Hey Gang,

Here is a recipe for a little later on this summer to complete my Trifecta of Belgian Brews, all with an OG of at least 1.070 (WAY over that in at least one case). I have the recipe down, it's very simple and is as follows:

Pale Malt (2-row)________8.5 lbs._____41.4%
Pilsen Malt ___________8.5 lbs.____41.4%
Simpsons Naked Oats____1.55 lbs.____7.5%
Candi Syrup____________2.00 lbs.____9.7%
1.091 OG

Hops

Northern Brewer (7.00 AA%)________17.8 IBU_____0.80 oz.____60 min. boil
Hallertau Hersbrucker (4.80 AA%)____11.2 IBU_____0.80 oz.____45 min. boil
Fuggle (4.50 AA%)________________11.0 IBU_____1.00 oz.____30 min. boil
Aiming for 39 to 40 IBUs

Yeast: Wyeast 3787

It is basically the N8's Westvleteren 8 recipe that I stole (thanks N8 ) with a bit of Simpsons Naked Oats for (hopefully) a light peach undertone, and adjusted amounts for my 54% efficiency (in case anybody wants to replicate for themselves with ProMash or whatever).

Now the hard part. Do I brew to Westvleteren standards and let the temperature run around like the young ladies in Girls Gone Wild, effectively making this a Westvleteren 12 clone, or do I use a more Westmalle approach and keep the temps at a lower range, effectively making this an Achel clone? Any advice or opinions welcome.

-Cheers

Do both.

Personally I would go with the lower temps, because I can do without the esters that come about with warmer ferments. But if you are looking to replicate a specific beer it would do you good to do exactly what they do, as close as you can, to acheive your goal of reproducing their beer.
Otherwise do what I do and use their recipe and procedure as a guideline for making a quality beer that is close but also reflects your own brewing style.
Regardless of what Matt and Denny say.

How about this for a modified version:

Pale Malt (2-row)________18.00 lbs._____41.4%
Pilsen Malt _____________18.00 lbs._____41.4%
Simpsons Naked Oats_____4.50 lbs.______7.5%
Candi Syrup/Sugar________5.00 lbs.______9.7%

1.092 OG
11 gallons

Hops

Northern Brewer (7.00 AA%)________17.8 IBU_____1.60 oz.____60 min. boil
Hallertau Hersbrucker (4.80 AA%)____11.2 IBU_____1.60 oz.____45 min. boil
Amarillo Gold (10.00 AA%)___________7.6 IBU_____1.00 oz.____30 min. boil
Aiming for 44 IBUs

Yeast: Wyeast 3787

I changed the Fuggles to Amarillo Gold to (hopefully) add a touch of a peach/apricot taste or nose to it. I am also wondering how much of the 5.00 lbs. of sugar should be Candi Syrup and how much should be plain white sugar or some sort of ethnic sugar. My plan is to brew 11 gallons and put 5.5 gallons at 65 F to ferment and the rest left to ferment at room temperature (~ 70 F) and let it rise to ferment more or less at Westy temps.

Any recipe critiques, comments about the Amarillo/Peach flavor coorelation (or how to better accomplish that sort of flavor note), or input on how much of the 5 lbs. of sugar contribution should come from the candi syrup are welcome. I have two bottles of the candi syrup, but can get more if it would be better to add more up to five bottles of syrup in an 11 gallon batch.

-Cheers

Is naked oats appropriate? I *think* I've tasted it in a brew once, and I don't think it'd be anything clode to W12 or Achel. Will it make a pretty awesome beer? probably- but definitely not a clone.

"Is naked oats appropriate?"

For a clone? No, probably not. I am banking on it adding a slight peach/apricot note in the background and adding a nice mouthfeel to it, both of which I think I would enjoy. But everything else in the recipe (other than the Amarillo if I go that route) should be very close to the Westvleteren 12 or even the Achel Bruin recipe. I think . . .

-Cheers

Dave,
Just wondering if you got the chance to brew this weekend. I am getting myself psyched up for the jump to all-grain and want a nice big Belgian for the winter so Westvleteren should fit the bill. Did you hit your OG, how much of the of the syrup did you end up using?

To others, since I don't have Wyeast at my LHBS would WLP530 suffice? Morebeer cross-references it in their catalog. It's not a big deal to me since I'm going for a style not a clone.

N8,
One question in regards to the mash. Referring to your recipe here (http://tinyurl.com/qry6l [bablebelt]) you list this: Sacch rest @ 148F for 90min. Is this for the entire mash, a no-step batch sparge? This will be my first all grain so I just want to be sure.

Bryan

Yes Brian, it was 148F for 90min. No steps or decoctions.

Good luck.

No oats if you want to keep it authentic. What's the point? And you need both the dark candi styrup and sucrose.

Yea I was planning on skipping the oats. N8's recepie was for the 8 I believe since it had a OG of 1.080. I want to shoot a bit higher for the 12 and have two bottles of the dark syrup. Can you explain why I should use both and how much of each I should use?

I found the syrup to weigh in at 1.0313 ppppg. Use that as your numbers to bring it up to your desired gravity. Also maybe throw some sucrose, or sugar into the mix to help bring up the gravity and dry it out a bit.
I found that adding the syrup/sugar to the end of the boil to be helpful. In the case of the syrup it helps leave a better flavor prfile of the syrup, rather than boiling it out. Plus it won't carmelize it as much.

"Dave,
Just wondering if you got the chance to brew this weekend. I am getting myself psyched up for the jump to all-grain and want a nice big Belgian for the winter so Westvleteren should fit the bill. Did you hit your OG, how much of the of the syrup did you end up using?"

I brewed a Rochefort 10 clone 2 1/2 weeks ago and ended up getting an OG of 1.120 instead of the 1.096 I was going for. It's down to a gravity of 1.037 and tastes very good aside from the yeast that got into my sample; it's a lot smoother than I thought it would be. For the Rochefort clone, I just used two bottles of Dark Candi Syrup, no sucrose. It's hard to say if it's better to put one or two bottles per 5-gallon batch (I used the Herman Bierpage Roche 8 recipe so it had Special B in it as well), but it tasted very nice.

Ten days ago I brewed a Delirium Tremens clone, so I have not gotten to the Westy clone. That one can't finish fermenting soon enough for me, but it's still bubbling so no DT on tap yet. Given that I have two Belgians still in primary, I am probably not going to make the Westvleteren 12 clone until the middle or end of summer.

"No oats if you want to keep it authentic. What's the point? And you need both the dark candi styrup and sucrose."

Somebody over at Babblebelt recommended Simpsons Golden Naked Oats for an apricot note and silky smooth mouthfeel, which I thought sounded nice. However, it is also said to give a raspberry a/o nut taste which is not really what I want in this beer. So that would have been going away from a clone. I think what I will probably end up doing is stick with N8's recipe, bump it up to Westy 12 gravity, possibly making 10 gallons of it, and brew 5-gallons at 65 F and let the other 5-gallons kind of run wild with the temp. I'm planning using two bottles per five-gallons, or four bottles total if I actually go through with the 10-gallon batch.

I'd still like to try the Simpsons Golden Naked Oats in a beer at some point, just not sure what kind to throw it in yet.

Oh yeah Bryguy, WLP530 IS the Westmalle yeast, so you should be good to go with that for your yeast.

-Cheers