I am planning on brewing 10 gallons of Belgian-style ale tomorrow. I have starters of WY3522 (LaChouffe) and WY1762 (Rochefort) ready to go.
What I would like to end up with, is 5 gallons of Blond (3522) and 5 gallons of Brune (1762). Aiming for around a 6.5% abv when done.
My plan is to brew a base beer with mostly pilsner malt, with a little biscuit and aromatic. Chill the wort, transfer into each fermenter, and pitch each with the two yeasts.
Once active fermentation begins, I plan to soak two 1-lb. packets of clear Belgian candi syrup and two 1-lb. packets of dark Belgian candi syrup in boiling hot water to get the syrup to lower its viscosity. Then add them each to their respective fermenters. My thoughts is that with the fluid syrup and the churning action of active fermentation, the syrup would dissolve in the fermenting wort instead of puddling in the bottom of the fermenter.
Thoughts? Suggestions of a better way? And no, I don’t want to brew two separate 5 gallon batches because I am lazy.
i think those yeasts will be vigorously churning enough to encourage mixing of these sugars, if you add while fermentation is visibly very active. hope it works out, as i like ideas like this. 2 for 1
One reason I like adding it to the kettle is that you can put a bit of hot wort into the paciiage to rinse it put. That and it gets it over with so I don’t have to deal with it later.
I like your process of getting every last bit of sugar! I started adding the sugar to the fermenter because certain Belgian strains struggle to attenuate completely and by adding the sugar after fermentation begins to slow can help keep the yeast active.
Update: This worked exceptionally well. the blond with WY3522 is excellent, while the brune with the WY1722 reminds me of Rochefort 6. Very pleased with the results and I will likely do this again. Probably try WY3787 instead of WY3522 next time.
Yes, WY1762 is the Rochefort yeast. This beer seemed to taste a lot more like Rochefort than previous attempts to try to clone Rochefort that had crystal malts like Caramunich and Special B in it.
I didn’t measure any gravities so I have no idea what attenuation I got. Would have been a guesstimate anyways since I added sugar to the fermentors.
This information is very timely with the invert syrup thread going on. I have never been one to shy away from using adjuncts, including sugar. My problem with most Belgians is that I am very sensitive to phenolics. Duvel is at my threshold for phenolics. I can drink Victory Golden Monkey, but that beer is tame by Belgian standards with respect to phenolics.
WY1762 is probably a good choice for you. I find it to be relatively clean on phenolics when fermented in the mid/upper 60’s. This strain immediately comes to mind when the topic of English ale strains being related to Belgian ones comes up. I have used this a few times in English Barleywines, and you would only know it was a Belgian yeast if you knew to look for that fairly distinct, dark fruit/Rochefort flavor. I’ve always had it on my “to do” list to try 1762 in some more typical English styles just to see what it does at lower abv’s.
that taste is an accurate description. as lore says rochefort got this strain from england a while ago, but has it mutated since then in belgium or is it more than one yeast?
if one got a dark and strong rochefort 8 or 10 from the store and it was labelled “someplaceinenglandshire strong old ale” one wouldn’t totally question that i think