Brewferm, Abdij review

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Thanks for that. Unfortunately the shop was all out of, so I've gone with Safbrew Abbaye BE256. I presume the out of date can of extract will be ok (BBE Sept 2015)?
 
Cheers. Need to get moving on this one so it's ready for Christmas.
I hope the headspace will suffice with it only being a 9ltr brew in a 25ltr bucket. Fingers crossed.
 
Cheers. Need to get moving on this one so it's ready for Christmas.
I hope the headspace will suffice with it only being a 9ltr brew in a 25ltr bucket. Fingers crossed.

that will be fine I brewed 20-21 liters in a 25litre bucket with that yeast and had to put a blow valve on in the end. 9l will be fine but 18l (if you doubled up) in a 25l bucket would be close though I reckon.
 
I have brewed this Abdij according to the recipe, and used 500g Dry Malt Extract instead of the 500g sugar.
Fermented at room temp (19C / 66F) for 3 weeks until no activity.
Came down to 1.022 FG and bottled it.

First tasting was made yesterday with 3 weeks in bottle, to check carbonate levels. Carbonation was made at 18C.

Surprised to see that still has a long way to go.
Carb is still not up to specs....will take longer i like my beers nicely carbed.
The taste was very sour. Too bitter aftertaste for me, too malty in the end.
I brewed a Brewferm Diabolo a month before that was drinkable after the same period of time. I wonder if substituting the sugar for DME, i pushed the malty flavor too much ?

I will wait a few months. For you with experience with this beer, does the bitter aftertaste disappear? I like my beers sweet, and this does not taste sweet to me, mainly because of the sourness...
 
Abdij does take quite a while to come good. I brewed one in Oct, sampled at Xmas and it was not nice. Just had another sample 4 months after bottling and it's starting to come good. Seem to remember last time it was at its best 9-12 months after bottling.

Bit worried about your FG reading - mine has always gone down to 1010 (using golden syrup as the other fermentable), DME might push this up a bit but not 1022.
 
I used candi sugar and it came right down too, ended up at 9.6%. It does take months to condition. I would wait at least 6 month. Mine is nearly a year old and have just over half left
 
Well yes, my FG is a bit high....but all brewferm kits i made ( Abdij, Diabolo and Triple) ended around 1.020.
This was after 3-4 weeks in primary , kept at around 18C to 19C.
I think reaching 1.010 is very hard with a dry yeast and high ABV beers.
Nonetheless...for now i am not worried with bottle bombs, as it does not seem all that gassed yet...the carbonation is on the low side actually.
Waiting 9 months though....is enfuriating.....i gotta start doing light beers......ugh....but i only like belgians !!
 
I just purchased one of these as it was on offer. Will be planning on having this bad boy ready for Winter months and hopefully Christmas time.

I was planning on just using normal sugar from the supermarket in this one unless there's any extra benefit of spending extra on brewing sugar.
 
Or use a tin of Tate & Lyle Golden Syrup - add 10% more than you would sugar as it's not all fermentable. Made up lots of the Brewferm kits with it and it definitely improved them.

T&L is a good halfway house between bog standard sugar and candi sugar.

I have been known to use both in a brew :twisted:
 
Perfect :)

So would using Lyle's Golden Syrup 600g be to much for the kit or is that the right amount?

short answer = use the whole tin.

adbij instructions say add 55g of sugar a litre so 55x9 = 495g sugar

remember that the syrup has water in it. just read the tin 80% carbohydrates no fat or protein so the rest is water 20% ish . so I would add 20% more which hey presto is 600g
 
Just ordered this and 500g of dark candi sugar from homebrew online, should be with me by tomorrow. I'm excited for this one!

I was hoping it would be ready by Christmas (c.6 weeks cold conditioning, 2 + 2 before that), would it still be too young by that time?
 
Just ordered this and 500g of dark candi sugar from homebrew online, should be with me by tomorrow. I'm excited for this one!

I was hoping it would be ready by Christmas (c.6 weeks cold conditioning, 2 + 2 before that), would it still be too young by that time?

You could drink it but it won't be at its best yet. Try it and see but have a backup brew.

Recently got one of these myself along with some dark candi from HBO, will be going on once my Cwtch is done but no plans to drink it for 6 months or more. Got a Brewferm Christmas that I made early on this year to get stuck into at Christmas (funnily enough!).
 
Thanks Graz. Would you say 6 months is the optimal age? If so, I can't see it being anywhere near ready just two months after pitching!
 
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