November 25, 2002
Westvleteren Abt 12° Clone Update

A few people have asked about how the Westvleteren Clone has been going so here's the scoop. I tasted it a week or so ago and it's... um... interesting. The large percentage of candi sugar has given it a slightly cidery flavor with a strong alcohol aroma and flavor and possibly some acetaldehyde. It's also a little on the sweet side. It has attenuated down to 1.040 so far (63%). I'd like to see it get down to around 1.030. I roused the yeast to wake it up a little. I think that the finished beer will probably be pretty good but will need a lot of time to age. It's still extremely young. As to how close to Westvleteren Abt 12° this beer will come, that's yet to be determined. Based on how the beer tasted going into the fermenter and how it tasted last week, if I were to brew it again, I'd probably eliminate the light candi sugar altogether, use 1/2 lb of amber and 1-1/2 lbs of dark sugar and up the grain bill to account for the difference. More updates in the weeks and months to come...


Comments

Hi

I've triede many times to emulate abbaye style ale, particuliary Rochefort and Westvleteren.

So far, everything has come out good, exept I cant pinpoint that malty taste -you know, the "Malt Balls" taste from our childhood?

By the way, where is your Westy clone recipe?

b.

Posted by: ben on July 17, 2003 09:40 AM

Not sure on the "Malted Milk Balls" flavor. Maybe Aromatic Malt? Using just the first runnings helped with the maltiness of my Westy clone.

Here's the recipe:

http://www.suckerfish.net/~matt/beer/blog/archives/000149.html

Cheers!

-- Matt

Posted by: Matt on July 17, 2003 05:18 PM

Hey Matt,
How is the Westvleteren clone these days? I am currently culturing some of the yeast from a bottle and firing up a small batch.
-Dave

Posted by: Dave on April 16, 2004 02:42 PM
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