Belgian Strong ale recipes

[chadjaja]

I got everything for Lethal's blue chimay today but not the Hallertau hops and was steered away from putting them in. I was given centennial at 9.5%AA so I would only need a small amount and probably later than the 40 mins for the goldings addition. Any advice on if I should go that route, stick to Lethal's recipe or go another hops alternative and amount? I'm really looking forward to this when its ready I'm also just using choc malt instead of the dark grain but a bit unsure if that should change the amount of grain used. Better to use a similar grain I have than buy another in only to use 30g of it.

Lethal's chimay

ldme 2.3kg
black grain (crushed) 30g
soft dark brown sugar 400g
blended honey 250g
bittering hops hallertau 40g
bittering hops goldings 20g
if you can get hold of a bottle of chimay blue label then make a starter out of it but if not just use a good ale yeast eg. safale or wyeast abbey ale
final volume 15litres

[chadjaja]

Ok this thread needs bumping.

Another member and I decided to have a crack at Lethal's recipe above....svyturys(Alan) and I got together for a brew day after meeting on the site here and only being 5 mins from each other in the same suburb.

We dubbed this brew 'honeygate' as I made the mistake of putting in the whole 500ml of honey rather than the 250ml as above. All this did really was bump up the alc % to that similar to Red Ducks Big strong Belgian 10.5%.

Al cracked a bottle a few weeks ago and his father a beer drinker that knows some world class beers dubbed it 'best beer he has ever had'!

I cracked and had to have a sample myself at near the three month mark although I'm intending on not touching it for another 3 months.

Well........This beer is simply superb! After letting the longie sit for a while I poured a nice chalice of dark beer with a beautiful thick head. At first it had the definite harsher alcohol to it but when left to a temp best suited to this beer the flavour....oh the flavour comes thru! Perfect esters, perfect carbonation, perfect mouthfeel and just about spot on. I can't believe home brew can be this good and created such a complex beer. And the Mr's hates these so I get two glasses out of every longneck to myself LOL Would love to do this with a liquid abbey ale yeast for comparison.

We are getting together to do another batch and recreate the 'honeygate' mistake as why mess with a good thing I say LOL

From memory it sat at about 20 degrees the first week and then was allowed to reach 22 degrees in the second week. Not a lot of time in the primary for a beer with such a high SG but its created a great beer none the less.

Props to Al for watching over this brew and bottling it. Al's introduction of sorts to steeping grain and extract brewing and know he knows its a piece of cake and he already makes great beers.

Great work Al but my liver might not be so happy about the success LOL

[GrahamB]

Just one question for the Chimay recipe maker (aka Lethaldog), can Liquid Malt Extract be substituted for the dry?

[Bizier]

Just one question for the Chimay recipe maker (aka Lethaldog), can Liquid Malt Extract be substituted for the dry?

I know that this was not intended for me, and I have never brewed a Belgian, but fresh liquid extract is usually better than LDME, and contains roughly 20% water, so that amount needs to be increased to get the same amount of fermentables.

[lethaldog]

Just one question for the Chimay recipe maker (aka Lethaldog), can Liquid Malt Extract be substituted for the dry?

I know that this was not intended for me, and I have never brewed a Belgian, but fresh liquid extract is usually better than LDME, and contains roughly 20% water, so that amount needs to be increased to get the same amount of fermentables.

Ditto, i have not used these malts in a fair while as i mash pretty much every beer i make now but i dont see why you couldnt get pretty much the same result with a liquid, only thing you may have to watch is price depending on where you get it from cos from memory, where i shop, liquid was always slightly dearer.

[Boonie]

I used both in the recipe and it was a lovely beer....posted a couple of pages earlier.

LDME 1kg
Liquid Extra Pale Malt 1.5kg used this because I thought I had another 2kg at home but it was Wheat Malt
black grain (crushed) 80g Edit....In pot at 66 degrees celcius for 1 hour, strained and sparged into pot
soft dark brown sugar 400g
Yellowbox honey 250g
bittering hops hallertau 38g....again, all I had
bittering hops goldings 20g
Safale S04 yeast
final volume will be 15litres


Cheers

Boonie

[chadjaja]

Well by request Lethal's chimay clone was made again today.

My house guest's virgin brew beer and his first home brew starting off with all extract, steeping etc etc. This batch will be kegged to gauge the difference bottle conditioning makes and the pace it matures at. Yeast was pitched about 20 mins ago at 24 degrees and it should sit at about 20 degrees inside and I hope to raise it to 22 degrees in the second week or so. First time using a giant stainless tea ball in the boil and it greatly reduced the amount of trub, it sure packed itself in there but it all was soaked and the hop smell was great so I assume it infused the wort just fine.

OG was 1075 so it should come in about 9% abv with the T58 yeast. Spot on for chimay blue.

I strongly recommend this brew

[Elbow]

Hi All,

I got the basic recipe for Lethal's Chimay clone with a few minor changes:

ldme 2.3kg (I have 2kg of LDME and 300 grams of 300 grams of dry wheat malt I have left over from a previous brew.)
black grain (crushed) 30g
soft dark brown sugar 400g (I have around 400g of liquid belgian candi sugar which I'm using instead)
blended honey 250g
bittering hops hallertau 40g
bittering hops goldings 20g
if you can get hold of a bottle of chimay blue label then make a starter out of it but if not just use a good ale yeast eg. safale or wyeast abbey ale
final volume 15litres

A couple of questions:

1. Will the 300g of dry wheat malt added to the 2kg LDME affect the flavour much?
2. I tried making a yeast starter for the 1st time from a 330ml bottle of Chimay Blue. I mixed 200ml of water with one heaped tablespoon of LDME, boiled, cooled and added to the Chimay bottle and mixed. I covered with cling film and left for 24 hours, nothing happened at all. I then added another 100ml of water with 3 heaped tablespoons and added to the bottle. Still no activity at all that I can see (it's almost 48 hours). Does this sound like unviable yeast? I've never done a starter before, so don't know if I've stuffed it or not?

[chadjaja]

Wheat malt shouldn't make much difference at all and probably add to the head rentention of the beer anyway.

I have home made belgian candi that I forgot about so I'm interested to see how yours turns out.

A lot of times its hard to see activity in a starter especially a small one like the one you started with. I'd normally add the yeast and starter wort to a clean 600ml coke bottle or 1L flask rather than make the starter in the chimay bottle itself. Much easier to see whats going on. There is a lot of talk about the yeast in the bottom of a chimay bottle simply being yeast added at the bottling stage and not the yeast actually used in the ferment of the beer. A lot of HG beers have yeast added at bottling.

I'd prefer to chuck in a pack of T58 or a good liquid yeast as you said.

[Elbow]

Wheat malt shouldn't make much difference at all and probably add to the head rentention of the beer anyway.

I have home made belgian candi that I forgot about so I'm interested to see how yours turns out.

A lot of times its hard to see activity in a starter especially a small one like the one you started with. I'd normally add the yeast and starter wort to a clean 600ml coke bottle or 1L flask rather than make the starter in the chimay bottle itself. Much easier to see whats going on. There is a lot of talk about the yeast in the bottom of a chimay bottle simply being yeast added at the bottling stage and not the yeast actually used in the ferment of the beer. A lot of HG beers have yeast added at bottling.

I'd prefer to chuck in a pack of T58 or a good liquid yeast as you said.

Well the starter from the Chimay didn't amount to much so I ended up chucking in a packet of Safale dried yeast along with the Chimay dregs. I just racked to secondary last night as it's almost done fermenting. It's been about a week.

I tasted a small sample and I have to say it was pretty rough. Should it be at least "on the way" to tasting as it should after this time, or does it need a good few months in a bottle before it tastes ok? I would describe the sample as being like spirits (high alcohol I guess) with almost a glue like taste......as I said, pretty rough. I normally keg my beer, but am just wondering whether bottling might be a better option?

[chadjaja]

We left it in the primary for two to three weeks and its in keg now. Two weeks min I reckon for this brew.

Ours is tasting ok even after only a few days in keg gassed up, it does lack the yeasty profile a bit from the bottle conditioned version we have brewed but its not bad at all. More aging and it will be just fine imo. My bottle stuff tasted best after about 8 months in bottle by the way.

[Elbow]

Great, thanks for the reply.

I'll probably just bottle this one and forget about it for a few months. By the time it gets out of secondary it will probably be closer to around 13 litres anyway, so it won't last long in the keg.

Beside, at over 9% it does not pay to "inadvertently" pour yourself a pint of this stuff straight from the tap!

[chadjaja]

I cold crashed the lot in the fermenter before kegging as I do and that took care of most of the trub. I think thats the way to go if you can and get the most beer into the keg and clearer beer.

[Elbow]

I ended up kegging this in the end, aside from six bottles for future use.

Had a cheeky sample just before it went in the keg and all I can say is one word: Absolutely freakin magnificent!
The rough taste I had described has gone. It now has an almost dark rum quality (Candi sugar possibly?) with the alcohol kick less pronounced. Could be dangerous

I might frame a bottle and put it in the pool room

There's no more a degrading sight than a grown man drinking the left over beer direct from the fermenter

[Tipsy]

There's no more a degrading sight than a grown man drinking the left over beer direct from the fermenter

I disagree

[lethaldog]

Ahh the memories lol!!!

[duffman]

Just made this one myself. Been bottled for a week. Filled a p.e.t bottle as soon as fermentation (recultured chimay yeast) was going strong, and put a oz top cap on it. Tried this sampler 2 weeks later after bottling. Obviously needs time to mature, but still a great tasting recipe. Can't wait 'til it's been in the bottle six months. Think i might do another real soon. If anyone is reading this and wondering whether or not to give it a shot? Go for it. Great intro into extract brewing. Currently doing another extract, and now onto all grain. No going back now.

[Fifey]

I was thinking about subbing the brown sugar in Lethaldog's recipe for candy, Elbow is obviously impressed, but does anybody else have any information to add?

[lethaldog]

Was out in the shed today doing a bit of a cleanup and to my amazement found a box of coopers P.E.T hiding in the corner, i figuered they must be empty but to my great surprise they were full of this lovely drop and they were dated 10/09/06, i grabbed a couple and bought them inside, cracked one and poured it and its still perfect after four years and the taste was amazing, i was thinking bout doing another one shortly cos its been quite a while between chimays, now i have a whole box

[Dadonnyd]

after not brewing for 7 years i just tried lethal's chimay recipe, my only negative was that i put the brown sugar in first so when i heated the pot to get it boiling the sugar burned a little to the bottom, it smells great through the airlock though so im hoping i dont get any of that burnt taste in there, i also used the white labs 530 liquid yeast, i also picked up a magnum of chimay for my 40th at the end of this month