Trappist rochefort 8 recipe

[Nicks90]

I fancy having a go at a trappist beer in the near future, after having a bottle of rochefort 8 last night.
I kept the dregs of the bottle, so couple of questions from the more adventurous brewers on here.


If the sediment in the bottle the actual brewing yeast, or a bottling yeast? If the former, how would I go about building a starter big enough for a 15l Clone batch? I am struggling with the calculations and would appreciate a bit of advice.

Also in terms of the recipe, this is what I have found and seems to be about right (to my eyes anyway), comments from anyone else who did a rochefort Clone on how they made theirs and how close it was

https://blog.homebrewing.org/rochefort-8-clone-beer-recipe-all-grain/

 

[Agentgonzo]

Trappist rochefort is bottle conditioned, and the yeast is bottling yeast. However, it is the same rochefort house yeast as the fermentation yeast (they use fresh yeast because the yeast at the end of fermentation is stressed due to fermenting the strong wort). The bottling yeast is merely top-cropped fermentation yeast (which is super healthy from a short time into the fermentation).

I've recultured rochefort yeast from the bottle before. There are good tips all over the internet, but essentially:
* Chill the beer and let it sit in the fridge for 48 hours or more. This let's and suspended yeast drop out as much as possible.
* Pour out the beer really carefully so as to not disturb the sediment. Leave about half in inch of beer in there. Sanitise the bottle neck with a flame or starsan
* Top up the bottle to about a third of the way up with *very* sanitised starter wort and cover with sanitised foil.
* The bottle is already sanitised so start culturing the yeast in there, rather than transfering to another vessel and risk contamination
* Keep at room temperature, shaking/swirling every so often as you pass it to aerate it.
* Step up the starter when it looks like activity stops, just like any other starter.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

The recipe looks fine apart for those bloody awful Imperial (US) units

 

[Agentgonzo]

The recipe looks like it should be fine. I have no idea why they want to put flaked corn on there though. Probably a weird American recipe. The Belgians don't use corn in their beers. Trappist grain bills are normally very simple. I never bother to put coriander in the beer as I don't believe it should be there. The monks get those flavours from the yeast.

 

[Bvk1983]

Maybe you can get a hand on Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II, that should be the yeast that Rochefort uses.

 

[Sadfield]

Obviously to promote their own products, but candisyrup.com have some useful clone recipes for these beers.

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

 

[Agentgonzo]

Candi Syrup is massively overpriced. I don't understand how they can sell it for such enormous prices and get away with it. You can make your own - that's what I do. Search the internet for instructions. It's takes about 5 minutes

 

[chthon]

The recipe looks like it should be fine. I have no idea why they want to put flaked corn on there though. Probably a weird American recipe. The Belgians don't use corn in their beers. Trappist grain bills are normally very simple. I never bother to put coriander in the beer as I don't believe it should be there. The monks get those flavours from the yeast.

In "Trappist Beers" by Jef van den Steen, it is mentioned that they use wheat starch. I think that is a consequence of the fact that they also raise livestock.

 

[chthon]

I also cultured Rochefort yeast from the bottle, it is a weird one. It is a bad flocculator, it is diastatic, and it also keeps fermenting in the fridge (at 4° C :-O). However, the beer I made with it (a tripel, I was a couple of months earlier than them) was tasty.

 

[Sadfield]

It's takes about 5 minutes

D-180 in 5 minutes?

If you only need half a kg, I'll argue it isn't much cheaper or at all when you factor in buying a bag of date sugar, dap, a sugar thermometer, energy and time.

Which ever route, the recipes are still interesting.