Del Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 Aiming for a nice thick strong sweet dark strong belgian ale/belgian specialty ale. KnK looking at 8% if possible Ingredients, in house currently, Coopers Pale cans Coopers Dark ale can, Thomas Coopers Family secret Amber ale, 1kg each Light Malt extract Amber Malt Extract Dark Malt extract 2 kg BE 3 1kg Dex 500gram Amber Belgian Candy syrup Medium Crystal grains, Choc Grains Roast Grains T58 Belgian yeast. variety of hops Looking at using the T58 yeast TC FS Amber can, Dark Malt Amber Belgian Candy syrup needs a bit of extra stuff to bring it up to the figures.. Any other Suggestions?? got a Brew shop not far for some top ups on ingredients if needed. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben 10 Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 Could just go LME to bump that one up. Sounds good. I'd throw some caraaroma in but I like it. BJCP suggests plum and raisin or whatever I just read and caraaroma throws that, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB44 Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 Where are you from? The best kit Dark Belgians I've made have been with 2xcan Brewferm (Grand Cru) + Belgian dark candy sugar to 21 liter - but they no longer have a distributor in Australia. New Zealand / Auckland has it. For a plum / raisin flavour - try a mini/partial mash that includes some Aromatic Malt. This is not my specialty but it is my grail. I'm aiming to approach my all-time-number-one-best-beer-in-the-world-beer**. A lovely dark Belgian. . Now I've returned to all grain I'm getting closer. I'm also planning to add some Maderina hops to my next two Belgians (a Gulden Draak type golden ale and the Straffe #2) ... also try 500g dates in a boil instead of 500g some other sugar. ** still enjoying the search... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Del Posted October 26, 2017 Author Share Posted October 26, 2017 South of Adelaide based mate, Ben, i was thinking a can of LME as well should bring it up to respectable figures.. a Kit an 2 kilos.. hahahha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenyinthewestofsydney Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 Belgian dark strongs (Quadruples) are surprisingly very easy to make. Most of it is the yeast. I have made it a life mission to nail Chimay red, white and blue. My Chimay white and blue recipes in my opinion are very close after about 4 months in the bottle. Anything before that and you tend to get a solventy taste from the high alcohol. It mellows over time. For all Chimays I start with rain water out of my tank and add the things to get to the chimay profile which is apparently Ca - 70 Mg - 7 Na - 7 SO4 - 21 CL 21 and HCO3 216 Blue (11L Batch) 3kg Pilsener Malt 0.25kg Carabelge 0.25kg Special B (Most important for Blue to give the plum and raisin) 0.5kg Homemade Candi Sugar 10gm Magnum @ 60 mins 10gm Saaz @ 5 Mins Wyeast 1214 (Chimay Yeast) 90 min Mash @ 64c. Ferment beginning @ 19C and ramp up daily 1c a day for 5 days to 24c then hold till its done which is usually a week and a bit. Then leave for a week to clean up then bottle. I bottle to 3.0 volumes (Some say it should be more but I don't want bombs). Use heavy duty bottles. I use the coopers ones and grolsch flip tops. Will take a month sometimes to get carbonation but I wouldn't bother to touch one till at least 2 months. This will give a 9.5% ish brew. If you are doing extract I would do a mini mash of the carabelge and special B and a boil with candi sugar, hops and about 1.75kg of light dry malt extract. That will get you close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leffe Nut Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 Del - Have you used T58 before? I am not a fan after using it in a Belgian Pale which ended up tasting like someone had thrown a cup full of peppercorns into my fermenter Way too spicy for the style. Perhaps my temperature early on in the ferment favoured spicy phenols but I wasn't willing to risk it again. When I do my Belgian darks now I use one of the liquid yeasts (1214, 3787 or 1762) with a similar temperature regime to Greeny. I do have a couple of different Abbaye dry yeasts in the fridge to try soon and based on my experience with T58 I would be inclined to use one of them if you cant get any liquid yeast. The Coopers Rad Abbott recipe doesn't look too bad but I would definitely try and get some Special B and/or Aromatic in there. Maybe swap the dextrose for candy sugar and the choc malt for Special B. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Del Posted October 27, 2017 Author Share Posted October 27, 2017 Havent used the T58 before to my knowledge. ive done a belgian before but lighter style.. cant remember what i used.. i did a belgian blonde a while back.. but thats a different story :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Del Posted October 27, 2017 Author Share Posted October 27, 2017 Could just go LME to bump that one up.Sounds good. I'd throw some caraaroma in but I like it. BJCP suggests plum and raisin or whatever I just read and caraaroma throws that' date='[/quote'] rehashed the recipe, Base can will be Coopers Pale Light LME Dark DME 500gm Light DME300gm Belgian Amber candy syrup 500gm Added in caramunich 300 steeped still using T58 as thats the only belgian yeast available right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 This thread got me wanting to do a Chimay Red attempt (probably coming into the wrong time of year though !) Checked out the Rad Abbott and will probably give it a crack, but might use Special B or Caramunich with White Labs WLP500 - (this is meant to be Chimay yeast?). Haven't had a Chimay for a year or 2 but remembered absolutely loving it. Not big on the Belgian wheat beer phenolic flavours etc but this was delish - not much clove flavour that I can remember? Maybe the yeast they use is more estery and not phenolic? Will have to do some more research I think .. Cheers James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenyinthewestofsydney Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 Yep WLP 500 = Wyeast 1214 = Chimay. Some say its different to the current yeast used by the brewery. Tastes exactly the same to me. Dunno about Special B in the Chimay Red. Makes it too dark For what its worth i have the following malts/sugar in my chimay attempts at the moment. All 11L Batches Red - Pilsener 2kg, Wheat 0.25kg, Carabelge (Crystal Malt) 0.35kg, Homemade candi sugar 0.3kg White - Pilsener 2.8kg, Carabelge (Crystal Malt) 0.25kg and Homemade candi sugar 0.5kg Blue - Pilsener 3kg, Carabelge 0.25kg, Special B 0.25kg, Homemade Candi Sugar 0.5kg. White and Blue from taste tests with the real mccoy I think I am very close. Red I am missing something. Not a bad dubbel but not quite there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therealthing691 Posted November 4, 2017 Share Posted November 4, 2017 I have done a blue extract which is similar but I used cara aroma but have never used special b until late but sounds like a better fit the only other thing I use is brown sugar .4kg and honey 1.5kg lme 1.5 ldme .4 kg brown sugar saaz styrian goldings .25 honey 300g cara aroma but in future would use special b and drop the honey yeast be256 16L Was close but wasn't quite on the money but was a nice drop still have a few bottles 7mths old would like to keep a couple for a year or more I love Trappist beer would love a clone recipe for a La trappe Ruideise been to there brewery in Holland was great fun good food and great beer cheers Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted November 6, 2017 Share Posted November 6, 2017 Decided I am going to do a Dubbel in the next month or so. Looking at yeast profiles and think I would like the Chimay yeast WLP500 the best. Has anyone used this and how long would it take to ferment out a starting gravity of about 1.065? On other threads some people have said it can take a while to finish off a ferment? Would be making a starter of about 1.6 litres.. Decided on this strain as I don't like phenols / banana flavours at all, but love the dark fruit flavours it is meant to have. Cheers James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenyinthewestofsydney Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 Decided I am going to do a Dubbel in the next month or so. Looking at yeast profiles and think I would like the Chimay yeast WLP500 the best. Has anyone used this and how long would it take to ferment out a starting gravity of about 1.065? On other threads some people have said it can take a while to finish off a ferment? Would be making a starter of about 1.6 litres.. Decided on this strain as I don't like phenols / banana flavours at all' date=' but love the dark fruit flavours it is meant to have. Cheers James[/quote'] Use the Wyeast equivalent a fair bit. 1065 I am guessing will take about 5 or 6 days depending on Ferment temp. My attempts at dubbel took about that. Tripels and Quads about 7-9. That was 1L starter in an 11L batch. My ferment schedule I have settled on is pitch at 19 and raise a degree each day to 24c then hold to the end. They finish around 1006-1008 even with the quads starting at 1085 ish so the yeast can certainly cut through it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted November 8, 2017 Share Posted November 8, 2017 Thanks Greeny, Will probably give the Wyeast Chimay equivalent a go as I use the West Yorkshire for my pale ales and IPAs and really enjoy it. Looking forward to this one now! Cheers James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted November 9, 2017 Share Posted November 9, 2017 Got the Wyeast 1214 ordered for pick up today. Was gonna go with the following: Cooper lager can - already have this Muntons Maris Otter LLME can - already have this 0.7kg LDME 0.5kg white sugar 200g caramalt 100g choc malt I thought I probably should have got some Carabelge / caramunich / Special B or something but will probably do that on the next one, just using what I have got in stock already. Not sure about putting the coriander seeds like the Rad Abbot recipe, had a bottle of Chimay Red last night and didn't really get any spice or that, just loads of malt and dark fruit goodness! Don't have Amber malt as per the Rad Abbot but was hoping by bumping up the caramalt it would get me in the ballpark? Cheers James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenyinthewestofsydney Posted November 9, 2017 Share Posted November 9, 2017 Got the Wyeast 1214 ordered for pick up today.Was gonna go with the following: Cooper lager can - already have this Muntons Maris Otter LLME can - already have this 0.7kg LDME 0.5kg white sugar 200g caramalt 100g choc malt I thought I probably should have got some Carabelge / caramunich / Special B or something but will probably do that on the next one' date=' just using what I have got in stock already. Not sure about putting the coriander seeds like the Rad Abbot recipe, had a bottle of Chimay Red last night and didn't really get any spice or that, just loads of malt and dark fruit goodness! Don't have Amber malt as per the Rad Abbot but was hoping by bumping up the caramalt it would get me in the ballpark? Cheers James[/quote'] Yeah wouldn't add any coriander or anything. Colour will probably come out a lot darker than Chimay Red but belgians are all about the yeast anyway so I doubt you will be disappointed with the end result. Only thing is I hope is you are making a starter with the yeast pack. I do a 1L starter for 11L which is technically a slight underpitch and that tends to give more flavour. A smack pack in that much fermentables though is a big underpitch. It probably would eat through it all as 1214 yeast is an eating machine but I wouldn't risk it. I would make a 2L starter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted November 9, 2017 Share Posted November 9, 2017 Made a 2.2litre starter , will be be putting 1.5litres into the brew and saving the rest for next time. Bit concerned as the smack pack didn’t really expand as much as I remember the west Yorky yeast did..? Has been on the stir plate for 3 hours now and hasn’t really shown any Krausen or bubbles or anything, might be a dud packet. Was 3 months old as well though.. I know different yeasts behave differently, but I always get a bit over-thinky when trying out different stuff for the first time.. Cheers James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 Starter is 15 hours old and still can't see much action going on. Usually can see the yeast dance kicking in by now for sure (with my usual yeasts 1469 and Notty), but can only see one or two bits of yeast flying round the flask. Just checked on the Wyeast website and 1214 is in the FAQs as being a renowned slow starter . Was planning on brewing tonight (24 hours after starting the starter), but might make it tomorrow if I can't see much evidence... Thoughts appreciated Cheers James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 Checked the starter and it is bubbling away nicely, doing the yeast dance now - phew!! That took 16 hours to get going, bit longer than 1469 and Notty, but the website says it's a slow starter.. Should be be right for pitching into the brew at about 26 hours from starting , hopefully that will be high krausen. Cheers James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenyinthewestofsydney Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 Good luck mate. Don't think you will be disappointed if your a belgian fan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 Thanks Greeny, Pitched the yeast about 9pm last night and this morning the Belgian has a one inch krausen. It has gotten off quicker than the IPA with the West Yorky in it, by the looks of it. Have got the temp set at 20 degC. Cheers James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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