Poochops GF Brewday #10 Rochefort 10 clone

[Poochops]

I've got too much ale in stock needs drinking, but I still need to have something on the go at all times, it's a sin not to after all! So keeping with my theme of brewing something to lay down and condition for a long time(last brew was an RIS) I thought I'd go for a real long termer this time, should be ready around Christmas and keep for years.

Title: Rochefort 10 clone

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Belgian Dark Strong Ale
Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 25 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 31.5 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.067
Efficiency: 80% (brew house)

STATS
Original Gravity: 1.098
Final Gravity: 1.017
ABV (standard): 10.53%
IBU (tinseth): 28.69
SRM (morey): 39.59

FERMENTABLES:
6 kg - German - Pilsner (63.5%)
1 kg - German - CaraMunich I (10.6%)
0.5 kg - Torrified Wheat (5.3%)
1.25 kg - Belgian Candi Syrup - Dark - (late addition) (13.2%)
0.5 kg - Cane Sugar (5.3%)
0.2 kg - German - Carafa III (2.1%)

HOPS:
40 g - Hallertau Mittelfruh, Type: Whole, AA: 4.6, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 16.06
50 g - East Kent Goldings, Type: Whole, AA: 5.4, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 11.69
10 g - East Kent Goldings, Type: Whole, AA: 5.4, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 0.94

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Temp: 65 C, Amount: 24 L, Mash in
2) Temperature, Temp: 77 C, Time: 10 min, Mash out
3) Sparge, Temp: 77 C, Amount: 10 L, Sparge
Starting Mash Thickness: 3 L/kg

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
1 each - Protofloc, Time: 10 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil

YEAST:
Wyeast - Belgian Abby Ale II 1762
Starter: Yes
Form: Liquid
Fermentation Temp: 19C allowed to rise unchecked

I made the Candi syrup the night before using the method in this thread, using a few ml of lactic acid for the reaction.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/how-to-make-belgian-candi-syrup.12754/
It went really well but you need to be prepared to stand over the pot at all times for about an hour and a half, I made 2 kilos of dark dark liquid sugar and then added 500mls of water so I could use it by weight knowing it's exactly 20% water.

Not massive by some standards, but my biggest mash to date at 7.5kg took a fair bit of work, added the torrified wheat in layers because I find it can choke the grain bed if it's not very well distributed, that seemed to do the trick nicely the recirculating was text book with very little going down the overflow. I reduced my planned efficiency in the recipe to 80% to account for the bigger grain bill and hit it straight between the eyes!

Cold steeped the carafa in the mash water because I just wanted the colour not the flavour, I know it's dehusked but it's not part of the accepted clone recipes I've seen and I was concerned my syrup mightn't be dark enough. As it happens I needn't have worried and now the wort is as black as your darkest thoughts. Ah well.

Pumped the wort straight from the gf into 2 no chill cubes because I was still building the yeast, that was a little bonus actually as clean up was really quick without the chiller to deal with, and I'd do it again no problem. Was pleased that with 100g of whole hops in the boiler it was all pumped out in ten minutes max.

That was Saturday, threw it in the fermenter tonight.
24 litres in the fermenter, 1L short on target. OG 1.102, 4 points over. Efficiency 80% brewhouse - bang on planned. Pitched about 350bn cells wyeast 1762. Let it go at 19 degrees and will let it free rise. Brewers Friend is telling me I should get 1.017 but it should go to 1.010, time will tell...

 

[strange-steve]

All the best with this, one of my favourite beers so I'll be interested to hear how close it is. I attempted a Rochefort 8 clone a couple of years back which turned out decent, though not much like the real thing. I notice you didn't have a coriander seed addition though?

 

[Dutto]

Looks good. Now the hard part is to leave it alone until Christmas if it tastes anywhere near as good as it looks!

Personally, I would be very leery about bottling something for such a long time with an SG of 1.017! Bottled before it's finished fermenting and "Here there be bottle bombs!" to paraphrase olde worlde maps!

Please keep us posted. :thumb:

 

[Poochops]

Personally, I would be very leery about bottling something for such a long time with an SG of 1.017! Bottled before it's finished fermenting and "Here there be bottle bombs!" to paraphrase olde worlde maps!

Please keep us posted. :thumb:

Totally agreed @Dutto I'm expecting 1.010 with the high sugar, low mash temp and healthy pitch rate. I do have an RIS finished about 1.024 which I bottled last March and that's fine if a little over carbed now. I used this recipe on here in the end, http://www.candisyrup.com/recipes.html they have some major Belgian brews nailed down. No coriander though @strange-steve, I thought about it but didn't want to bugger it up because I'd overdone it, and if I underplayed it then it'd make no difference probably, because truthfully I can't taste it in the real thing.

 

[Poochops]

The lid on my FV looks like an upturned wok, I hope to god it stays on or there's going to be a right mess in my fridge in the morning.

 

[Zephyr259]

Nice work getting 80% from 7.5kg of grain, did you do anything special? I just brewed a barley wine with 6.25 kg and got 65%, I was only brewing 15L though so my sparge water was limited. My 15L brews tend to have 3 - 3.5 kg and get 75%.

I also love Rochefort beers, looking to do a clone myself but the wife can't stand belgians and I have just bottled 11.5 L of my brunette which is a bit similar. Do you plan to age in bottles or do you have a big carboy?

 

[Poochops]

I don't think I do anything different to most people be honest. I always mash at 3l per kg otherwise I find it's just to much palaver and I do like to make sure it's been very thoroughly turned over and wetted out before I recirculate. The other thing I do is throttle the pump so nothing is going down the overflow, everything goes through the grain bed, if it's too slow I'll stir the mash to loosen it but I've only done that once when I used a lot of wheat in the mash and it gelled up.
Gonna transfer it to a clean FV when it's done then crash it for 6 weeks and bottle it with fresh yeast.

 

[Zephyr259]

Fair enough, so you don't use the grainfather formula and just go for a straight 3 L/kg? I run the pump with the valve fully open so some wort does go down the overflow, but I'll generally stir after 20 mins and then the overflow stops.

Good plan on the extended secondary, my brunette got 4 months in carboy, gives you a bit of security that it's not going to continue fermenting slowly in the bottle.

 

[Poochops]

Yes 3l I just find to stiff otherwise, too much of a faff wetting out. Hadn't thought about it continuing in the bottle TBH but you have a good point given it's going to be bottled for so long. I might then transfer to a 25l bucket (less headroom) and condition it at room temp for 4 weeks then crash it for the 6.

I build my brews in Brewersfriend then export to the gf app just for the alerts on Bluetooth, I dont get on with the gf recipe builder TBH, I find the liquor volumes way out and I don't trust the ibu's either, just never got used to it.

 

[Zephyr259]

Yeah, I've seen a lot of people having issues with the grainfather recipe builder not agreeing with their online calc, they always matched for me until my last 2 brews were the recipe builder is a good couple of litres short on the sparge, the main calculator seems to work ok for me thus far but each to their own.

I only used brewer's friend a couple of times so I've been using the GF one since it was released, I think they use a different formula for IBUs but using a CFC makes the numbers a bit screwy anyways. My spring beer was too bitter for me and I wondered if it was due to a lot of late addition, high alpha galaxy hops sitting in the hot wort while chilling, but my wife and father-in-law really liked it.

Good luck with keeping away from this beer for as long as you're planning, that's the other reason I like bulk conditioning, means I'm not tempted to open bottles too soon. :blush:

 

[Dutto]

The lid on my FV looks like an upturned wok, I hope to god it stays on or there's going to be a right mess in my fridge in the morning.

I know it's after midnight but after reading ghat I just have to go out and check the "Robust Porter" that is fermenting away in my new Brew Fridge! :headbang:


Good News
Robust Porter "glubbing" away nicely and staying in the FV.
Bad News
It's pisitively possing it down out there so having to revive myself with a wee dram!

 

[Poochops]

Thankfully it stayed on! The fridge is a mess because the blow off jar overflowed with yeast, it started climbing up the side of the FV and the fridge but it's just a pool of liquid on the bottom now I can clean it up at the weekend. Temp free climbed to 21.6 currently.

 

[Dutto]

I know the feeling! This was AFTER it had filled a 500ml bottle, flooded the worktop, coated the freezer and dribbled all over the floor! "Oh joy!" I said and paint fell off the walls of the garage! :laugh:
PS
Don't leave your's until the weekend! It will be a sticky, cold, hard mess by then and take three times as long to clean up!

 

[Poochops]

I'm out the house 12 hours a day it'll have to wait! Its bloody freezing in my garage and I don't want to chill the brew while I'm faffing about cleaning it out to be honest. Fridge smelt bloody lovely though :thumb:

 

[Poochops]

5 days and still going strong, I just cleaned the fridge out, was a right mess but clean as a whistle now. Got rid of the blow off and cleaned the FV, starsanned the lid and grommet, put a clean airlock on.
I thought I'd take the gravity, popped the lid a little but not a chance, there's still 3 inches of really claggy krausen, no chance of getting near the beer just yet.
There was enough yeast in the blow off jar to do another brew no question about it! I'm amazed at how bloody lively this has been, I've never seen it go that crazy before in about 30 brews :thumb:

 

[Poochops]

7 days, still chugging away, ramped it to 23 over the last two days to give it the best chance of finishing, it was 1.024 yesterday.

 

[serum]

If you're using a Grainfather I'd highly recommend step mashing any Belgian beer despite what American brewing books say. It definitely helps you get the right body to it.

 

[Clint]

Can these BIG beers be made in smaller amounts...? Yes...a blatantly "stupid" question...but...I think I'd struggle to get through 40 at 10%...I'm bad enough at over 6 or 7.....

 

[serum]

They keep for ages and make an interesting gift!

If all else fails they make a mean beef stew!

 

[Poochops]

I've 6 dozen 330ml bottles ready and waiting for this one, I'll sample one every 3-4 months but it'll sit for about a year before I start drinking it/passing it round. I expect to have some left in two and three years time, I'll see how it changes and if it's worth maturing. it's not really brewed for quaffing there's a garage load of more sessionable stuff for that! That's part of my problem, I'm loving brewing but don't drink enough!