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

[starman]

I pitch yeast and then leave it alone for 4-6 weeks temps ambient are 66-68F Bottle and condition in my beer whirlpool for 3 weeks at 72- and then hide it from the wife as long as possible. She's a fan.

Im not sure belgian yeast would do much in a cool lager enviro.

 

[bigbopper]

this thing is chugging away,i know this is an aggressive yeast but the funny thing is it took a couple days for the starter to get going,maybe just had a lot of sleepers?

 

[homebrewdad]

Mine will have been 4 weeks in primary this weekend. I planned to rack it last weekend, but life got crazy.

 

[Revvy]

So you're kegging it, right? I don't think I can wait 3 weeks to hear how it turns out.

 

[homebrewdad]

So you're kegging it, right? I don't think I can wait 3 weeks to hear how it turns out.

Kegging? I have heard of these elusive creatures, but I do not possess one.

Sadly, I shall be bottling.

I currenly have two batches that really ought to be bottled - this one (though I could let it sit longer, I suppose) and my imperial nut brown ale (which is pushing three total months of bulk aging).

Unfortunately, I don't have enough free bottles! I have three cases of new bottles, and *almost* one full case of bottles from my first batch (these have been rinsed, but they need a good soak to de-label them).

Guess I need to do a little more drinking than usual. You know, to free up those needed bottles.

 

[starman]

So you're kegging it, right? I don't think I can wait 3 weeks to hear how it turns out.

Nooooooooooooooooooooo! Friday the 13th was last week.

Seek more bottles. You can never have too many.

 

[homebrewdad]

Nooooooooooooooooooooo! Friday the 13th was last week.

Seek more bottles. You can never have too many.

I agree. I plan to pick some more up shortly.

One (self imposed) problem I have is that I am of the persuasion that since I spend a lot of time and effort in creating good beer, I want it to look good, too. Therefore, I don't do the recycled commercial bottle routine, not that there is ANYTHING wrong with that... I nerd out and print out custom labels, use cool caps, etc.

That means that I have to buy bottles, and I just don't own quite enough of them at the moment. Got to go hit the LHBS...

 

[starman]

Presentation is everything but you can still recycle over time to build the pipeline.

If you skip the embossed brands like Sam Adams and New Belgium a little oxyclean and hot water soak will release the labels with no effort. After that its pretty easy to match up a complete batch of either long necks, shorties, and bombers from a variety of commercial brewers.

Like you I had to buy initially to get past the pipeline 'bottleneck'. Now I'm slowly working toward the goal of a full batch of recycled Leffe bottles but at $10 a six pack vs $20 for 5 gallons of arguably superior Revvy's Leffe it will be a while.

 

[homebrewdad]

I'm not even going to worry about bottling the Leffe clone in clear bottles... all plain amber longnecks for me, at present.

I'll get there, it just might take a bit. I have almost enough bottles now, so it'll be okay.

Think I will bottle this blonde first, then see about the imperial brown. After all, if three months of bulk aging is okay for it, three months plus a week or two should still be okay.

 

[homebrewdad]

Bottled the Leffe last night, with less than spectacular results. Forgot to purchase priming sugar, no big deal, just adjusted and went with table sugar.

Auto siphon decided to be dumb once, gave me some bubbles, had to add a litle sanitized water to recreate my seal.

Big issue was that, despite my best efforts, I picked up some trub when racking to the bottling bucket. As a result, the last of my bucket just had too much sediment in it for me to keep the stupid bottling wand clear enough to bottle. I ended up with 43 2/3 bottles instead of 48... and I poured that 2/3, since it had lived through several nasty bubble issues AND had some trub in it. Really sucked, as I defintiely had enough volume for a full two cases of beer, but it became abundantly clear that the only way I'd get those last bottles would have been by removing the bottling tip, letting the junk flow, and dealing with a few oxidized bottles. I sadly poured the remainder.

To add insult to injury, this took far too long, I ended up in bed late again.

I know that it's fashionable to avoid secondaries unless you are doing fruit or wood, but I feel like I'd have avoided this issue had I racked to secondary first, then let that tiny bit of leftover trub settle before bottling.

On the bright side, I have enogh bottles now for my imperial nut brown.

Ah well. I should have 43 excellent beers, right?

I'll post a full blog entry with details and pics, if you care to read such.

 

[bigbopper]

Bottled the Leffe last night, with less than spectacular results. Forgot to purchase priming sugar, no big deal, just adjusted and went with table sugar.

Auto siphon decided to be dumb once, gave me some bubbles, had to add a litle sanitized water to recreate my seal.

Big issue was that, despite my best efforts, I picked up some trub when racking to the bottling bucket. As a result, the last of my bucket just had too much sediment in it for me to keep the stupid bottling wand clear enough to bottle. I ended up with 43 2/3 bottles instead of 48... and I poured that 2/3, since it had lived through several nasty bubble issues AND had some trub in it. Really sucked, as I defintiely had enough volume for a full two cases of beer, but it became abundantly clear that the only way I'd get those last bottles would have been by removing the bottling tip, letting the junk flow, and dealing with a few oxidized bottles. I sadly poured the remainder.

To add insult to injury, this took far too long, I ended up in bed late again.

I know that it's fashionable to avoid secondaries unless you are doing fruit or wood, but I feel like I'd have avoided this issue had I racked to secondary first, then let that tiny bit of leftover trub settle before bottling.

On the bright side, I have enogh bottles now for my imperial nut brown.

Ah well. I should have 43 excellent beers, right?

I'll post a full blog entry with details and pics, if you care to read such.

keg the next one

 

[homebrewdad]

keg the next one

Shucks, why didn't I think of that? Let me go grab my kegging stuff...

Oh, wait.


Maybe one day for kegging, but I'd rather focus on getting the gear I need to move to all grain first. I don't mind bottling itself, and I like the portability of bottles.

I simply had a sucky experience last night.

 

[thirstyutahn]

Oh mmmmyyy, I brewed this monday morning and pitched my nice big starter at 67-68 degrees. It was bubbling in about 3 hours. Wooooow, up until wed it was absolutely spewing out the blowoff tube. I had to change the blowoff 3 times. I have never seen krausen rise that much! I could have harvested some grade A yeast had I been prepared. I had what looked like a beautiful big starter in my blowoff jug. Today fermentation seems to have slowed way down. Should I raise the temp or just let it ride out at 68?

Looking forward to this beer. It's my first Belgian and I'm pretty excited about it.

Thanks Revy!

 

[homebrewdad]

I'd say to let it ride at 68.

 

[Revvy]

Wow. Sounds like you've had a rocking fermentation. Man, I've never had this beer go that nuts that I can recall. But you prove the importance of a big healthy starter for sure!

 

[bigbopper]

Oh mmmmyyy, I brewed this monday morning and pitched my nice big starter at 67-68 degrees. It was bubbling in about 3 hours. Wooooow, up until wed it was absolutely spewing out the blowoff tube. I had to change the blowoff 3 times. I have never seen krausen rise that much! I could have harvested some grade A yeast had I been prepared. I had what looked like a beautiful big starter in my blowoff jug. Today fermentation seems to have slowed way down. Should I raise the temp or just let it ride out at 68?

Looking forward to this beer. It's my first Belgian and I'm pretty excited about it.

Thanks Revy!

had the same type of fermentation,10 gal. batch with a 1.5 ltr starter.

 

[starman]

68 is good for the Leffe, its not over the top estery but it certainly asserts itself as a Belgian.

HBDad - you know you have to drink what's left in the bottom of the bottling bucket for luck. That and make a pick up tube for your bucket so very little doesn't end up in a bottle. A 1/2" MPT fitting and a 90 elbow can save you the trouble of tippy bucket and a fair amount of brew.

Also, in my house the half filled bottles and hydrometer flasks now get the DIY carbonator cap treatment so no beer is ever dumped. It was a fun $30 DIY project that lets us bottlers force carb too.

 

[thirstyutahn]

Awesome thanks guys, 68 it is.

Its good to know I wasn't the only one with a wild fermentation. Ive learned my lesson and next time ill ferment in my carboy and shove some big tubing in the top. The stuff I had on the 3 piece stem was too small and was getting clogged easily with that thick krausen.

Ill post back in a few weeks and let ya know how it turned out.

 

[homebrewdad]

68 is good for the Leffe, its not over the top estery but it certainly asserts itself as a Belgian.

HBDad - you know you have to drink what's left in the bottom of the bottling bucket for luck. That and make a pick up tube for your bucket so very little doesn't end up in a bottle. A 1/2" MPT fitting and a 90 elbow can save you the trouble of tippy bucket and a fair amount of brew.

Also, in my house the half filled bottles and hydrometer flasks now get the DIY carbonator cap treatment so no beer is ever dumped. It was a fun $30 DIY project that lets us bottlers force carb too.

Dip tube is on my to do list. Yeah, I'm sure my wife wants me to chug five beers worth of trub-filled flat beer. I'm a lightweight anyway... I can see it now. Drunk, gassy me. Not a pretty picture.



I loved the way this yeast took off. Didn't like that the cake wasn't as hard as the last couple I did, but still was a cool experience.

 

[homebrewdad]

Almost to the two week mark in bottles. The wait seems to be killing me.

I plan to pick up a "make your own six pack" this weekend, and one or two of those bottles will be the real, commercial Leffe. I want to see just how close this comes, and exactly how it compares - better, worse, different.

 

[homebrewdad]

I had promised a blog entry on this bottling, but have been sucking at getting anything posted. Finally, it is done.

If you care to read about my bottling misadventures (with pictures!), have at it.

 

[kramerwtmf]

I suppose I should preface this post by saying that this is only my second all grain brew. I brewed this recipe up on Monday and everything seemed to go well. Took a gravity reading and tasted it and it tasted great. However today, two days after brewing this, the smell coming off of my fermentor is a very sour smell almost like a terrible fart. Is this normal or is my beer going to taste like someone farted in my mouth? I also made a one liter yeast starter which smelled great before I pitched it.

 

[homebrewdad]

To be honest, my airlock smelled very nice the entire time for this batch - very much like bread. However, fart smells are not at all unusual in fermentations, and they don't affect the final smell or flavor of the beer.

 

[Revvy]

I suppose I should preface this post by saying that this is only my second all grain brew. I brewed this recipe up on Monday and everything seemed to go well. Took a gravity reading and tasted it and it tasted great. However today, two days after brewing this, the smell coming off of my fermentor is a very sour smell almost like a terrible fart. Is this normal or is my beer going to taste like someone farted in my mouth? I also made a one liter yeast starter which smelled great before I pitched it.

Fermentation is often ugly and stinky and perfectly normal...It doesn't matter something smells, or looks UNTIL the beer is carbed and conditioned....

 

[kramerwtmf]

Cool thanks. I guess I just gotta wait and see. Thanks for the speedy replies!

 

[bigbopper]

ive had this on tap for about three weeks now,just keeps getting better !will definatly brew again.thanx revvy and bonus:washed the yeast and on "the big brew day" made the westy 12 clone and pitched a ton of this yeast and the blow off tube chugged for a solid week.awesome!

 

[homebrewdad]

After allowing almost four weeks in the bottle, I put two in the fridge last night; I plan to crack the first one Saturday night.

I did notice a relative ton of sediment in the bottom of the bottles... not surprising, I suppose, considering the issues I had at bottling time. Guess I'll have to be sure to do some good homebrew pours.

Cannot wait to see how this beer does.

 

[Revvy]

Dammit, you're torturing even me, and I'm the king of patience.

 

[homebrewdad]

Dammit, you're torturing even me, and I'm the king of patience.

LOL what would you have me do? Saturday night will be eight weeks on the dot from brew date. I could have bottled after three (instead of four), I suppose, and I could have tried a bottle after three weeks... but I want it to be GOOD. I'm hoping it is fully carbed, I'd hate to have to wait longer.

I'll be curious to see how it ages, too.

Definitely gotta pick up a couple of bottles of the "real thing" to see how it compares.

 

[thirstyutahn]

Mine is 3 days away from 4 weeks in primary. Gonna transfer to a keg Sunday and let it carb the slow and steady way. What is everyone's fg on this? The original recipe is saying 1.010. Has everyone been hitting that low of a gravity? Last time I checked I was only around 1.016-18 I think. I did warm it up at that time and roused the yeast carefully. I think it may have gotten too cold.