First attempt at AG - La Chouffe Clone

[serum]

I attempted my first AG brew today using all DIY equipment with a lot of help from this forum. I attempted a clone of La Chouffe which is my favourite beer.

I'm concerned my yeast starter might have been infected as it smelled funky as hell but I've checked around and quite a few people seem to have said that. I'm hoping it.

By making a number of errors I've ended up with 17L instead of 20L and a starting gravity of 1080 instead of 1070 which looks like it'll result in some 10.8% monster.

It's already bubbling away in the fermenter so let's see what happens. I'll no doubt have plenty of questions about it later on but the main things I learned are:

- I need to get better at sparging and possibly build some sort of sparge arm to make it easier. The tinfoil method really didn't work well for me.
- I probably need a bigger flask for my yeast starter. Unfortunately the krausen took the foil off the top of the flask when I stepped it up to the final stage and I'm worried that might be the cause of the dodgy odour.

I was prepared for plenty to go wrong and a few things did but I'm glad my boiler didn't fry our power supply and I was able to get the mash temp just right so that was a good result. I know I'll definitely do a better job next time round.

 

[rats_eyes]

Good work!

 

[clibit]

Nice one serum, good to have some new AG 'blood' on the forum!

Why not top up with cold water? Get your strength and volume nearer your original target.

 

[serum]

Nice one serum, good to have some new AG 'blood' on the forum!

Why not top up with cold water? Get your strength and volume nearer your original target.

I might be wrong to say this but I'm a bit nervous about using London water in my brews as it has probably been through a hundred toilets before it gets to me.

I used cheap spring water but ran out by the end so I couldn't add any more. Some of the recipes for other brews from the same brewery have a similar starting gravity to mine so I'm just going to see what happens with it.

 

[clibit]

That's fine of course. You can top up later though, big breweries dilute at the bottling stage. It's an option, before, during or after fermentation. Maybe taste before priming and see what you think.

 

[serum]

That's fine of course. You can top up later though, big breweries dilute at the bottling stage. It's an option, before, during or after fermentation. Maybe taste before priming and see what you think.

I might give that a go, I was a full 3 litres short so I think it will be the right thing to do

 

[Duxuk]

Itoo would be tempted to add water from a bottle when you've got plenty of alcohol in there. There'll be no significant infection risk with 10% alcohol, that would pickle most things!
A quick number crunch suggests your efficiency was very close to the recipe so well done, that man:

 

[clibit]

Yes. I have just checked it in Brewmate and if you added 3 litres water to increase from 17 to 20 litres it would drop the OG to 1068. About right. :hat:

 

[serum]

I need to get some software.

One thing I could do with figuring out for my next one is how to get the stepped mash right. I posted the recipe on here, originally planning to do a single infusion but someone was kind enough to tell me how many litres to start with to get the first step and how many of boiling water to get to the next and it worked pretty much bang on.

How would you normally work this out? Will software do it or is it just down to experience?

For my next brew I'll be using about 5kg of grains and will probably start with 2.5L water per kilo and aim to get the temp to 62C then get it up to 68C.

This isn't as much of a jump as with the last brew, which went from 60 to 70 and that needed an extra 5 litres of boiling water but this batch won't need as much. The end batch size should be the same so should I put more water in initially or just use more sparge water to get the same end amount?

 

[rats_eyes]

Beersmith seems to calculate this for you. I'm using it on the 21 day trial at the minute, thought I'd check it's numbers for my first AG last week. I don't know the program that well yet, but it seems to be able to cope with calculating a multi step mash. It's well worth a look.

Paul

 

[Asalpaws]

It's a bit if trial and error, even software can't account for the idiosyncrasies if one's kit. Mine always ends up boiling off a lot of volume, so I have a big pan of boiled/ cooled water I add to the FV to get the gravity right before pitching the yeast. I wouldn't get too stressed about it on your first brew. So what if you made 17L of Piraat instead of 20L of Chouffe, that's a result IMO. T

 

[serum]

It's a bit if trial and error, even software can't account for the idiosyncrasies if one's kit. Mine always ends up boiling off a lot of volume, so I have a big pan of boiled/ cooled water I add to the FV to get the gravity right before pitching the yeast. I wouldn't get too stressed about it on your first brew. So what if you made 17L of Piraat instead of 20L of Chouffe, that's a result IMO. T

I'll definitely do extra water next time round. I think I might still dilute it just to see how close it tastes to Chouffe but I'll make something stronger later on. I might have to look for a clone of Kasteel Donker. That'll sort me out.

 

[serum]

I just did a test on this after a week.

I've never seen a krausen last this long, this thing had a thick head going all the way to the top of my fermenter right until Sunday whereas most the kits I've done seem to come and go in about 24-48 hours. It's only just collapsing now.

I was a bit worried that the crazy over-ripe fruit smell I was getting from the starter was coming back and thought I'd give it a gravity check.

The beer underneath smells and tastes fantastic for a flat sample, definitely a hell of a lot closer to the Belgian style than any kits I've done. It's down to 1012 already and I'm hoping it will get down further to below 1010.

If it's infected should it already taste like cack or could that come later?

 

[clibit]

Infections can develop later but if it's good now it's most probably ok.

 

[serum]

Hopefully it was just the smell of the yeast.

It's the first time I've used liquid yeast or a starter and it's a whole different ball game to the dried stuff.

I'll be using the same yeast on my next brew so if it's similar then I'll know it's just how the yeast acts.

 

[Asalpaws]

Sounds like a normal Belgian ferment. Can be very fruity, rivals even wheat beer. T

 

[serum]

Sounds like a normal Belgian ferment. Can be very fruity, rivals even wheat beer. T

It still looks OK. There are still loads of bubbles even though the gravity is quite low now. The thick funky coloured krausen has collapsed and there are loads of smaller white bubbles beneath it. It looks bizarre but smells fine now.

I'm going to bottle it this weekend if the bubbles stop by then or if the gravity gets stuck but will leave it longer if need be.

 

[Asalpaws]

Yeah can take several days for the gravity to drop the last few points. Make sure it's finished or you'll have gushing bottles. T

 

[clibit]

Here's an article on step mashing, with a (meaty) section on water calculations!

http://byo.com/recipes-tag/item/1418-step-up-to-temperature-program-mashing

 

[serum]

Here's an article on step mashing, with a (meaty) section on water calculations!

http://byo.com/recipes-tag/item/1418-step-up-to-temperature-program-mashing

Excellent, thanks for this. Have you done a lot of Belgian brews? I might have to give you a shout for some recipe recommendations.