around 10.5%, pretty strong stuff. One question for you more experienced brewers. Should my fermentation have finished that quickly with such an high gravity. I was expecting this sucker to take at least a week and a half to fully ferment. I didn't even use a starter. I was a bit worried because I used no temperature control at all other than the A/C in my house but judging from the flavor I think I got a pretty darn good yeast profile. I was quite impressed.

 

[Silverbullet]

My first batch is also 7 days old but is still chugging away pretty hard. Haven't taken a reading yet but it looks like it's still several days from being done. I used a huger starter, but if anything that should have sped mine up. Looks like you finished in a good range though so I wouldn't worry about it. My second batch (pitched on the 5th) is still going bonkers with a blow off tube. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to keep them in primary for a month or rack to secondary around 2 weeks, assuming fermentation is complete, and condition for....??...as long as I can stay patient?

 

[ajohnson153]

I don't know what your temperature is so I can only go by mine. Mine stayed at roughly 70-75 throughout the fermentation which might have made the yeast work faster (and poop out quicker causing my stuck fermentation issue as it was especially hot that week). I'll keep taking readings but I'm pretty sure the yeasts are done with this one.

 

[Silverbullet]

Started fermentation at 72 till they got crankin and then slowly lowered temp to 66. Now slowly raising to 68 where I will hold till fermentation is complete.

 

[ajohnson153]

Hm, I can't think of any reason other than temperature why mine might have fermented so much faster. I did use two vials of yeast but you used a starter so yours should have had more active cells than mine. I find this quite puzzling.

 

[ajohnson153]

Ok, so I took a second reading on my hydrometer (actually I broke my hydrometer by stepping on it but it happened after I took my gravity reading) I think I must have been reading it wrong the other day because the gravity this time was 1.020 at 70F which comes out to 1.021, which is exactly what Fattyliver hit on his WLP500 batch. So, I guess what I am saying is that I hit what I was aiming at pretty dead on. I'll let it bulk condition until early August then bottle and bottle condition for the long haul. When I can afford it I am going to buy the ingredients and another fermenter so I can do the scotch ale I've been looking at. The LHBS has everything for it except the cherrywood smoked malt. That I'll have to mail order.

 

[Silverbullet]

Took my first reading today on the first batch and it came out to 1.020 (corrected using refractometer). My insane 1.097 batch is still bubbling away very actively! Will most likely transfer the 1st batch to secondary tomorrow or this weekend. How's yours coming along? How long are you planning on bottle conditioning? I'm guessing several months based on "long haul"? Why not condition the whole batch in the secondary for longer then?

 

[ajohnson153]

Took my first reading today on the first batch and it came out to 1.020 (corrected using refractometer). My insane 1.097 batch is still bubbling away very actively! Will most likely transfer the 1st batch to secondary tomorrow or this weekend. How's yours coming along? How long are you planning on bottle conditioning? I'm guessing several months based on "long haul"? Why not condition the whole batch in the secondary for longer then?

Sorry, I stopped watching this thread as dilligently as before. I brewed this to give as Christmas presents next year, so over a year bottle conditioning with samples along the way. I'm still bulk aging it in primary right now. I'm hoping to bottle this weekend. The reason I don't secondary it is because I only have one better bottle.

 

[ajohnson153]

*Update*
Just bought a new 5 gal carboy so I racked the beer into it today after 2 months in primary (busy schedule and not having a lot of time to bottle.) to get it off of the yeast. Hydrometer sample tastes absolutely amazing. Age has really done this beer a lot of good. I detected none of the alcohol bite that the previous sample had. I liked it so much that I drank the entire hydrometer test jar full of it, warm and uncarbonated. I let my housemate try some of it and her comment was basically "WOW! I could drink this all day long, without the high yeast content (Some of the trub managed to get into the sample so it tasted extra yeasty). I hope to get this bottled soon, at least within the next few weeks since I will need that secondary for another beer I'm brewing on Tuesday. Just wanted to give you guys an update on how things are shaping up. And maybe to brag a bit.

 

[mdawson9]

i brewed the original recipe but used 1388 - belgian strong ale yeast since LHBS was out of other options. OG was 1.072 and FG was 1.020. bottled yesterday. tasted great! but definitely lacking some of the dubbel favors, i'm sure that's a yeast thing. still looking forward to it maturing. given it was on the lower end of the OG spectrum, i assume this will be delicious in much less than 6 months, right?

 

[ajohnson153]

i brewed the original recipe but used 1388 - belgian strong ale yeast since LHBS was out of other options. OG was 1.072 and FG was 1.020. bottled yesterday. tasted great! but definitely lacking some of the dubbel favors, i'm sure that's a yeast thing. still looking forward to it maturing. given it was on the lower end of the OG spectrum, i assume this will be delicious in much less than 6 months, right?

Mine is great after two months of bulk aging. I didn't secondary mine until a couple of days ago because I didn't have a second carboy and was planning to bottle it sooner. Life has a funny way of getting in the way like that. But if I were you despite your low OG I would still treat it like you would any other Belgian. You still used a Belgian strain of yeast so I am pretty sure this is still a beer that is going to get better with age. And I would definitely attribute your lack of dubbel character to the yeast. It's your beer so drink it when you feel it's ready. You can always sample from time to time and figure out when it's ready.

 

[run42beer]

I followed Fatty Liver's recipe pretty closely and made this 8/4/2012 with Wyeast 1214. At the end I hit SG 1.080@72F, after 3 weeks in primary I was down to 1.016@72F, bottled with 5oz of priming sugar. The sample from the hydrometer reading smelled/tasted great. Today I was anxious and put a 12oz bottle in the fridge. Upon opening it I immediately noticed lack of carbonation (OK, I was just too eager to give this a try). The tast/smell was great, it was definitely obvious this was a high gravity beer but the high ABV was not too much in your face. Guess I'll have to be more patient and let it age for a few more weeks, hoping that carbonation will properly develop in the bottles. Can't wait!

Thanks for the recipe!

Heiko - who made his first all grain batch this weekend with a Founders Breakfast Stout clone by DubbleDach (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/founders-breakfast-stout-clone-139078/)

 

[wilberfoss]

Hi, brewed this today and forgot to add the wine yeast. Such an odd thing to add it slipped my mind! I have two packets of Red Star Pasteur Red wine yeast sitting here, should I add them now? It's only been in the carboy an hour.

First post by the way- thanks to all for all the advice I've gleaned just from browsing around over my first year of brewing.

 

[ajohnson153]

Hi, brewed this today and forgot to add the wine yeast. Such an odd thing to add it slipped my mind! I have two packets of Red Star Pasteur Red wine yeast sitting here, should I add them now? It's only been in the carboy an hour.

First post by the way- thanks to all for all the advice I've gleaned just from browsing around over my first year of brewing.

I used no wine yeast at all and mine turned out fine. The wine yeast isn't really required. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[wilberfoss]

I used no wine yeast at all and mine turned out fine. The wine yeast isn't really required. I wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks!

 

[adagiogray]

No need to worry about the wine yeast - it is just intended to be killed off in the boil as a nutrient for the live, active Belgian yeast that you put in later. Nice to have, not necessary. I usually buy and use a separate yeast nutrient with the bigger, higher gravity beers, but it's not required.

You usually don't want 2 different *active* yeasts going on. It probably wouldn't alter the flavor greatly, but I'd just let it roll at this point.

Hi, brewed this today and forgot to add the wine yeast. Such an odd thing to add it slipped my mind! I have two packets of Red Star Pasteur Red wine yeast sitting here, should I add them now? It's only been in the carboy an hour.

First post by the way- thanks to all for all the advice I've gleaned just from browsing around over my first year of brewing.

 

[mdawson9]

Ok. I did 3 weeks in primary and 3 weeks in bottle. Popped a bomber last night and wow! Best beer out of the 8 or 9 brews I've done. Just delicious. Can't wait to see how it ages. If if keeps getting better then I'm in for a treat!

 

[ajohnson153]

Ok. I did 3 weeks in primary and 3 weeks in bottle. Popped a bomber last night and wow! Best beer out of the 8 or 9 brews I've done. Just delicious. Can't wait to see how it ages. If if keeps getting better then I'm in for a treat!

Take a couple and hide them from yourself. Come back in about a year and pop those. I'd bet they are fantastic then.

 

[bizarrojosh]

I brewed this today and I hope it turns out well. I got a OG of about 1.080 so starting out ok. I made my own candi sugar and I think that was where I lost the point.

Question: would anyone wash this yeast or will it not be a good idea to wash this one since they might be too stressed?

 

[chriscax]

So I did this recipe back in Early August. So about 3 months ago and kinda forgot about it. I recorded an OG of 1.088. When I checked it last night I was thinking it might be 1.015. Nope it was all the way down to 1.000. I checked it multiple times and it was sure enough 1.000. So I tasted it and oh man was it good. I felt like I could have just drank the stuff uncarbonated and room temp. I can't wait to try this after bottling for another couple months.

Oh yeah and by the way I used a dry yeast called Safbrew s-33. So anyone wanting to save a couple bucks use this stuff.

 

[ajohnson153]

Bottled this two weeks ago and tasted it today. There is a lot more hop to this than I was expecting. Good though.

 

[run42beer]

Patience definitely pays off with this beer. I brewed Fatty Liver's version 8/4, bottled 8/23. It took at least 8 weeks for proper carbonation to develop. Once there it was definitely worth it. Nice, complex Belgian strong ale. With a bit more ageing it should mellow a bit more. Yummy!

 

[Silverbullet]

Follow-up: been about 4 months now since I brewed the first batch and have to say this is an amazing extract beer. I've never had the original chimay blue (sad) but the wife has and says this is "better" than she remembers it. All I know is that it's turned out fantastic and has been well worth the wait. My mother in law doesn't like beer (big time wine snob) but loves this beer as it reminders her of a good red. Not sure I agree with that but glad she likes it....lol
My second batch is slightly stronger (9.7% if I remember correctly but would have to check my notes) and is still pretty young in the bottle but I'm amazed how much the "hot" alcohol burn has mellowed out with time. Very pleased and recommend others give it a go if they're thinking of trying it.

 

[Silverbullet]

Bottled this two weeks ago and tasted it today. There is a lot more hop to this than I was expecting. Good though.

I've brewed two version of this and get no hop forward taste at all. Did you follow the schedule or experiment a bit? I wouldn't call this a hoppy beer at all.

 

[ajohnson153]

I've brewed two version of this and get no hop forward taste at all. Did you follow the schedule or experiment a bit? I wouldn't call this a hoppy beer at all.

I don't think it was hop bitterness. The beer is just green and has not mellowed so it has got a bit of a harsh edge. I followed the hop schedule.

 

[bannerj]

So last night brewing this....I messed up and didn't put the wine yeast in at 15min. How will that affect things? Yeast activity hasn't started in the last 8 hours. Temp in the basement is about 65.

I used one vial of WLP 500 and pitched it straight in since I was wrapping up everything around 1am.

Is there any point in boiling some water now with the wine yeast and pitch that for nutrients?

 

[Silverbullet]

WLP500 took forever to kick off in my starter and that was with a stir plate, low OG (1.035ish) and yeast nutrient. One vial will definitely be under pitched and will take several days to take off I would think. I would add another vial of 500 if you can and the nutrient. If you aren't able too, it will still make beer.

 

[ajohnson153]

I took this to a family function last night. It was a HUGE success! I took 4 bombers and brought 1 home, everyone said they would have drank more if they didn't have to drive. Everyone loved it though.