BeerSmith™ Recipes and Web Editor

Notes

Based on https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/westvleteren-12-clone-multiple-award-winner.500037/ changes to round quantities and to compensate for unavailable ingredients. Notes from URL (abbreviated): Mash Steps ——————— Mash at 149.0 F 90 min Fly or batch sparge 168.0 F Boil Steps ——————— Boil 90 minutes Add hops and Servomyces per schedule, (make sure to open the Servomyces cap). Stir-in adjuncts at 10 minutes prior to flame-out, (alternatively, stir in adjuncts at flame-out) Yeast Ingredients ————————————————— 320 Billion cells or 3200 ml stir-plate starter seeded Clear wort boil-down notes (Optional Step): ————————— (Optionally) perform a separate boil-down of 1.00 gallon of vorlaufed wort into a syrup using the following steps: 1. Extract 1.0 gallon of wort at the beginning of clear runoff into a 3-5 gallon pot. 2. Boil the wort down until it becomes a dark mahogany brown and is bubbling with large bubbles. 3. Be careful NOT to burn the maltose syrup. 4. The result will be approximately 24-26 ounces of syrup. 5. Re-crash the syrup by adding wort from the ongoing main boil. 6. Pour the dissolved liquid back in to the main boil. Fermentation Pitch Notes: —————————— Chill wort to 63-64F Oxygenate chilled wort to 8-10PPM by diffusing pure O2 via .05 micron diffuser for 90-120 seconds. Pitch decanted yeast starter, adding chilled wort to the yeast flask to clear remaining yeast as necessary. Ramp fermentation temp (evenly over time) from 63 - 80F over 7 days. Fermentation Process Notes —————————— 1/5/2012 - Primary Fermentation (7 days at 63F ending at 80.0 F) 1/23/2012 - Secondary Fermentation (3 -10 days at 78.0 F ending at 60.0 F) 1/26/2012 - Tertiary Fermentation (40 days at 50.0 F ending at 50.0 F) 2019-07-04: Started first stage of starter. 1.8L and 5.25 oz of Briess Golden Light DME on the stir plate spinning at around 1530. I’m using the 4L flask for the starter. Starting temp is at the top of the yeast’s range at 78°F, but the room is only in the upper 60°F range. Planning to brew on the 6th. 2019-07-05: Second stage of starter. I took yesterday’s off the stir plate and I am letting it settle and wondering if I will see any krausen - none so far - has it passed or is it yet to come. The stir plate makes it difficult to know. I think the starter looks creamier this morning so I think I am OK. I want to see how it settles to decide if I am pouring off the spent wort or not. 2019-07-06: Brewday: I added in 8 oz of Belgian Cara 45 as the pilsen and pale malt should be balanced but I am low on pale malt and wanted to bring some complexity back. Mash started at 0849. Not too bad. 50 minutes into the mash and the temp on the MT’s BrewMometer seems a couple of degrees high - very unusual. It looks like we will end up mashing around 151°F. I hit 1.101 on the head but only collected 5 G. Depending on how much starter I decant, I will end up with more than that and I won’t have a good OG. The starter has been sitting since noon but hasn’t separated well - I won’t decant much before adding. I don’t like the taste of the starter so I guess I had better decant a bunch! :-( I am starting eith 4 L and would like to decant down to 1 L. O2 first - from the bottle and stone. 1 L of starter added - I think it’s OK but would love to see what it should have looked like. Temp is pretty much 62°F or a touch higher. I don’t see how I am going to use the hot-box and a blow-off tube so I am staying out of there for now until I know the ferment has settled in. 2019-07-07: At 0727 this morning the krausen was half way up the carboy’s headspace. Now at 0845 it’s completely full of krausen! We are Fermenting!!! The carboy temp remains at 74°F. At 1852 the temp has risen to 82°F! Not what I want! I gave it a wet tshirt to wear and a fan on low, and I hope that helps. Room temp is 73°F (set to 60°F) so the heat is just yeast driven. At 2115 the carboy temp has dropped to 78°F. I wet it down some more and we are in good shape it would seem. Bubbling continues strongly through the blow-off tube. 2019-07-08: Krausen is down and temp is back to 74°F . All is well. Regular airlock installed. Tshirt rewetted. That was early morning and now its 2132. I have set up the heater, hot box and controller so that temps will go up one degree a day from it’s current 72°F and up to 78°F where it will stick for a long time - I will remove heat before then when I transfer to secondary in another week plus. 2019-07-10: Carboy/hot box at 72°F yesterday. I had issues with the Inkbird controller and manually set it to 73°F today. Currently the temp reads 72.1°F. I guess I will kick it up to 74°F now. 2019-07-11 0758: Box at 73.2°F and I’ve kicked it up to 75°F. 1839: Just got my IR Thermometer in the mail and tried it. While the controler reads an SP of 75°F and and actual of 74.3°F, the wort itself where it is visible in the gap in the heat belt reads 74.8°F. That is excellent. 2019-07-12 1008: I pushed the controller up from 75°F to 76°F and found the carboy at 76°F via the temp strip and IR meter. 2019-07-13 2122: I pushed the controller temp up to 77°F this morning and the hot box reads 77°F this afternoon. IR Thermometer agrees. Bubbling has ceased. Just a partial skim of krausen/bubbles on top of ale. One more one degree rise and then we will let it sit a couple of days before going to secondary. 2019-07-14 0827: The box reads 77°F. I kicked it up to 78°F. That’s the last rise. I will let is set there a few days. 2019-07-17: I’m headed out for a spell and bubbling has long stopped. Racking to secondary and allowing to run at ambient room temp (upper 60s to around 70°F. The hotbox reads 77.3°F witha target of 78°F. The thermal strip seems to indicte 80°F and the IR Thermometer averages around 78°F. Not sure the refractometer scales match the UnitTool. I am going to call it 12.4 Brix but the SG sides looks more like 1.048 than 1.050. 12.4 gives me an adjusted SG of 1.018 which is realy good for such a high starting gravity. Taste is good to great, but powerful. 2019-07-18: It’s down to 70°F this morning and room temp is also 70°F so it’s likely to stay there. I won’t be checking in on it for a few weeks. 2019-09-10: Racking to keg #7. Temp is 62°F on the strip and 64°F on the IR meter against the glass. SG reads 12.4 Brix via refractometer for an FG of 1.018. Taste is a bit sweet but great. carbonating at 22 PSI for 2.4 volumes. 2019-09-13: It’s on tap now and great!