My Belgian black honey ale was ready to go into secondary so I wanted to pitch on the left over yeast cake. The yeast is WLP530 or Westmalle yeast (also used by Achel and Westvleteren). So it was clear whatever I brewed would be in the Belgian style.
After some back and forth I decided to use Achel Bruin Extra 9.5° as the inspiration. This is a beer that really doesn't fit into a predefined style. It basically an imperial dubbel, also called an Abt, quad, or quadrupel, so it would fall into the catch all Belgian specialty category. Achel is one of the coolest Trappist brewers in my opinion. While they are a commercial brewery, they are tiny in comparison to some of the others. They sell most of their beer at a cafe at the Monastery. Monks actually have a had in brewing here too.
I used much of the information found in the book by Stan Hieronymus, "How to brew like a monk". Here the general ingredients as well as mash process is reveled. The beer uses pilsner and chocolate malt, dark candi syrup, and Saaz hops.
I tried to match the grain ratio as closely as possible. I also used the same mash process and temps. I ended up doing a no sparge step mash of 118° (15 mins) | 143° (20 mins) | 163° (40 mins) | 173° (10 mins)
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| Had to use gravity to be able to do the step mash. I used direct heat on the kettle to maintain temps while recirculating back through the mash tun |
Instead of using all early addition Saaz, I used Pearle and Tettnang hops. I used one pound of date sugar instead of the candi syrup. This is really just finely chopped and dried dates... but it is sweet and has a very nice flavor.
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| Date Sugar |
Only 2.5 hours after pitching on the WLP530 yeast cake and it is already bubbling away like mad. The following morning my bucket looked about ready to explode. I quickly set up a blow off tube in order to divert a disaster. I am usually fine without one when I ferment 5 gallons in a 7.5 gallon bucket, but not this time.
| Ingredients | |||
| Amount | Item | Type | % or IBU |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14.00 lb | Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) | Grain | 90.3 % |
| 0.50 lb | Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) | Grain | 3.2 % |
| 1.00 oz | Pearle [7.50%] (90 min) | Hops | 25.9 IBU |
| 1.00 oz | Tettnang [3.90%] (20 min) | Hops | 7.6 IBU |
| 1.00 lb | Date sugar (5.0 SRM) | Sugar | 6.5 % |
| 1 Pkgs | Abbey Ale (White Labs #WLP530) | Yeast-Ale |
| Beer Profile | |
| Estimated Original Gravity: 1.091 SG (1.062-1.075 SG) | Measured Original Gravity: 1.090 SG |
| Estimated Final Gravity: 1.021 SG (1.010-1.018 SG) | Measured Final Gravity: TBD |
| Estimated Color: 19.6 SRM (10.0-14.0 SRM) | Color [Color] |
| Bitterness: 33.5 IBU (15.0-25.0 IBU) | Alpha Acid Units: 2.4 AAU |
| Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 9.2 % (6.0-7.5 %) | Actual Alcohol by Volume: TBD |
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