Brewing Like Monks -Abbey-style trippel, dubbel, table ales

[WishboneBrewery]

I think Candi Sugar making is getting higher on my list of priorities

Have a go. It's easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

Nice Dog Poo Very Artistic

[Jolum]

Wonderful thread

Love the robes, very Jedi of you - "The brew is strong with this one"

Let us know how they come out - I could almost taste the dubbel while reading this.

[lancsSteve]

I hope you had some appropriate music playing????

Of course - but not Enigma cos:

I'm not sure what disturbs me more the fact you have a Monk Outfit or the Sandles & Beard Combo

LOL - beards are REQUIRED IMHO... Sandals hmmmmm less defensible...

Been thinking a lot about hard boiled sweet for the candi. Could just pop a pineapple chunk in for priming. It’s clean, easy and I could even try cola cubes. Or even those banana things or aniseed balls. I think have a cunning plan, must go on the double. kp2.

It really is EASY - but by your accounts sounds like messing with the programme is a recipe for burnt disaster - keep it simple, 1 cup sugar to 1 tsp lemon juice, sugar thermometer job done - see: http://oz.craftbrewer.org/Library/Metho ... andy.shtml

Wow, I like your style. I can honestly say that I have never donned a costume to brew, very over the top of you.

TOp FUN - bloody hot though, makes it feel more like being a kid (or perv?) if you dress up to play!

Now what you need to do is go out and collect a bunch of Belgian 750's and bottle all that good stuff up with cork closures and wire cages (just like the "brothers" do over in Belgian).

Thought about it, corking = PITA I recon, let alone most belgian small bottles being capped...

Just a tip for what it's worth concerning the Saison, that yeast can be really quirky, do not let it get too cold otherwise it will stall out on you and the beer will be too sweet. It can get very hot here in Texas and I know a guy who got his almost fermented then stuck the whole deal in his garage for a few days (at over 100F). It really dried the beer out (which is what you want, most examples just don't attenuate enough) and he did very well in a major contest. I will be trying that technique a little latter this summer, apparently that particular yeast likes it hot.

Thanks for tips - good time of year to brew belgian, too warm for ales in the upper rooms... Great for belgians and now have a temp-contorlled fridge in cellar for lagers - yippeee!

As an aside, what the hell happened on the pitch the other day? I didn't see the entire game but it looked to me like you guys were outplaying us pretty well. I fully expected we would get out butts kicked, I guess it is better to be lucky than good.

DON'T ASK!!!

This thread has the awesumsauce.

I was in equal measures Bog Eyed and Captivated at the whole ObiWan/BLAM mashup.

Excellent work. You will of course have a brief spell in purgatory for not using the Westmalle/WY3787!

Thanks belle - hopefully purgatory will be short as I did use it as part of the blend.

WLP575 is a mix of: WLP500 (Chimay) + WLP530 (Wesmalle) + WLP550 (Achouffe) - good guide to yeasts and origins on Mr Malty at http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast.htm

I liked the idea of a blend as it opens possibilities rather than chirping away that you should be doing a clone. Belgian brewing should (I think) be ablout making something new and unique not copying a style or being a slave to style guidelines. Witkap and others arguably outbrew some of the cost-cutting measures of the trappists as well...

Might try Rochefort in a future (WLP540 or WY1762) as these Belgian beers are rather addictive to brew and STUPIDLY expensive to buy and a bit of a mission to find/order...

Looks like a superb day.

Top fun indeed...

Wonderful thread

Love the robes, very Jedi of you - "The brew is strong with this one"

Let us know how they come out - I could almost taste the dubbel while reading this.

Jedi indeed - as I say I bought it in Tatouine (seriously) having stayed in matmata in Luke Skywalker's 'house' the night before - awesome part of the world...

Will be a fair old while till done - have reserved some yeast and stepped it up again. Will allow it to ferment out while they go into secondary then re-start it and use add it as a bottling yeast along with priming the bottles. Then 2 weeks warm room carbonation and AT LEAST 2-3 months ageing.

My previous abbey ale tastes lovely though with the chimay yeast. SO glad I visited Belgium this year it's THE most inspirational place as it's basically homebrew writ large with the rulebook thrown out and inspiration and artisanship as the core. Some good books out there that are well worth a read though BrewPal remains my second best brewing mate for helping make recipe formulation so easy...

[pantsmachine]

SO glad I visited Belgium this year it's THE most inspirational place as it's basically homebrew writ large with the rulebook thrown out and inspiration and artisanship as the core.

If i could articulate a coherent sentence that is how i would describe Belguim. Since i can't i'm glad you can. Brilliant looking brewday and fun as well.

[bigstoo]

Looks like I missed a great day. Unfortunately, my car decided to act up. Plus, my habit is at the dry-cleaners.

Looking forward to the sampling session.

[pantsmachine]

My last belgian type beer(brewed with chimay and duvel yeast from bottles) has just moved into my loft space to condition(25 degrees) as it crashed in the bottle and did not carbonate stored in the shed. I now understand why they condition in a warm room at the brewery. These yeasts are different. Take note fellas if you are bottling.

[floydmeddler]

My last belgian type beer(brewed with chimay and duvel yeast from bottles) has just moved into my loft space to condition(25 degrees) as it crashed in the bottle and did not carbonate stored in the shed. I now understand why they condition in a warm room at the brewery. These yeasts are different. Take note fellas if you are bottling.

Pantsmachine, I fermented with Chimay yeast too and they wouldn't carb for ages. Had to hook the temp controller up to my cupboard. Is Duvel the same? Planning on fermenting with this yeast soon.

Also, what are the Duvel yeast flavours like? Is it worth culturing or would I be better buying a White Labs strain??

Cheers

[pantsmachine]

I wasn't very scientific when i made my Belgian style batch. Both Chimay and Duvel were put in the FV. I tried another bottle before i left for Baku, it had some slight carbonation but in truth its still tasted dog rough and went down the sink to be replaced by an IPA. Too new and massively overbalanced with the Chimay strain. I'm hoping 6 months in the bottle mellows it into something more subtle! Sorry i can't comment on the duvel flavour. I can say that when the samples were being cultured they did smell very different. Duvel's bottle yeasts not the primary strain but at least its Belgianish so imho its worth culturing from a bottle just to try.

[floydmeddler]

I wasn't very scientific when i made my Belgian style batch. Both Chimay and Duvel were put in the FV. I tried another bottle before i left for Baku, it had some slight carbonation but in truth its still tasted dog rough and went down the sink to be replaced by an IPA. Too new and massively overbalanced with the Chimay strain. I'm hoping 6 months in the bottle mellows it into something more subtle! Sorry i can't comment on the duvel flavour. I can say that when the samples were being cultured they did smell very different. Duvel's bottle yeasts not the primary strain but at least its Belgianish so imho its worth culturing from a bottle just to try.

Will probably use WLP500 for 20L then separate the other 5 into a demijohn with some Duvel yeast. Will do post when I get round to it!

Cheers

[leedsbrew]

[lancsSteve]

Have opened them and planning to take at least the blonde along to the CBA nationals.

Blonde: Fantastic, banana esters and a rich belgian blonde flavour, subtle spicing. Going to improve a lot - lovely beer though, light, fizzy, estery belgian.

Dubbel: A little weird, smells strongly of banana bubblegum and the spicing isn't so well balanced with the malt. All good flavours but a little discordant rather than a symphony if that means anything. One to keep in the bottles and try again at Christmas I recon...

Table beer: (((shudder))) not a winner that one... Just a bit sour and all wrong - light, thin , weak ,sour/peppery (don't like that t-58 yeast I must say) and too spiced but not working against a sweetness but fighting with sour and slightly bitter... Still for the use of 50g special B and a little candi sugar was worth a shot!

Pantsmachine, I fermented with Chimay yeast too and they wouldn't carb for ages. Had to hook the temp controller up to my cupboard. Is Duvel the same? Planning on fermenting with this yeast soon.

My previous belgian beer - based on interpreting the rochefort recipe hints in 'brew like a monk' and using the chimay yeast came SUPER fizzy despite going to the cellar for 3 weeks to carbonate at around 15c and then lagering at 3c.

However with that and these beers I kept some yeast back, made up a fresh starter and pitched that as bttling yeast - gives you fantastic yeast profile and high carbonation and stronger bottle refermentation so from that experience seems adding bottling yeast is pretty important too. Will do 2 weeks warm from now on though...

[Barley Water]

I usually use WLP500 when I do Belgians and if you are not careful with that stuff, you will get alot of bananna (and maybe some bubblegum also). Since more than just a tad is a fault, what you can do to avoid the problem is to start fermentation at a lower temperature then let it ramp up after a couple of days as well as pitch alot more yeast. I also understand that fermentor geometry makes a difference but I am pretty much constrained as far as that goes since I ferment in 7 gallon glass carboys. As it turns out, I will be partaking is some of my Dubbel this evening after work, I can't wait.

[lancsSteve]

Since more than just a tad is a fault,

A most anglo-saxon approach to Belgian brewing... by that yardstick nearly all Belgian beers are flawed! I think it gives character - but it is too dominant in the Dubbel

[bosium]

Ah the banana bombs that are some Belgian yeasts - I've experienced this firsthand. Fwiw, I've found Wyeast 1762 / Rochefort to be a great yeast with very little banana even when fermented quite warm.

Btw, love the monk dress up, I hope you chanted while the mash was conducted and prayed to St Arnold that he would bless this gyle.

Where did you get the Magic Hat growlers?

[lancsSteve]

Where did you get the Magic Hat growlers?

From Magic Hat brewing co near vermont - http://www.magichat.net/ also got to go to Vermont Pub and Brewery. which used to be owned by Greg Noonan (RIP) and is AWESOME!