Beer Notes: Batch 5, Chimay small batch, partial mash experiment
I am going to make 2 1 gal batches of a Chimay (Blue) Grand Reserve
clone, one with yeast recovered from a Chimay bottle, one with
White Labs WLP 500.
Recipe (2 gallons of finished wort):
2 lbs Best Malz pilsen,
4oz Belgian special B
4oz Weyerman Cara 45
Mash at 150F for 60 minutes
2.5lb light DME
2/5 package of dark candi syrup
7/10 oz Hallertau @ 60
3/10 oz Hallertau @ 15
1/11/2015 Purchased the bottle at Trader Joe's
1/12/2015 8:45pm Opened the bottle, drank the beer, left
about 1/2" of beer on the bottom. Covered
with non-sanitized plastic wrap, left in
fridge.
1/15/2015 8:30pm removed from fridge, allowed to warm up a
little
9:00pm pitched yeast and beer in 650mL boiled
water w/ 1/2c DME. Used sanitized aluminum
foil to cover, settled airlock in. Put on
top of fridge, where temp is about 70F
1/19/2015 7:33am after 3 full days of nothing, I was convinced
nothing would come from this experiment.
But this morning, there was some foam on
top and a little bit more sediment
than before. I think the yeast
is alive!
8:40pm a little more foam at the top, more sediment
than before
1/20/2015 6:57am even more foam, even more sediment, maybe
as much as my Wyeast smack pack starter
that I made for the Saison de Noel. I put
the starter in the fridge to wash.
9:00pm decanted the starter, was surprised how
good it tasted. Sweet, fruity and mild.
Added more water to wash it, put it back
in the fridge to get the yeast to settle.
1/21/2015 6:47am decided not to decant it further. Added
a little water, swirled and poured into a
sanitized beer bottle. Capped the bottle, put
it in the fridge. There was less sediment on
the bottom than I had hoped, hopefully there
is enough yeast to culture to use to brew.
Beginning to brew
2015/03/18 9:30pm brought 1450mL double filtered water to a boil,
stirred in 3/4C light DME and 2 dashes of Wyeast
beer nutrient, boiled for 15 minutes
10:20pm temp of starter wort down to 78F, pitched yeasts
and put flasks on top of fridge
2015/03/19 7:00am temp down to 70F. No activity
5:10pm Still no actvity in WLP500, but there is a small
layer of krausen in yeast recovered from
Chimay bottle. Temp down to 67.
11:15pm Yeast from bottle was bubbling, fermenting actively.
I put it in the fridge until tomorrow. The WLP500
seemed to bubble once or twice, its much slower
than the yeast recovered from the bottle.
2015/03/20 8:01am WLP500 seemed a bit more active this morning, so
I put it in the fridge to get it to settle.
Will boil tonight. Temp at 72F
5:00pm removed yeast from fridge
7:45pm heated 3qt double filtered tap water and
1.5qt distilled water to 165.
8:12pm 2 lbs Best Malz pilsen, 4oz Belgian
special B and 4oz Weyerman Cara 45 in my "mash tun",
added 4.5qt water quart by quart, but it still wasn't
enough to fully cover the grain. Put mash into cooler,
thermometer read 150.
8:14pm added another 1qt of 165F water. Temp in mash tun down
to 147F.
8:18pm added 0.5qt of boiling water, mash temp up to 154.
Note that the thermometer wasn't reading correctly when I
said 147F, it was probably over 150.
8:57pm mash temp down to 150F
9:10pm started mashout, had a hard time raising the temp so I
just skipped to sparging
9:22pm began sparging, used 3.75qt of 170F water.
9:37pm finished sparge
9:39pm boil achieved! Stirred in 2.5lbs Munton's extra light
malt extract, 6oz dark candi sugar and about 0.7oz Hersbrucker
hops.
9:43pm returned to boil
10:17pm measured pre-boil OG of 1.044 at about 75F. According to this:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/ that is
a 73% extraction efficiency, which is perfect. Wort tasted
very grainy, it was good but not as robust as I would have
hoped (would make a good kolsch, but didn't taste a thing
like a belgian quad)
10:26pm added 0.2oz Hersbrucker
10:30pm tasted the starter wort. The WLP500 was very tart, slightly
fruity and spritzy. The Chimay recovered yeast was much
darker in color, and had a bit of a funky taste, less fruity
and a touch of barnyard. I hope it isn't a contamination flavor.
10:43pm put kettle in icewater bath
11:10pm cooled to 78F
11:29pm Couldn't fit my tubing on my HEPA filter, so I just pitched yeast.
11:35pm OG measured 1.070, way below expectation. Wort tastes very good,
slightly less bitter than I remember the Saison de Noel tasting.
2015/03/21 7:00am some foam on Chimay bottle, nothing coming through blowoff tub
in either fermenter
11:00am Temp down to 64 in water reservoir. Thermostat isn't working
well on heater. Turned it up to 72F, added some warm water to
get the temperature up. Fermentation is very vigorous in the
Chimay fermentor, nothing happenening in WLP500 fermenter.
12:04pm Temp of reservoir at 68F, heater thermostat is on, so hopefully
it is stabilizing at 68, my target. The fermenters are up to
66.5F
1:56pm Krausen has formed on WLP500, nothing moving through the blow
off tube. Temp of reservoir down to 64, heater must not work.
The light turns on indicating that it is heating, but the
water doesn't get warm.
4:28pm More krausen on WLP500. Reservoir is at 64, fermenters are
at 66.5F
11:24pm Reservoir at 66F after adding warm water. Fermenters are at
67F and fermenting rapidly.
2015/03/22 12:54pm temp down to 62F in fermenters. Added some hot water to bring
reservoir up to 68F
3:45pm temp of reservoir down to 66F, fermenters up to 67F. Added new
fish tank heater to try to stabilize temp.
9:45pm temp down to 64F. Heater doesn't seem to be working. Raised temp
of thermostat and covered reservoir in the hopes of preserving some
heat. Replaced some water with hot tap water. Fermentation is
still quite vigorous, both fermenters are bubbling and still
have lots of krausen.
2015/03/23 7:45am Fermenters are at 67F. Krausen has receded slightly, moreso in
Chimay fermenter, but both are still bubbling vigorously.
5:45pm Fermenters are at 65F, heater isn't working as advertised. WLP500
isn't bubbling anymore, but still has some foam. Chimay is still
bubbling, but has a little less foam than WLP500. Added other
heater to try to get the temp to 70F.
9:05pm heaters finally started working, temp up to 71F in fermenters,
72F in reservoir. WLP500 started fermenting very actively again,
with lots of motion in the fermenter and continuous bubbles.
This might have saved the batch. Nice green apple notes in the
blow-off tube bucket, I hope that there isn't too much in the finished
beer.
2015/03/24 6:58am Fermenters are at 69F, both are still bubbling. The WLP500
looks more active, but is bubbling less than the Chimay. Both are
bubbling less than yesterday.
5:45pm Fermentation has slowed considerably, very little gas is escaping
and fermenter temp is down to 66F. Heaters still arent working as
I expect.
2015/03/25 12:15am Reservoir up to 80F. I don't understand these heaters at all.
Replaced blow off tubes with airlocks. Chimay bubbles every 10s,
WLP500 every 5.
6:42am Temps down to 72F. Hopefully all this up and down isn't bad for
the beer. The WLP500 had a bubble in 30 seconds, Chimay didn't.
There is still a little foam on the top of both fermenters, but
no more activity inside. The WLP500 is more of a medium brown, as
if less yeast has flocculated. The Chimay fermenter appears to have
had a lot more flocculation. Fermenters are much less fragrant.
5:45pm Temps at 66F, I'm going to leave them alone now. No more active
fermentation, krausen has dissipated
2015/03/26 6:52am Temps down to 64F
5:15pm Temps down to 62F. Turned each heater up by about 2 degrees.
They were set at 75F, now at 77F. Both pilot lights have been
on and the heaters have felt warm every time I go down there.
I have the bubbler on again to try to mix the water. I am
very confused.
11:15pm Temps back up to 72F, turned off new heater.
2015/03/27 6:58am Temps down to 66F, turned heater up slightly
6:43pm Temps down to 64F, turned heater up even more.
2015/03/28 10:02am Temps up to 66F, turned heater up even more (thermostat says 79F)
2015/03/29 7:22am Temp of reservoir down to 60F. Turned thermostat up to 89F.
What i don't understand is the heater is very warm to the touch,
and when I had both heaters, the temp went up over 70F (too warm)
2015/03/30 7:28am Temp is at 62F, thermostat of new heater was at 75F. Turned it
up to 79F
6:48pm Temp still at 62F, turned thermostat up to 82F
8:45pm Heater decided to kick into high gear, temp was up to 75F before
I turned it down. Heater thermostat is at 75F now.
2015/03/31 7:06am Temp down to 66F. Turned heater thermostat up to 77F
2015/04/02 7:22am Temp down to 62F. I tried unplugging the heater, adjusting the
thermostat to 70F, putting it back in the water and leaving it
for a few minutes before plugging it back in. I have a hunch that
taking it out of the water to adjust the thermostat might be part
of the problem.
2015/04/03 9:00pm racked to secondary. Racking was very difficult, it was hard to get
the siphon started and siphon failed with Chimay vessel. Had to pour
most of it. Had to pour less of WLP500, but the transfer was still
difficult. The WLP500 smells a bit softer, the chimay smells a bit
more like banana or chocolate. They taste *very* similar, far more
so than I expected. Both have very strongly alcoholic taste, I am
certain that my OG was more than 1.07. It will take time for the
volatile alcohols to calm. They taste very good, far less fruity
than Saison de Noel.
2015/04/30 9:04pm boiled 1C water w/ 2oz corn sugar for 15 minutes. Final solution
is 2/3C, will use 1/3 C in each. Bottled WLP 500, produced 2 25oz
bottles, 1 22oz bottle and 2 12 oz bottles. FG is 1.024, much higher
than I thought it would be. Tastes very hot, but it is smoother than
the Saison de Noel already. Lots of depth and dark fruit. Should be
tremendous in 6 months. Note that I had to put the sugar solution on
the top of the bottling bucket because I forgot!
9:48pm bottled Chimay, FG was 1.022. Got 2 25oz bottles, 1 22 oz bottle and
1 12 oz bottle. Smells like banana, but there is none on the palette.
Flavor is much smoother and more refined than WLP500, slightly sweeter
and something like raspberry candy (but in a good way) in the back.
Its delightful! To try to make a distinction, the WLP500 tastes like
dark fruit and this one tastes like dried or candied fruit.
I am going to make 2 1 gal batches of a Chimay (Blue) Grand Reserve
clone, one with yeast recovered from a Chimay bottle, one with
White Labs WLP 500.
Recipe (2 gallons of finished wort):
2 lbs Best Malz pilsen,
4oz Belgian special B
4oz Weyerman Cara 45
Mash at 150F for 60 minutes
2.5lb light DME
2/5 package of dark candi syrup
7/10 oz Hallertau @ 60
3/10 oz Hallertau @ 15
1/11/2015 Purchased the bottle at Trader Joe's
1/12/2015 8:45pm Opened the bottle, drank the beer, left
about 1/2" of beer on the bottom. Covered
with non-sanitized plastic wrap, left in
fridge.
1/15/2015 8:30pm removed from fridge, allowed to warm up a
little
9:00pm pitched yeast and beer in 650mL boiled
water w/ 1/2c DME. Used sanitized aluminum
foil to cover, settled airlock in. Put on
top of fridge, where temp is about 70F
1/19/2015 7:33am after 3 full days of nothing, I was convinced
nothing would come from this experiment.
But this morning, there was some foam on
top and a little bit more sediment
than before. I think the yeast
is alive!
8:40pm a little more foam at the top, more sediment
than before
1/20/2015 6:57am even more foam, even more sediment, maybe
as much as my Wyeast smack pack starter
that I made for the Saison de Noel. I put
the starter in the fridge to wash.
9:00pm decanted the starter, was surprised how
good it tasted. Sweet, fruity and mild.
Added more water to wash it, put it back
in the fridge to get the yeast to settle.
1/21/2015 6:47am decided not to decant it further. Added
a little water, swirled and poured into a
sanitized beer bottle. Capped the bottle, put
it in the fridge. There was less sediment on
the bottom than I had hoped, hopefully there
is enough yeast to culture to use to brew.
Beginning to brew
2015/03/18 9:30pm brought 1450mL double filtered water to a boil,
stirred in 3/4C light DME and 2 dashes of Wyeast
beer nutrient, boiled for 15 minutes
10:20pm temp of starter wort down to 78F, pitched yeasts
and put flasks on top of fridge
2015/03/19 7:00am temp down to 70F. No activity
5:10pm Still no actvity in WLP500, but there is a small
layer of krausen in yeast recovered from
Chimay bottle. Temp down to 67.
11:15pm Yeast from bottle was bubbling, fermenting actively.
I put it in the fridge until tomorrow. The WLP500
seemed to bubble once or twice, its much slower
than the yeast recovered from the bottle.
2015/03/20 8:01am WLP500 seemed a bit more active this morning, so
I put it in the fridge to get it to settle.
Will boil tonight. Temp at 72F
5:00pm removed yeast from fridge
7:45pm heated 3qt double filtered tap water and
1.5qt distilled water to 165.
8:12pm 2 lbs Best Malz pilsen, 4oz Belgian
special B and 4oz Weyerman Cara 45 in my "mash tun",
added 4.5qt water quart by quart, but it still wasn't
enough to fully cover the grain. Put mash into cooler,
thermometer read 150.
8:14pm added another 1qt of 165F water. Temp in mash tun down
to 147F.
8:18pm added 0.5qt of boiling water, mash temp up to 154.
Note that the thermometer wasn't reading correctly when I
said 147F, it was probably over 150.
8:57pm mash temp down to 150F
9:10pm started mashout, had a hard time raising the temp so I
just skipped to sparging
9:22pm began sparging, used 3.75qt of 170F water.
9:37pm finished sparge
9:39pm boil achieved! Stirred in 2.5lbs Munton's extra light
malt extract, 6oz dark candi sugar and about 0.7oz Hersbrucker
hops.
9:43pm returned to boil
10:17pm measured pre-boil OG of 1.044 at about 75F. According to this:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/ that is
a 73% extraction efficiency, which is perfect. Wort tasted
very grainy, it was good but not as robust as I would have
hoped (would make a good kolsch, but didn't taste a thing
like a belgian quad)
10:26pm added 0.2oz Hersbrucker
10:30pm tasted the starter wort. The WLP500 was very tart, slightly
fruity and spritzy. The Chimay recovered yeast was much
darker in color, and had a bit of a funky taste, less fruity
and a touch of barnyard. I hope it isn't a contamination flavor.
10:43pm put kettle in icewater bath
11:10pm cooled to 78F
11:29pm Couldn't fit my tubing on my HEPA filter, so I just pitched yeast.
11:35pm OG measured 1.070, way below expectation. Wort tastes very good,
slightly less bitter than I remember the Saison de Noel tasting.
2015/03/21 7:00am some foam on Chimay bottle, nothing coming through blowoff tub
in either fermenter
11:00am Temp down to 64 in water reservoir. Thermostat isn't working
well on heater. Turned it up to 72F, added some warm water to
get the temperature up. Fermentation is very vigorous in the
Chimay fermentor, nothing happenening in WLP500 fermenter.
12:04pm Temp of reservoir at 68F, heater thermostat is on, so hopefully
it is stabilizing at 68, my target. The fermenters are up to
66.5F
1:56pm Krausen has formed on WLP500, nothing moving through the blow
off tube. Temp of reservoir down to 64, heater must not work.
The light turns on indicating that it is heating, but the
water doesn't get warm.
4:28pm More krausen on WLP500. Reservoir is at 64, fermenters are
at 66.5F
11:24pm Reservoir at 66F after adding warm water. Fermenters are at
67F and fermenting rapidly.
2015/03/22 12:54pm temp down to 62F in fermenters. Added some hot water to bring
reservoir up to 68F
3:45pm temp of reservoir down to 66F, fermenters up to 67F. Added new
fish tank heater to try to stabilize temp.
9:45pm temp down to 64F. Heater doesn't seem to be working. Raised temp
of thermostat and covered reservoir in the hopes of preserving some
heat. Replaced some water with hot tap water. Fermentation is
still quite vigorous, both fermenters are bubbling and still
have lots of krausen.
2015/03/23 7:45am Fermenters are at 67F. Krausen has receded slightly, moreso in
Chimay fermenter, but both are still bubbling vigorously.
5:45pm Fermenters are at 65F, heater isn't working as advertised. WLP500
isn't bubbling anymore, but still has some foam. Chimay is still
bubbling, but has a little less foam than WLP500. Added other
heater to try to get the temp to 70F.
9:05pm heaters finally started working, temp up to 71F in fermenters,
72F in reservoir. WLP500 started fermenting very actively again,
with lots of motion in the fermenter and continuous bubbles.
This might have saved the batch. Nice green apple notes in the
blow-off tube bucket, I hope that there isn't too much in the finished
beer.
2015/03/24 6:58am Fermenters are at 69F, both are still bubbling. The WLP500
looks more active, but is bubbling less than the Chimay. Both are
bubbling less than yesterday.
5:45pm Fermentation has slowed considerably, very little gas is escaping
and fermenter temp is down to 66F. Heaters still arent working as
I expect.
2015/03/25 12:15am Reservoir up to 80F. I don't understand these heaters at all.
Replaced blow off tubes with airlocks. Chimay bubbles every 10s,
WLP500 every 5.
6:42am Temps down to 72F. Hopefully all this up and down isn't bad for
the beer. The WLP500 had a bubble in 30 seconds, Chimay didn't.
There is still a little foam on the top of both fermenters, but
no more activity inside. The WLP500 is more of a medium brown, as
if less yeast has flocculated. The Chimay fermenter appears to have
had a lot more flocculation. Fermenters are much less fragrant.
5:45pm Temps at 66F, I'm going to leave them alone now. No more active
fermentation, krausen has dissipated
2015/03/26 6:52am Temps down to 64F
5:15pm Temps down to 62F. Turned each heater up by about 2 degrees.
They were set at 75F, now at 77F. Both pilot lights have been
on and the heaters have felt warm every time I go down there.
I have the bubbler on again to try to mix the water. I am
very confused.
11:15pm Temps back up to 72F, turned off new heater.
2015/03/27 6:58am Temps down to 66F, turned heater up slightly
6:43pm Temps down to 64F, turned heater up even more.
2015/03/28 10:02am Temps up to 66F, turned heater up even more (thermostat says 79F)
2015/03/29 7:22am Temp of reservoir down to 60F. Turned thermostat up to 89F.
What i don't understand is the heater is very warm to the touch,
and when I had both heaters, the temp went up over 70F (too warm)
2015/03/30 7:28am Temp is at 62F, thermostat of new heater was at 75F. Turned it
up to 79F
6:48pm Temp still at 62F, turned thermostat up to 82F
8:45pm Heater decided to kick into high gear, temp was up to 75F before
I turned it down. Heater thermostat is at 75F now.
2015/03/31 7:06am Temp down to 66F. Turned heater thermostat up to 77F
2015/04/02 7:22am Temp down to 62F. I tried unplugging the heater, adjusting the
thermostat to 70F, putting it back in the water and leaving it
for a few minutes before plugging it back in. I have a hunch that
taking it out of the water to adjust the thermostat might be part
of the problem.
2015/04/03 9:00pm racked to secondary. Racking was very difficult, it was hard to get
the siphon started and siphon failed with Chimay vessel. Had to pour
most of it. Had to pour less of WLP500, but the transfer was still
difficult. The WLP500 smells a bit softer, the chimay smells a bit
more like banana or chocolate. They taste *very* similar, far more
so than I expected. Both have very strongly alcoholic taste, I am
certain that my OG was more than 1.07. It will take time for the
volatile alcohols to calm. They taste very good, far less fruity
than Saison de Noel.
2015/04/30 9:04pm boiled 1C water w/ 2oz corn sugar for 15 minutes. Final solution
is 2/3C, will use 1/3 C in each. Bottled WLP 500, produced 2 25oz
bottles, 1 22oz bottle and 2 12 oz bottles. FG is 1.024, much higher
than I thought it would be. Tastes very hot, but it is smoother than
the Saison de Noel already. Lots of depth and dark fruit. Should be
tremendous in 6 months. Note that I had to put the sugar solution on
the top of the bottling bucket because I forgot!
9:48pm bottled Chimay, FG was 1.022. Got 2 25oz bottles, 1 22 oz bottle and
1 12 oz bottle. Smells like banana, but there is none on the palette.
Flavor is much smoother and more refined than WLP500, slightly sweeter
and something like raspberry candy (but in a good way) in the back.
Its delightful! To try to make a distinction, the WLP500 tastes like
dark fruit and this one tastes like dried or candied fruit.
