I took my first pass at making a Westvleteren Abt 12° clone today. If you're going to try to clone a beer, why not go for the best, right? If nothing else, it's a challenge. I started out looking at the recipe printed in Beer Captured but decided not to go that route based on what Michael Jackson writes about Westy in Great Beers of Belgium:
"Only pale malt is used, with white and dark sugar. The first runnings from the mash tun go to one kettle, to make a strong beer, the second runnings to the other for a lower-gravity brew. It is a very traditional method. Northern Brewer hops are used, and Westmalle yeast."
"At no stage is the beer centrifuged or filtered. Protein and yeast are left to precipitate during maturation, the duration of which matches in weeks the Belgian degrees of density. The 6° gets six weeks, and so forth. This makes for firm, long, big, fresh flavours."
Here's the recipe I came up with and brewed:
Westvleteren Abt 12° clone (batch #1) (for 3.5 gallons)
18.5 lbs Belgian Pale Malt
1 lb Clear Candi Sugar (1°L)
1 lb Amber Candi Sugar (75°L)
0.5 lb Dark Candi Sugar (275°L)
0.7 oz Northern Brewer Hop Pellets (7.8% AA) (60 min)
0.3 oz Northern Brewer Hop Pellets (15 min)
0.3 oz Northern Brewer Hop Pellets (5 min)
Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity Yeast (1/2 gallon starter)
Single infusion mash at 152°F.
OG: 1.104 (at 40% no sparge efficiency)
IBU: ~30
SRM: ~30
This was the first no sparge batch I had calculated using just the first runnings and I overshot my gravity fairly significantly. I ended up with 3.5 gallons of great-tasting 1.114 wort! As per Michael Jackson's writing, I just dumped the entire contents of the kettle into the fermenter after cooling with no whirlpool and no hop straining. It's currently busy fermenting away with a massive head of krausen.
How goes this batch? It's been a month....
Posted by: Matt Jarvis on November 18, 2002 10:12 PMYou're recipe is probably pretty accurate. Only two notes.
1) The Brothers of St. Sixtus do not use Candied sugar. They carmalize plain, old white granulated sugar.
2) I'm sceptical that Northern Brewer hops are used. I find it more likely that the German variety of Brewers Gold hops, which are grown in nearby Poperinge, are used. If possible, I would look these hops imported from Poperinge.
BTW: how did this brew turn out?
Posted by: Dan Fields on October 25, 2003 08:48 AMI too am a HUGE fan of WV .. right now i have a full case of 12 and a few of the lighter ones in my cave.. all purchased at the gates of the abbey... last visit I did get into the monastary and talked a bit w/ br. phillipe the brewer... I have managed to activate the yeast from fresh bottles and it works.. oh too well.. in my last 5 gal batch i had to devise a special yeast capture system to preserve it.. the beer is now ~9 months old and just beginning to reach it's stride... it would not qualify as a clone beer because I managed to get a full 5 gal @ 1.124 and although it certainly is a monster.. the alchohol and aging character are beginning to meld.. it is all bottled and sitting on the back shelf and will hopefully last many years... I am hopeing to make this a yearly tradition for comparison... would be interested in hearing from others trying this style
Posted by: Jim Wallace on November 29, 2003 08:43 PM