Belgian Dark Strong Ale Westvleteren 12 Clone - Multiple Award Winner

[Pole]

You can package it, but best case scenario is 6 months.

Thank you.

 

[hobbybob]

I managed to store 9 gallon of my Westy12 clone under the floor of our house.( 2 gallon 0,3cl capped bottles and 7 gallon 0,5ltr fliptops bottles)

Thats where it will be the upcoming months, in december I will get some 05,ltr fliptop bottles out for tasting ( on my birthday )

I brewed another 11 gallon batch of the 12 recipe as the 8 (OG 1068) ended up with 1010 that entire batch is for tasting/drinking upcoming months, it's already perfect This way I will not be tempted too drink my Westy12 clone:rockin:

 

[bmaupin]

I brewed a Westy8 on 5/30 and Ruger988's Westy12 on 6/11. The 8 is nice, but the added Special B really makes the 12 even better. Both aging in kegs, but had to sample Thanks @CSI and @Ruger988 for the recipes!

 

[ruger988]

I brewed a Westy8 on 5/30 and Ruger988's Westy12 on 6/11. The 8 is nice, but the added Special B really makes the 12 even better. Both aging in kegs, but had to sample Thanks @CSI and @Ruger988 for the recipes!

Cheers!

 

[jabba11]

Won this gold yesterday with mine..

 

[pwortiz]

Won this gold yesterday with mine..

Congrats! I am waiting on my score sheet today, actually. I know it wasn't a winner but I am curious about the comments and judging.

 

[jabba11]

Congrats! I am waiting on my score sheet today, actually. I know it wasn't a winner but I am curious about the comments and judging.

I got a combined score of 42. A few comments about being too thin and not "big" enough. But 42 is a pretty good score. Its only 6 months in the bottle also.

 

[pwortiz]

I got a combined score of 42. A few comments about being too thin and not "big" enough. But 42 is a pretty good score. Its only 6 months in the bottle also.

Well, I got my sheet with a combined score of 40 and I didn't place! Some serious contenders at this contest! It was the best score I have ever received, though, and I am proud of that. The 2 judges I had did move me to 'mini BOS' so they enjoyed it enough to push it to another group of judges.

Mine was aged to a year and a half or so now. I like it way better now than before.

Congrats again on your medal!

 

[BrewerTom]

I'm making this one a yearly brew, it just turns out so good. I just kegged up another batch of this one. This one attenuated a lot further than I wanted; I hit 1.005 for the FG. So it's going to be a lot drier than expected. I pitched on a yeast cake, so I'm guessing that is why it fermented down so low.

 

[catdaddy66]

I'm making this one a yearly brew, it just turns out so good. I just kegged up another batch of this one. This one attenuated a lot further than I wanted; I hit 1.005 for the FG. So it's going to be a lot drier than expected. I pitched on a yeast cake, so I'm guessing that is why it fermented down so low.

I would love to do this one each year also. Absolutely my best attempt in brewing to date. My buddy and I split 5 gallons a while back and are talking of doing 10 gallons in a few weeks!

 

[scheeps]

So I have read all 85 pages of this thread, and have decided to give this a try. I am a simple brewer who brews on the weekends in his garage. I am good with all the info I have read here from various folks, with the exception of one thing and that is the yeast part. I know nothing about making starters and all that, and had planned on buy the WLP530 from my local brew shop, with that said, my question is how many vial or packs will it take to make this as good as it can be using this method. May be out of my league but have heard a lot about this beer from some NATO friend of mine who go to that part of the world and say its fantastic. Going to brew this weekend 8/12/2016.

 

[Kee]

So I have read all 85 pages of this thread, and have decided to give this a try. I am a simple brewer who brews on the weekends in his garage. I am good with all the info I have read here from various folks, with the exception of one thing and that is the yeast part. I know nothing about making starters and all that, and had planned on buy the WLP530 from my local brew shop, with that said, my question is how many vial or packs will it take to make this as good as it can be using this method. May be out of my league but have heard a lot about this beer from some NATO friend of mine who go to that part of the world and say its fantastic. Going to brew this weekend 8/12/2016.

With 3 fresh packs of yeast you would just be shy of the 320 billion cell count recommended, but that should be plenty if you use pure oxygen to oxygenate and let the fermentation temperature ramp up. (And don't go over the OG, or have a lot of yeast blow out, etc.).

Having said that, some people seem to do everything right and still have the yeast stall out. I like making a starter so I know the yeast are in good shape.

 

[bmaupin]

So I have read all 85 pages of this thread, and have decided to give this a try. I am a simple brewer who brews on the weekends in his garage. I am good with all the info I have read here from various folks, with the exception of one thing and that is the yeast part. I know nothing about making starters and all that, and had planned on buy the WLP530 from my local brew shop, with that said, my question is how many vial or packs will it take to make this as good as it can be using this method. May be out of my league but have heard a lot about this beer from some NATO friend of mine who go to that part of the world and say its fantastic. Going to brew this weekend 8/12/2016.

I would say this is the perfect opportunity to buy a yeast starter kit (at least flask & dme, preferably with stir plate) and make a starter by sanitizing yeast pack, scissors and flask, boil dme w/ water for 15 mins and cool to 60 to 70 degrees, and combine. I was also somewhat timid my first starter (made 7th beer this last weekend), but now I have no fear! .

 

[BrewerDon]

I brewed this recipe 4 months ago with minor tweaks. The recipe calls for 2.5 lbs of D180 but I only used 2 lbs since it comes in 1 lb packs. To compensate, I did a double decoction. With each decoction I boiled for 30 minutes. Also to compensate for the .5 lbs of D180 that I cut out of the recipe, I added .5 lbs of Demerara sugar.

So there was 1 hour of decoction boiling and 1.5 hours for the main boil.

At the end of the main boil, right before I added the D180 syrup I was pleasantly surprised at how dark the color was. It was already in the color range for this style even without any D180.

Since this is my first time to make any version of this recipe, I can't compare it to a version with 2.5lbs of D180 and no decoction but I can say that it already tastes incredible and should only get better with age. The flavors I taste now are malty caramel, pepper, some plum, and a little alcohol. The alcohol is not hot. Rather, it is in balance for this style. On the finish, there is just a little pleasant bitterness that does not linger.

I wish I had a Westvletern 12 to compare it to.

 

[hobbybob]

For all off you how brewed this recipe the last month(-s) bottle or cask it and forget about it for at least 6 months it only gets better.

Tryed one off mines yesterday and it's getting amazing

 

[scheeps]

So I need a little advise, I brewed this 3 weeks ago, I did just as the directions said (and there were a lot of them) started and ended the first week at 80 degrees, I then transferred it to a secondary container, but I missed the section that said to reduce the temp, for the second week, and I went straight to 50 degrees, where it has been ever since. First question, did I hurt it by missing that second week? Second question is how long do I let it set in the secondary container, before bottling. third question, is what is the overall consensus on the bottling process, priming sugar, Candi sugar, yeast pitching....... thanks for your help, It was a lot of work, and I am in great anticipation as well as fellow brewers don't want to mess it up and disappoint anyone.

 

[scheeps]

Any way someone could add the last little bit of info on the preferred method of bottling to this and after that this page would be all anyone would need to make this from start to finish. I have it in my frige into the 4th week of secondary fermenting, but would like to know just what I need to do on day 40 to get it in the bottle. I have noticed that a lot of people assume everyone knows exactly what to do after getting their wort in a fermenter. Thanks

 

[pwortiz]

Sheep's, I don't think you need to be worried about anything. I screwed up all kinds of stuff and still got a combined 40 in BJCP judging. You will be fine. As for bottling, it should follow your normal process - I added 5oz of priming sugar prepared in a pint of water (boiled together for 5 - 10 mins) cooled, put in sanitized bottling bucket, transferred beer on that - AFTER allowing it to come to room temp (take bucket out 24 hours prior to bottling) - bottled. Stored at 68+ degrees and forgot about the batch for 6 months minimum. Enjoy!

 

[Mocda]

Any way someone could add the last little bit of info on the preferred method of bottling to this and after that this page would be all anyone would need to make this from start to finish. I have it in my frige into the 4th week of secondary fermenting, but would like to know just what I need to do on day 40 to get it in the bottle. I have noticed that a lot of people assume everyone knows exactly what to do after getting their wort in a fermenter. Thanks

Like mentioned, follow your normal bottling procedures with one addition as far as i can tell (And as i did):
Transfer to bottling bucket
Add priming sugar for carbonation
Add about 2-3 grams of rehydrated dry-yeast to the bottling bucket before bottling it (To make sure there is enough viable yeast in there after the long "lagering-period") and make sure you stir it well (but carefully to avoid oxygen) to make sure the priming sugar and fresh yeast is mixed in properly.

1-2 grams per 5 gallons is probably enough, but i figured wth, better be safe then sorry (Will at worst result in alittle more at the bottom of your bottles unless i missed something)
I went with Fermentis safbrew t-58 for the dry yeast as that should be able to handle the alcohol content in this brew and it was what my local brew-supplier had available.
I bottled this on Monday evening and it had started to carbonate already when i checked 36ish hours later.
Keeping the bottles at about 22C (71.5F) for carbonation for 2-3 weeks, then the bottles will be put away for a year (Most of them anyways)

TIP:
When i bottle i ALWAYS put the last half-bottle, which i cannot get out of the bottling bucket normally, into a rinsed and disinfected standard plastic soda-bottle. I then proceed to squeeze most of the air out of it before i tighten the plastic cap. Put that bottle in next to your glass bottles and you can watch/feel it go back to full size and harden up as your brew carbonates.
This way you will know that carbonation is happening and the plastic bottle will get really hard before it has completed.
(It will ofcourse not taste as the brew in the glass bottles, but imho it is well worth it for verification)

 

[bootney]

Greetings,

I started out at 1.087 and I sit at 1.028 after 12 days. Airlock has slow activity with around 1 minute in between bubbles. Two things I think caused this (sluggish first stage starter and I ramped the temp to high in the beginning). As a side note this is the second stalled brew in a row using WLP. Starting to wonder if the pure pitch packs are causing some issues(purely speculation)?

My question is which which strain do I use to finish this off? I was thinking WLP566(best in my opinion) or WLP590. Or maybe WLP001 will suffice.

There are way to many posts for me to try and go back in search due to time constraints. Any information would be appreciated. Cheers.

 

[jtp137]

Greetings,



I started out at 1.087 and I sit at 1.028 after 12 days. Airlock has slow activity with around 1 minute in between bubbles. Two things I think caused this (sluggish first stage starter and I ramped the temp to high in the beginning). As a side note this is the second stalled brew in a row using WLP. Starting to wonder if the pure pitch packs are causing some issues(purely speculation)?



My question is which which strain do I use to finish this off? I was thinking WLP566(best in my opinion) or WLP590. Or maybe WLP001 will suffice.



There are way to many posts for me to try and go back in search due to time constraints. Any information would be appreciated. Cheers.

I have brewed this three times using wlp 530 and it stalled all three times. I got it down a little further with another repitch of the same yeast

 

[bootney]

What was your attenuation after the second pitch? Right now I sit at 67% and that isn't going to get it done. Still trying to get the remaining 20%. Thanks for the reply. Cheers

 

[landshark]

I've been finalizing my full e-brew set up. This is planned to be the first brew on the system.

 

[BlackWraith]

Well it nearly maxed out my mash tun to do a 3.5g batch but it is boiling!

 

[spiff2268]

May have missed it, but what's the batch size?

 

[jtp137]

What was your attenuation after the second pitch? Right now I sit at 67% and that isn't going to get it done. Still trying to get the remaining 20%. Thanks for the reply. Cheers

Got it down to 1.015 still too sweet

 

[bootney]

Got it down to 1.015 still too sweet

I decided to go with WLP099. I'll let it sit on the WLP530 for one more week while I get a couple of starters made of the WLP099. Thank you for sharing your experience. That is exactly what I was looking for. Cheers

 

[jtp137]

I decided to go with WLP099. I'll let it sit on the WLP530 for one more week while I get a couple of starters made of the WLP099. Thank you for sharing your experience. That is exactly what I was looking for. Cheers

I made a 2 liter stir plate starter crashed decanted and pitched maybe it wasnt enough yeast i was afraid to oxygenate

 

[bootney]

I made a 2 liter stir plate starter crashed decanted and pitched maybe it wasnt enough yeast i was afraid to oxygenate

Yeah, I'd agree on not adding o2 at this point. I'd say 1.015 wasn't too bad. Just a few points off. I decided to stay away from the Belgian saison strains because the risk of phenols/funk may come through more than I care too. Also didn't want to do 530 again because of what you experienced. Thanks again. Cheers

 

[bootney]

I made a 2 liter stir plate starter crashed decanted and pitched maybe it wasnt enough yeast i was afraid to oxygenate

After a weeks worth of WLP099 propagation it has been pitched to the beer in a secondary vessel. During that extra week the beer on the original yeast didn't ferment down one bit and stayed at 1.028.

Tasted the starter of the the WLP099 and it was a tart bugger. Had similar taste to WLP001 from a starter standpoint in my opinion.

Hopefully this gets me down to 1.012. Cheers