Westvleteren 12

[Arbe0]

I have been looking into finding a recipe for Westvleteren 12. There are several recipe's around and I found the one on this forum. I am just wandering if anyone has brewed this beer and how did it turn out? Also which recipe did you use the "new world " or the "traditional" and if there are other recipe's that work for this?
the Forum I found it on is: … https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/the-pious-westvleteren-12-style-quad-multiple.147815/

 

[mirthfuldragon]

My profile picture is the real thing. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/westvleteren-12-clone-multiple-award-winner.500037/ is the one I made and it is sublime.
It is super close. I used all 3# of D180 intead of 2.5, so mine was a slight bit different.

 

[deuc224]

This is gonna be done in the near future when my glycol chiller comes in. I dont wanna worry about temp controlling so ill wait on that to do all the heavy lifting.

 

[HyperFocus]

I followed CSI recipe linked. Mine didn't turn out very well and had some fusel alcohol. If you want to make the recipe make sure you read all the way through both threads linked above. The one posted by CSI is built from the one posted by Saq.

It's an expensive and rather difficult recipe, so make sure you understand everything before you brew it.
Most importantly:
- Don't substitute or leave out any ingredients such as servomyces yeast nutrient.
- Rig up a way to make a yeast starter in a way that lets you catch the krausen, then make another huge starter starting with that krausen.
- Follow the temperature and fermentation schedule precisely.
- Make sure your brewing setup is well dialed in so that you don't undershoot or overshoot your OG. If you miss the OG, the beer will either under or over-attenuate.

I am going to give the recipe another shot soon. I have like 50 bottles from my last batch that I don't think are even worth aging.

 

[Arbe0]

Thank you for your input Hyperfocus, this is the kind of honesty I was looking for. when I asked if anyone has ever brewed this I didn't get any responses. Thank you for yours. I am going to investigate this more. Did you brew the "New world" or the "traditional"?

 

[bjhbrew]

I’ve also brewed the csi recipe. While I’ve never had westvletern 12 mine turned out very nice and compares favorably to st barnardus abt12. (Closest I could get for comparison). The recipe is pretty straightforward and I think the fermentation is a huge part of the overal result. I tried to follow the recipe as closely as possible and was careful to monitor fermentation temps. I now have bottles that have a year of age and are a delight to drink.

 

[deuc224]

See this is why im waiting for the glycol chiller to come in. The boil seems pretty straight forward but the fermentaion temps are what worried me the most, the keeping it at 50 for 40 days reallyscared me cuz i will forget to replace the ice packs i was collecting from work. Glycol is coming on monday according to mobrew when i talked to them yesterday, so this one will be made pretty soon after.

 

[bjhbrew]

See this is why im waiting for the glycol chiller to come in. The boil seems pretty straight forward but the fermentaion temps are what worried me the most, the keeping it at 50 for 40 days reallyscared me cuz i will forget to replace the ice packs i was collecting from work. Glycol is coming on monday according to mobrew when i talked to them yesterday, so this one will be made pretty soon after.

I’m far from an expert on brewing Belgian beers but from what I remember the goal is to start the fermentation temp low enough that you can let it free rise without getting out of control. I used wy3787 and was told not to try to restrain it too much with cooling once fermentation was underway or it could encourage the yeast to drop before achieving the high attenuation your after.

 

[deuc224]

I’m far from an expert on brewing Belgian beers but from what I remember the goal is to start the fermentation temp low enough that you can let it free rise without getting out of control. I used wy3787 and was told not to try to restrain it too much with cooling once fermentation was underway or it could encourage the yeast to drop before achieving the high attenuation your after.

See i remember reading to not let it free rise because itll get to the 80 too fast. There was never a definitive answer to a lot of the questions that are in that thread like now everyone says to use only 2 lbs of the d-180 but i never remember reading that. I wish someone would clear up all the little things about that thread. Im sure ill fail a few times but im gonna go with some of the odd things in the beginning in that thread.

 

[bjhbrew]

See i remember reading to not let it free rise because itll get to the 80 too fast. There was never a definitive answer to a lot of the questions that are in that thread like now everyone says to use only 2 lbs of the d-180 but i never remember reading that. I wish someone would clear up all the little things about that thread. Im sure ill fail a few times but im gonna go with some of the odd things in the beginning in that thread.

Again, far from expert opinion, but if I remember right I cooled the environment as opposed to restraining the wort temp. So using a fermentation chamber I had the temp probe measuring the air temp and kept that cool rather than measuring the wort and trying to lock it down to a temp. The wort temp was free to rise above the air temp but didn’t get too out of control.

 

[Arbe0]

See this is why im waiting for the glycol chiller to come in. The boil seems pretty straight forward but the fermentaion temps are what worried me the most, the keeping it at 50 for 40 days reallyscared me cuz i will forget to replace the ice packs i was collecting from work. Glycol is coming on monday according to mobrew when i talked to them yesterday, so this one will be made pretty soon after.

Many years ago I took my daughters small dorm fridge and built a wood box with foam insulation around the inside for a fermenter box and a controller for heat and cold to manage the fermentation. It took some work but it works great. A refrigerator or a freezer works good for this too.

 

[jturman35]

My profile picture is the real thing. Belgian Dark Strong Ale - Westvleteren 12 Clone - Multiple Award Winner is the one I made and it is sublime.
It is super close. I used all 3# of D180 intead of 2.5, so mine was a slight bit different.

I did the same recipe using almost 3lbs of D-180. I have a glycol chiller and conical and went all out expecting a massive blow off with WLP530 yeast. Unfortunately this beer came out sublime at best. Maybe my process is flawed, but i really made sure to go out on this particular beer. I even bout a six pack of Westy 12 from the monastery because i never had a Westy until a few months ago. I was a bit disappointed with the original. I did a side by side with a Westy/Chimay Blue/St Bernadus 12 and the Chimay Blue really stands up well next to the Westy considering it is mass produced and available just about everywhere and hell of a lot cheaper! I still have a few bottles if anyone wants to swap for a good IPA!

 

[Arbe0]

See i remember reading to not let it free rise because itll get to the 80 too fast. There was never a definitive answer to a lot of the questions that are in that thread like now everyone says to use only 2 lbs of the d-180 but i never remember reading that. I wish someone would clear up all the little things about that thread. Im sure ill fail a few times but im gonna go with some of the odd things in the beginning in that thread.

A couple of places i started looking into this and was wondering if anyone had really brewed this which it seems they did.
http://www.candisyrup.com/uploads/6/0/3/5/6035776/westvleteren_12_clone_-_040.pdf
and this one has two recipe's, one is "old world and the other is " traditional"
Belgian Dark Strong Ale - The Pious - Westvleteren 12 style quad - multiple

 

[HyperFocus]

Thank you for your input Hyperfocus, this is the kind of honesty I was looking for. when I asked if anyone has ever brewed this I didn't get any responses. Thank you for yours. I am going to investigate this more. Did you brew the "New world" or the "traditional"?

I did the new world recipe found here (post #21): Belgian Dark Strong Ale - Westvleteren 12 Clone - Multiple Award Winner

For this brew I was using my new grain mill for the first time, so I ended up overshooting my OG at 1.096. I Also ended up with about 6.5 gallons. Adding 3 lbs of d-180 didn't help either.

I aerated the wort as the recipe outlined, and I pitched 3.5 liters of a starter (not krausen). I added some anti foamer since I heard it was an aggressive yeast. It never really even formed more than a .5 inch krausen and the airlock was not going very crazy. So 2 days in I added an additional 4 liter starter to make sure it would attenuate. Activity didn't pickup much and after 4 days it was pretty slow bubbles.

Once I got to the cold rest I checked the gravity and it was at 1.015 which surprised me because I thought it stalled. After the rest I bottle it up and submitted it into a homebrew comp, It scored a 22 lol. It was only like 2 months old at that point, but the scoresheets noted musky, oxidation, fusels, and a lack of esters. Im like 95% sure it wasn't oxidized but whatever. I also didn't notice the fusels until I drank another two bottles. On the second bottle I noticed that once it warmed up, you get a hint of ethyl acetate (nail polish remover) on the nose.

I still have a few bottles if anyone wants to swap for a good IPA!

I'm interested! Ive had it once and remember it being delightful. Im on the east coast if you have any IPAs that you have been looking for?

 

[deuc224]

Im glad we are having this discussion. I wanna get down to this to a science so its brewable for everyone. When my fermenter gets here ill make it and document my steps thoroughly to compare with everyone elses experience.