Belgian Blond Ale Revvy's Belgian Blonde (Leffe Clone)

[homebrewdad]

If you have any pilsner in your grainbill you should be boiling for 90 minutes...the reason you do is to drive off the dms precursors...

That's what reading had told me; originally, I had planned on doing a 60 minute boil, but I had decided to do a 90 minute for the potential DMS issues.

I'm glad that speedster's batch went well, but I can invest the extra half hour to give myself every chance of excellent beer.

 

[speedster00]

I'm not sure what those precursors are. Can someone explain? I'm brewing this again today. Once my grains steep and then boil that's over 90 minutes if that counts? I'm using 10.5 lbs of pilsner LME in today's batch. Trying to boost the ABV.

 

[homebrewdad]

I'm not sure what those precursors are. Can someone explain? I'm brewing this again today. Once my grains steep and then boil that's over 90 minutes if that counts? I'm using 10.5 lbs of pilsner LME in today's batch. Trying to boost the ABV.

Steep and mash times do not count towards the boil requirement. It's one thing to toss in some extract late in the boil, but grains (especially pilsner grains) really need full boil times.

DMS (dimethyl sulfide) gives you a cooked corn or vegetable flavor in your beer.

Again, it's worth it to me to boil for the full time to be sure.

 

[speedster00]

Steep and mash times do not count towards the boil requirement. It's one thing to toss in some extract late in the boil, but grains (especially pilsner grains) really need full boil times.

DMS (dimethyl sulfide) gives you a cooked corn or vegetable flavor in your beer.

Again, it's worth it to me to boil for the full time to be sure.

Ah thanks. All my pilsners are in the LME. My grain bill is nothing but malts.

 

[homebrewdad]

Ah thanks. All my pilsners are in the LME. My grain bill is nothing but malts.

You don't have any 2 row in a partial mash version of this recipe? 2 row is a pilsner grain.

 

[speedster00]

You don't have any 2 row in a partial mash version of this recipe? 2 row is a pilsner grain.

I dont. All my pilsners are in the LME. 10.4 lbs worth. I brewed this yesterday and forgot to take my gravity last night before I pitched so I took it this morning after it had been going over night. MY gravity this morning was 1.09.

And I did end up adding 6.5 oz of table sugar. Im anxious to see how it turns out Since I changed the recipe up slightly this time. It smells fantastic and I have a good inch of kroussen this morning already. Im guessing it will be in the 10% ABV range

 

[homebrewdad]

So what are you partial mashing if no 2 row? Sounds like an extract version, not a partial mash.

Hmmm, on second thought, I guess that some of the speciality grains for this recipe do need a mash. That's a teensy mash, isn't it?

Note that this is not intended as an insult, just an observation. Hope the new one turns out as well for you as the last one did!

 

[speedster00]

I would say its a hybrid. I did steep the 3 malt grains albiet only a few pounds total. I guess since I left out the pilsner grains only its still considered a partial mash. Since most of the 2-row would have been converted out to LME anyway, I just did it all that way to boost the ABV a bit. Last batch I did had some 2-row grains but if I recall it was only a couple of pounds and I used 6.5 lbs of LME. So this round all the malt and hops schedule is the same...I just changed the ratio of 2-row and went all LME....we shall see in a week or so how it does. Its fermenting like crazy as we speak.

 

[starman]

After a few weeks in the RG Bottle Jaccuzzi, I decided to give my Honey Leffe test batch a taste. Here's what I brewed for a 5.5 g batch:

Brewed 12.11
Bottled 01.13
SG 1.072 (overshot target of 1.067)
FG 1.008
ABV 8.41
Mash Temp 158
75 min boil

Grain Bill (anticipated efficiency was 65%):
9.75 lb Pilsner Bel
1.5 lb Honey Malt
1 lb Munich
4.8 oz Biscuit
4.0 oz Melanoiden
12 oz Turbinado
1 lb Honey - from mixed flowers. Added at flame out.

2.0 oz Styrian Goldings 3.8% Alpha... FWH. (boggle, unintentional inexplicable deviation)
.71 oz Sterling 7% Alpha 30min (Substitution for Saaz)

WLP530, 1.5L starter from stir plate. Fermented at 68-72

Taste Notes:
A - Color is a deep honey tone, certainly much darker than Leffe. Dropping the Turbinado which wasn't supposed to be there in the first place might help some, but not sure how else to lighten without impacting the flavor.
S - The honey really held on to its smell. The wife sampled and picked up the honey without knowing what she was drinking.
T - A pleasant honey malt sweetness without being overbearing. The FWH misadventure seems to have had no impact. The alcohol heat had relaxed a lot since being bottled but this one could probably use another month+ to mellow out. I'm not sure if my ferm temps were too low but the yeast esters are pretty subtle.
M - Similar to RLC.

To be continued!

 

[homebrewdad]

Starman, that's a really pretty beer (the color is gorgeous and unique), and sounds pretty cool to brew.

But why post it in this thread? Why not create your own? I thought the idea for the recipes section was for people to post their recipes, and people to comment on them, maybe suggest revisions or dicuss their own results, etc. You posted a totally different (albeit cool) beer here.

Start another thread so that people can find yours!

 

[starman]

HBD this is / was just a testbatch based on Revvy's idea from post 72.

Here's what I'm thinking of for a 2.5 gallon batch of the honey blond experiment.


4 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel
8.0 oz Munich Malt
2.7 oz Biscuit Malt
1.8 oz Melanoiden Malt
12.0 oz Honey Malt
5.3 oz Honey (1.0 SRM)

0.38 oz Styrian Goldings- Boil 60.0 min
0.20 oz Saaz- Boil 30.0 min

0.5 pkg Abbey Ale (White Labs #WLP530) [35.00 ml]

Whats gonna work?

 

[homebrewdad]

HBD this is / was just a testbatch based on Revvy's idea from post 72.

Gotcha - this is why I asked. I still think that if you are pleased with the beer, you might want to give it a dedicated thread.

 

[Revvy]

It looks gorgeous starman.

 

[homebrewdad]

It looks gorgeous starman.

No doubt. That is an awesome color.

 

[louie0202]

For those of you looking for a PM, I tried this one very vigorous ferment I would just leave out the berrys if your want a Belgian Blonde

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f75/belgian-strawberry-blonde-evil-charlies-dog-drool-244157/

 

[speedster00]

12 days into fermenting and I'm at 1.023 with good air lock activity....I'm anxious to get this done for a daily brew. Only thing I have kegged is a choco stout!

 

[husker]

I think this is a stupid question but here i go anyway.

I just racked this beer into 5 pounds of peaches in my secondary and I had to have a taste!

And it did not tast sweet or all that good at all. I know it is not supposed to taste that good but it tasted really alcoholic and not like to original at all. Should i worry or do I have a case of the noob impatience.

Thanks!

 

[starman]

I think this is a stupid question but here i go anyway.

I just racked this beer into 5 pounds of peaches in my secondary and I had to have a taste!

And it did not tast sweet or all that good at all. I know it is not supposed to taste that good but it tasted really alcoholic and not like to original at all. Should i worry or do I have a case of the noob impatience.

Thanks!

Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning, chapter 2, verse 1.062: "fear not if thy young beer tasteth green for the passage of a fortnight shall maketh thy beer yummy and the passage of two fortnights shall maketh it yummier still." ***

*** = not an actual quote from Revvy's Of Patience essay.

I kid. It will be fine or most likely awesome. I just gave my wife a carbonator capped hydrometer sample to tide her over and its certainly no where near as good as the aged bomber brewed last October.

 

[Akavango]

Revvy doing this beer again yes i like it this much. Even the bartender at my local watering hole was pleasantly surprised.

Was wondering why you are holding the mash for 45' only. On most belgian beers with pilsen the mash is held twice as long. Just curious.

On a side note on the second try of this beer I made a mistake and ordered dark munich instead of light munich. As expected it was darker but also rather nice once in the bottle. I had a bottle of it yesterday after 4 months in the bottle and it turned out fantastic. Not leffish at all just different but a great beer. May try that f#%k up again soon.

Ps the vienna lager is really good to with only 2 weeks of lager.

 

[simplemoe]

I just tasted this as my first all grain, but only a 1 gallon trial, which was split into two half gallon secondaries, one of them over peaches, and the other as is.

Both were awesome, and will definitely brew this again, next time being the full 5 gallons.

 

[thodson2010]

Brewed this on Saturday, and man does it smell and taste good! We ended up with a OG of 1.06, which is great! I went and looked at it yesterday, and it blew sediment all through the airlock, and ontop of the bucket! Man does it have some feisty yeast!

I am planning on racking it over 5-6 lbs costco frozen strawberries (thawed) and making a SWMBO Slayer out of it.

 

[homebrewdad]

I made a couple of alterations to the partial mash recipe I posted earlier... partially due to tweaking for getting the most grain I could use (wanted to minimize extract use), paritally due to the fact that AHS was out of both hop varieties called for in the recipe. I substituted Glacier (5.6% alpha) and Williamette (4.0% alpha); supposedly, the flavor/aroma should be similar, and the alphas were the same.

I'll post the full revised recipe later.

I brewed this last night, started way later than I should have, ended up going to bed at 4:00 AM... but by 9:00 AM this morning, I had a bubbling airlock, and by noon, fermentation was in full swing. Gravity reading was .002 over my target, so I feel very good about this batch (despite some issues with my sparge... and with splattering).

This will be the last late night batch I do... aside from the sleep issues, SWMBO woke up from dreams of spoiled groceries and odd coffee to the smell of my beer brewing, and was less than thrilled. Will definitely use this an an excuse to snag a turker fryer, get outside, and move on to all grain.

Will post a full blog entry with pics within the next day or two.

 

[homebrewdad]

Fermentation is really chugging along some 18 hours after pitching. I am probably going to have to go to a blowoff tube tonight to avoid issues.

Ambient temp in my basement is 66 degrees; my carboy thermometer tells me that this beer is clocking in at 73 degrees right now.

I thought about doing the wet t-shirt thing for this beer, but I did some reading about this yeast (White Labs WLP530 - Abbey Ale). Apparetly, it's not at all unheard of for people to use this one in the mid seventies, or even higher... and at higher temps, it apparently imparts some stronger spicy (and sometimes fruity) notes to the beer. I think that would be perfect for a Leffe clone, so unless it gets truly hot, I'm going to pretend to be Belgian, leave this yeast alone, and let it do its thing.

I am ridiculously excited about this batch.

 

[homebrewdad]

...and yep, I am at the blowoff tube stage. All sorts of foam coming out of the airlock.

My four year old and I discovered this, and he was really riled up by it. "Hurry, Da-da!" he exclaimed. "Your beer is getting ready to ESPLODE!"

When I read how people use 6.5 gallon carboys to avoid any issues with blowoffs, I just have to smile. This is two batches in a row that apparently didn't get the 6.5 gallon memo. :cross:

 

[Revvy]

I really can't wait for you to get to taste the recipe. I hope it lives up to your excitement!

 

[homebrewdad]

Blog entry is up: Brewing Until 4:00 AM, or a First Partial Mash. Included are narrative and pics.

 

[Nierika]

Brewed this up 10 days ago. Took a sample today. Very Tasty @ 1.017. Initial fermentation was explosive (if I waited another 30 minutes to put on a blow off tube I would've been cleaning beer off the ceiling!). Right now it's fermentating @ 65º. Do you think I should leave it be, or bring it to my basement to bring the temp up a bit and let the yeasties finish up a little warmer?

 

[Revvy]

Nah, I think I would leave it where it is.

 

[bigbopper]

im doing a 10 gal batch of this today,upped the buscuit to a full lb(for 10 gal)nailed the mash temp.also made a 2 ltr starter. ive been chomping @ the bit to do this and right in time for late spring.imo a great time to drink this one.:rockin:

 

[brumer0]

How long are you all letting this age? Mine is finishing up its week of lagering (in secondary) but is still very green. Thanks