Stone Cali-Belique clone

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zahrndt_usmc

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Ok so I went to Stone brewing for my buddies going away party, and while im normally a malty kind of guy i tried the Stone Cali-Belique for the first time, and it was amazing, so I want to get started on a clone. Only prob i cant seem to find any recipies for it... so if anyone has a recipe for it (partial mash preferably but i can always convert thanks to beersmith) it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all!
 
I just had this last night for the first time. I thought it was great. I am also interested a clone recipe. If not this, a clone of Green Flash Le Freak.
 
The question is really which belgian yeast they use. It's been awhile since I've had the cali-belique, but I'd give a guess of WLP550?

i read they made the starter for one of the vertical epics by feremnting a batch of the belgian yeast with stone IPA. normally use stone APA but it's too dark for the beer they were doing. they thought the IPA with the belgian yeast was good so the cali belique was released....

all the recipes are online for the VE beers so a little research will tell you what yeast it is.
 
I believe the Cali-Belgique is identical to the Stone IPA recipe but with a Belgian yeast strain.

That is correct. I am intrigued by this beer as well. I think I will try my hand at it with some Westvleteren 12 yeast (purportedly Westmalle) in a Stone IPA clone. I enjoy their IPA but haven't had the chance to sample the Cali-Belgique, so this will have to do until I get some.
 
i just looked at the stone website.
said august of '08 is the original release of the belgique.
makes sense to me that they were building the starter for the vertical epic 080808 beer.

that yeast according to the vertical epic recipe is this...

Yeast:
White Labs WLP 570 (Belgian Golden Ale Yeast)

This is the first time we’d really used this yeast. It’s a good strong fermenter, produces a lot of phenolic and clove character, and doesn’t flocculate worth a damn. It was a bear trying to filter this beer. Feel free to use another Belgian strain if you want your beer to be more clear, but we liked the flavors that this strain produced!
 
According to the bottle (and stone's website) it's stone IPA with a belgian yeast. There are tons of stone IPA clone recipes out there, and as mentioned WLP570 is probably the closest yeast flavor-wise to the original.

I really liked the cali-belique also, and I've made several batches of IPA with various belgian yeasts. I brewed two different 5 gal recipes, and split them each into 5 one gal growlers to ferment with 5 different belgian yeast strains. I then had a bunch of friends over for a tasting, and had them rate each of the 10 beers. The unanimous winner as far as yeast strain was the WLP575 belgian blend. It gives a nice spicy clove/phenolic/peppery flavor and a hint of fruitiness without overpowering the hops. It also imparts a nice floral aroma that adds a nice complexity to the hop aromas. IMHO it's an ideal yeast for hop forward belgians.
 
had a cask version of this that was dry hopped with simcoe that was really fantastic

regular version is really nice as well - seemed much more approachable for my friends that don't appreciate the aggressive flavor of some of the other stone brews
 
Here's what I used last year, came out really nice. It was a parti-gyle so my scaling may not be exact. For 6 gallons:
12 lbs 2 row
1 lb Crystal 20
.5 lb Crystal 10
1 lb Wheat
1 oz Chinook FWH
1.5 oz Columbus 60
1.5 oz Cent 10
1.5 oz Cent 5
2 oz Cent 0
Wyeast 3522 Ardennes
 
I tried PMing this to somebody who had asked for my recipe, but since their box was full, thought I'd post it here.

Hope you find it!

Alright...here's the recipe. Really quite simple. My buddy's brother-in-law used to brew at Stone and told me that its almost the same as Stone IPA but finishes with Chinook instead of Centennial (confirmed here)...and with a Belgian yeast:

I've put my amounts in "quotes" for a 7 gallon pre-boil volume that, with my system, gives me 5.5 gallons of wort in the fermenter.

Grain Bill: (aiming for an OG of 1.062)
90% American 2-Row "12 lbs"
10% Caramel 15L (my LBHS doesn't have 15L so I do 5% 10L "12 oz" and 5% 20L "12oz")

Mashing Schedule:
Mash for 60 min at 151. Mash out at 167 for 10 min.
I fly sparge and get about 75% efficiency

Hops: (aiming for a total of 77 IBUs)
Columbus - 60 min "1.5oz"
Centennial - 1 min "2.0oz"
Chinook - Dry Hop "2.0oz"

Yeast: I used WLP575...i've heard that they use WLP570 though. I made a 2L starter for this and then oxygenated for 2 minutes when I pitched the yeast in the wort.

My fermentation schedule was:
Primary 70F ambient: 10 days "FG was 1.010"
Secondary (Dry Hop) 70F ambient: 2 weeks
Crash Cooled 35F in fridge: 3 days

I kegged mine and gave it a month...tasted great.

Let me know if you have any questions...

Happy brewing
 
Glad you got it! let me know if you have any questions...i PM'd you my cell if anything comes up.

cheers.
 
Just tried a recipe for a Stone IPA and changed the yeast to Belgian Golden Ale Yeast (WP570) and tasted just like it. Here is the recipe, it's on the 2nd to the last page and its basically a recipe for a Stone IPA and I just switched the yeast. I did the extract with grains recipe but there is also an all-grain one too.

Oh and by the way . . . this recipe is direct from Stone Brewing so its probably better than some other ones out there.

BREW YOUR OWN Magazine | December, 2008 Issue

Enjoy!
 
I'm going to try brewing this over the weekend ... I know this thread is a little last year but anyone still on it can suggest when to dry hop? I am going to secondary after 7 days and usually do it then.

Follow up to that ... I have always wanted to throw in a little white sage to add a hint of california herbal flavor ... this may be the beer to do it. Should it go into the boil, or dry hop, or both? Thx!!
 
Dry hopping is usually best if done just before kegging or bottling, and the optimum length of time for dry-hopping seems to be about 7-10 days. I usually throw my dry hops in a week before I plan to keg, and end up kegging 10 days later since I'm busy/lazy. ;)

One quick comment though, IMO 7 days is way too soon to rack to secondary. I rarely do a secondary anymore, and when I do it's usually just to dry hop or rack onto oak or fruit. The beer will usually be better off if you leave it on the yeast a little longer so that they can clean up after themselves better.

I can't help you on the sage though. Maybe someone else can chime in.
 
Thanks juanmoore. I new to brewing and have heard conflicting advice when it comes to primary vs secondary. I'm sure it is all dependent on the beer thats being brewed. I'll toss some sage in with the dry hop and let you know how it comes out!
 
I tried PMing this to somebody who had asked for my recipe, but since their box was full, thought I'd post it here.

Hope you find it!

Alright...here's the recipe. Really quite simple. My buddy's brother-in-law used to brew at Stone and told me that its almost the same as Stone IPA but finishes with Chinook instead of Centennial (confirmed here)...and with a Belgian yeast:

I've put my amounts in "quotes" for a 7 gallon pre-boil volume that, with my system, gives me 5.5 gallons of wort in the fermenter.

Grain Bill: (aiming for an OG of 1.062)
90% American 2-Row "12 lbs"
10% Caramel 15L (my LBHS doesn't have 15L so I do 5% 10L "12 oz" and 5% 20L "12oz")

Mashing Schedule:
Mash for 60 min at 151. Mash out at 167 for 10 min.
I fly sparge and get about 75% efficiency

Hops: (aiming for a total of 77 IBUs)
Columbus - 60 min "1.5oz"
Centennial - 1 min "2.0oz"
Chinook - Dry Hop "2.0oz"

Yeast: I used WLP575...i've heard that they use WLP570 though. I made a 2L starter for this and then oxygenated for 2 minutes when I pitched the yeast in the wort.

My fermentation schedule was:
Primary 70F ambient: 10 days "FG was 1.010"
Secondary (Dry Hop) 70F ambient: 2 weeks
Crash Cooled 35F in fridge: 3 days

I kegged mine and gave it a month...tasted great.

Let me know if you have any questions...

Happy brewing

Sorry to resurrect a thread. Going to brew this and I have Columbus, Centennial and Chinook around... but I also have 1/2 lb of Citra leftover from the Kern River Citra DIPA clone.

Think there's any role for a dry hop with Citra in with the Chinook?

Thanks,
-Tim
 
Well, it'll no longer be a clone, but citra works well with all those hops so you should be fine. Just FYI, I have recently found out why my first attempt at this clone failed: the Cali-Belgique is fermented with a SAISON yeast, not a typical belgian abbey strain. Straight from a brewer's mouth, at the brewpub. I'd definitely try that- love that beer.
 
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