Westvleteren XII Clone - Silver Medal Winner

strange-steve · Jul 23, 2019

SteBeardface said:
This sounds like an absolute beast of a beer, I'm well up for having a crack at it!

I'm curious to whether I could bottle it before crashing/lagering? Is it better to bulk age a beer than letting it age in the bottle? Also, what did you use for priming?

Go for it, it's a simple recipe but a great beer. The lagering/bulk aging probably aren't necessary at all, so I wouldn't worry about that. Bulk aging apparently speeds up the conditioning, but I'm not sure how much evidence there is to support that. I just primed with table sugar as I always do. A couple of things I'd probably change, swap 500g of the pilsner for 500g munich malt, and I would ramp the temperature up more slowly, maybe only 0.5°C per day for the first few days.

Oneflewover · Jul 23, 2019

Hmmmm, interested in your candi syrup. I've looked into home made, but it looked right complicated. You literally just boiled muscovado sugar?

strange-steve · Jul 23, 2019

Oneflewover said:
Hmmmm, interested in your candi syrup. I've looked into home made, but it looked right complicated. You literally just boiled muscovado sugar?

Yep. A few drops of lemon juice helps speed up the inversion but it's not required.

Oneflewover · Jul 23, 2019

strange-steve said:
Yep. A few drops of lemon juice helps speed up the inversion but it's not required.

Thanks

Just to be clear, no water at all?!

strange-steve · Jul 23, 2019

Oneflewover said:
Thanks

Just to be clear, no water at all?!

I think I added a very small amount at the beginning, but again it's not needed and it actually slows the process down.

SteBeardface · Jul 24, 2019

https://joshthebrewmaster.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/how-to-make-belgian-candi-sugar/

I used this process when I had a go, was relatively easy to follow, they use cream of tartar but any food-grade aacid will do the trick. Though it's difficult to get anything close to dark without using food-grade lye (anyone know where i can get some?!). Using the muscovado sugar will definitely give the color and flavour. I assume you use the dark stuff, not the lighter muscovado?