First attempt at AG - La Chouffe Clone

[clibit]

No I haven't, it's a new area I'm beginning to get my head round. I have a Chouffe clone sitting on my kitchen shelf, handed to me by a mate who made it about three months ago. I've done a fair bit of online reading and have some recommended recipes lined up. I do a lot of reading about brewing! Also have 'Radical Brewing' which has two chapters on Belgian beers. I can suggest some if you need some ideas. You want any specific types? This link is a good start:

http://www.candisyrup.com/recipes.html

 

[serum]

Thanks for those, I'll definitely give a few a shot as they look quite simple.

I was pretty surprised how little goes in these. It just seems to be pilsener malt and a few hops plus some candi sugar.

The Duvel clone looks like quite an easy one to do and that's what I need to focus on at the moment to make sure I grasp the basics well. The chouffe recipe wasn't too bad.

 

[clibit]

A lot of Belgian beers are very simple, it's the yeast that provides most of the flavour complexity. Good place to start. But there are Belgian beers that use various things to add flavour like coriander and orange peel etc.

An experienced home brewer said to me this week that he never makes Belgians cos you will never make them as well as the Belgians do! Because of the knowledge and expertise of handling the yeast mainly. It doesn't put me off trying.

 

[serum]

A lot of Belgian beers are very simple, it's the yeast that provides most of the flavour complexity. Good place to start. But there are Belgian beers that use various things to add flavour like coriander and orange peel etc.

An experienced home brewer said to me this week that he never makes Belgians cos you will never make them as well as the Belgians do! Because of the knowledge and expertise of handling the yeast mainly. It doesn't put me off trying.

Nor me.

I can definitely see why the yeast really decides it. The minute I got the yeast out the packet and got a whiff of it I could see where it fitted into the taste of Chouffe and also what was missing from the Brewferm kits I've done.

Although you can't beat the Belgians at their own game there are still some twists that I think could work well by combining elements of different styles. There are a lot of things I've tasted in British ales that I think could combine well with the Belgian styles.

 

[clibit]

Definitely good to mix styles and ingredients up and see what you can create.

I have just bought a sack of Dingemans pale malt, and I have Special B and some other malts from Belgium and Germany, as well as a range of English malts, and at least 20 hop types in the freezer! There are no rules.

 

[serum]

This is all bottled up now. It was pretty murky but that could be the extra yeast I added for bottling. Hopefully it will clear up reasonably well.

I added water to get it back to the required strength and managed to get 57 330ml bottles so I only lost a litre to the trub which aint bad.

I'm really looking forward to trying this. I'll probably crack one open in 2 weeks just to see if it's carbonated but I'm prepared to wait a while for this to come good. Having said that the recipe said it's pretty good early on so fingers crossed.

The benefit to making a big batch of beer this strong is I'll have to work very very hard if I want to drink this before it matures. I'm going to make my second all grain batch at some point next weekend so the production line is starting!

 

[clibit]

I try a bottle after a week to check progress, then a week later, one a week til it hits the point I want to start tucking in. Keep notes so that you can look back and determine when the beer was at its best. Some beers are better very soon after bottling, some after a month or two, some longer. In my experience. Some brewers seem to say that all the beers are better if left a long time. Not what I've found. I think malt flavours develop, hop flavours mellow. With hoppy beers I find I like some of them as soon as they are carbed. Others need to mellow.

 

[serum]

I tried some this week and it's got a hell of a kick! Head retention isn't good but it's got the carbonation and the flavour is in the right area. Hopefully the booze taste will mellow out. It's not all the way there but it's closer than any kit I've done so far.