Specialty IPA: Belgian IPA Houblon Chouffe aka HopChewy

[motobrewer]

interestingly about 8 hours after pitching the beer temp climbed rapidly from 74.8F to 77.1 in about an hour and a half (5.5 gallons). Not sure why, my heater was off during that time. Stayed there for about 10 minutes then fell rapidly back down to 75.

 

[motobrewer]

Just racked to secondary

 

[serum]

I'm going to give this one a shot at the weekend. Looking forward to it!

 

[serum]

I tried this but couldn't lager due to lack of heat control. I fermented for 2 weeks, dry hopped for 8 days then bottled.

The fermentation temperature was probably a little lower than recommended but it hit the target FG. I tasted it this afternoon after 2 weeks in the bottle (5 weeks old in all) and the alcohol is incredibly hot tasting.

The external temp in the room, which is the hottest in my house, has been between 22-23 for the whole time so I'm surprised that I should get these flavours.

I really hope this taste fades away!

 

[motobrewer]

update on mine - it's as good as i remember. great recipe.

 

[serum]

A few more weeks have passed and this brew has improved a lot. With a bit of temperature control I think I'd have it sorted.

 

[FuriousE]

Brewing this one next Saturday. Had all the grains and hops on hand. LHBS didn't stock Whitelabs, so I went with Wyeast 3522. I'm doing this one BIAB. It will also be the maiden voyage for my BrewPi fermentation controller. Can't wait!

 

[FuriousE]

Well, its bubbling away. The brew pi is doing a great job at holding it right at 75. I missed gravity a bit, only 1.072. This was due to using too high of an efficiency assumption, and a little extra volume. I've made some changes in Beersmith and I suspect my next batch will be right on. Can't wait to try this one!

 

[tellyho]

This being a go-to in the rotation, I had to brew again. I had a ton of homegrown hops, so I substituted liberally. As I have no idea what the alpha acids are on my hops, I quadrupled the bittering addition and doubled the flavor addition. Stuck to store bought Saaz for aroma and will use store bought Amarillo for dry hopping. I have no idea how it will turn out, but I'm sure it will be tasty.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[rockdemon]

Im thinking of givin this recipe a try, cant get the low lagering temp though,the coldest i can get is in my basement (15C) but it might turn out ok anyway i guess. I tried the GordonT's la chouffe recipe and really liked it. Im a bit curious to why you dont use Ardennes yeast with this one? I thought that was the a'chouffe strain?

 

[captgus]

Im thinking of givin this recipe a try, cant get the low lagering temp though,the coldest i can get is in my basement (15C) but it might turn out ok anyway i guess. I tried the GordonT's la chouffe recipe and really liked it. Im a bit curious to why you dont use Ardennes yeast with this one? I thought that was the a'chouffe strain?

WLP550 is the Chouffe strain.

 

[firebird400]

Interested in a water profile for this style.
Any one got a profile that is similar to the one Chouffe has

 

[ftea]

I live by Stone and diluted my water equal volumes with DI water and this turned out great. Brewed on 12/27/14 and just finished the last bottle today.

 

[jageraholic]

I'm pretty interested in brewing this although I brew extract. Can you give the IBU contributions from the hop additions so I can match it in beersmith?

 

[Shenanigans]

subscribed

 

[andrewjs]

I plan on brewing this soon but I can't lager so I guess I'll dry hop for 10 days and bottle. Should I still add yeast at bottling ?

 

[tellyho]

No need. Without the lagering step, there will be plenty of yeast swimming around.

 

[jageraholic]

Second stage starter kicking off tonight and brewing an extract version tomorrow night. can't wait!

 

[pdx_brewer]

I just brewed this recipe on Saturday afternoon and I had a quick question regarding secondary.

Do most of you rack to a secondary vessel before starting the lagering/dry-hopping? Or do you just leave it in the primary and add directly? I don't think 5 weeks on top of yeast is too long but I just wanted to get a feel for what most people recommend with this beer.

 

[m00ps]

add the dry hops directly for me. Wouldnt consider a secondary for any hop geared beer. Too much oxidation would negate the dry hops and strip the hop character

 

[pdx_brewer]

I'm new to kegging (this is the first batch that I'm going to keg) and I just transferred it from the secondary into the keg. I saw earlier in this thread that 3.5-4 vol was appropriate for this beer. I was wondering what people used to get to that volume? I was going to do something like this (@35F):

1. Set regulator to 30 psi
2. Leave 24-36 hours
3. Set down to ~10 psi to serve?

Does anyone else have any suggestions for the correct method to carb this beer and serve it?

 

[pdx_brewer]

Houblon, thank you so much for this recipe. Easily the best beer I've ever made and a near perfect copy of the real thing. Cheers!

 

[Shenanigans]

I have a pack of Wyeast 1388 a few months past its use by date.
I would like to use it up instead of buying a new vial of WLP550.
I think the original post mentions using the White Labs version (WLP570) for his first few batches.

Will it still turn out as good with that yeast?

Thanks!

 

[tellyho]

Anybody save yeast from primary to repitch for bottle conditioning? Am I crazy to consider it?

 

[rockdemon]

Anybody save yeast from primary to repitch for bottle conditioning? Am I crazy to consider it?

Its not crazy at all, it is pretty much standard procedure with belgian beers although I dont really know how much one would use so I have never had the guts to try it.

 

[Shenanigans]

Its not crazy at all, it is pretty much standard procedure with belgian beers although I dont really know how much one would use so I have never had the guts to try it.

I haven't done it myself either but if the fermentation is really finished and everything is properly sanitised then there shouldn't be a problem. You will be using the same yeast as used for the main fermentation so there is no risk that it will start eating other sugars resulting in overcarbing/bottle bombs.

For example using some Saison yeast for bottling - now that would be crazy

 

[tellyho]

I ask because, in the last batch of this I made, I tossed some S-05 in at bottling and got uneven and slow carbonation b/c it hydrated poorly. It would be really easy to toss in 1/4 cup of yeast cake. Actually, that's probably way too much.

I'll try it and report back.

 

[tellyho]

Repitch worked very well, I'm happy to report. I tossed about a quarter cup of the saved yeast cake in at bottling (probably a little much, but I had no idea what the vitality was like.). Carbonation time was normal (unlike many of my other brews, pitching S05), and I have the satisfaction of having used the same yeast. Still an awesome recipe, this is my third or forth brew. Thanks again!

 

[tellyho]

Bump

 

[tellyho]

Not sure who's following this at this point, but I'm curious. I've moved to adding the sugar at high krausen, mostly because I'm too lazy to make a yeast starter and this allows me to avoid it. I'm sure the subject is treated elsewhere, but does anyone have thoughts as to how this might be changing my final product, if at all?