Yet another first all-grain brew day

[ACSlater]

So I decided to get a bit ambitious for my first all-grain brew day. The recipe I came up with is a clone of Tripel Karmeliet. It's one of my all-time favorites, and having some on hand at basically ⅛ the cost was a no-brainer. The recipe is as follows: 9 lbs Belgian Pilsner, ¾ lbs malted oats, ¾ lbs Belgian wheat, ½ lb flaked barley, ½ lb flaked oats, ½ lb flaked wheat and 2 lbs of corn sugar added at flameout. 1 oz of Styrian Goldings, ⅓ oz of Mt. Hood and ¼ oz of Saaz at 60 minutes and another ¾ oz of Saaz at 15 minutes remaining.

I mashed at 147º, shooting for a dry beer with a high gravity. It's a good thing I did, as the efficiency of BIAB with normal crush for grains is horrible. I ended up with an OG of only 1.060 with a target of 1.084. I don't want to calculate that efficiency rating, I just know it's awful. Fortunately, since I mashed low, the fermentability of the wort was awesome. Since we're in the midst of summer and it's an hour drive to the nearest LHBS, I used Safbrew T-58 for yeast. I also forgot to add the Corriander, but apparently, it didn't matter. Primary took 11 days, then I racked it to a secondary carboy. I took a sample tonight (3 days in secondary) and the color and aroma are pretty much exactly as I wanted. It's clearing really well, and should be a clear, deep golden color when finished. The FG is 1.008, which by my calculations puts it a shade over 7% ABV. (God bless low mash temps.) The taste, although a bit green, tells me it's exactly what I was shooting for. After mellowing, it should be an almost spot-on copy of the original.

 

[CJ-3]

Congrats on the first all grain day! Even though you hit a small bump in the road, it sounds like you made a great beer!

 

[Cider123]

Sounds like a good one.

You didn't mention, but when using a large amount of pilsner malt, many will run a 90 min boil to remove any DMS.

Also, when adding coriander, make sure it's meant for brewing. This provides that unique, almost citrusy flavor. The McCormicks junk is not the variety of coriander you would use in beer as it imparts a vegetal taste.

Try double-crushing your grains in your next attempt. I would be surprised if your lack of efficiency is due to not grinding your grains fine enough. I know this is often disputed here. Make sure you have an accurate thermometer.

 

[thespiff]

Well done. My first all-grain was this past Friday...and it was planned to be a Duvel clone with a very similar (though slightly simpler) grain bill.

But the weekend before, I drank a bottle of Boulevard Brewing Saison-Brett. The next day, I replaced all of my pilsner malt with 2-row, all of my table sugar with flaked maize, and I'm currently fermenting with WLP670, a saison yeast + brett blend. And I'm planning to rack it onto 10 lbs of peaches in a few weeks.

My point is, why not go big? I already have an extract Duvel clone bottle conditioning anyways...

(I should add that I, too missed my target OG by almost 25 points. But then I threw in 1.25LB of extract to compensate a bit...)

 

[madscientist451]

After mellowing, it should be an almost spot-on copy of the original.

Slightly less ABV than the commercial example, no coriander and probably a different yeast, so I'm a little skeptical a side by side comparison will call it cloned.
But thanks for the interesting post, I've never heard of this beer and now its on my list to try.
Who knows, you might like your version better than the original? If not, when you re-brew, you can fine tune your recipe and process and eventually it will be spot on. Cheers!

 

[ACSlater]

Thanks for all the great feedback guys!

I actually do like mine better than the original. The differences are not out of control, but definitely noticeable. What I really like about this beer is the complexity of the grain bill. It's quite a dance of flavors across the palate. That, plus the slight spicyness of both the Saaz hops and the T-58 yeast make for a complex brew that really begs to be sipped and savored. This is definitely going to be one of my "must-have" brews that will be cycled through the fermenter regularly. In addition, this was a really fun brew day because of the experimentation of all-grain brewing, stepped mash temperatures, complex grain bill, etc. I'm really looking forward to the next brew!