LBF
Apprentice
So a few years back my friend's dad highly recommended that I try a Rochefort 10. After having one, I understood why it came highly recommended. Wasn't long before I decided to try making a sort of clone, just for the fun of it. In searching for a clone recipe, I found that there really isn't much out there for it. The recipe I found that seemed to be the most reasonable was from Stout Fellow. Of course, the recipe was listed in Metric, so I had to convert to US measurements and because at the time I was partial mashing on the stove and my ability to all grain was limited (plus the Metric amount worked out to 6.6 gallons), I cut the recipe as closely in half as I could. Then, lacking the sugars he specified, I substituted using dark Candi syrup (D-180), table sugar and light brown sugar. The result was actually quite agreeably good. The bad news is, I'm down to less than half a case and I want to brew more, but since I have the ability to make a much larger quantity this time around, I want to make either a full batch (11 gallons into the fermenters) or as close to it as I can manage. And that's where I'm getting into a dispute with BeerSmith...
So I'd like some help from ya'll to try to get this worked out so I can produce something similar to what I already made, just in a larger quantity. I spent most of the afternoon fighting with it and I'm not convinced that I'm on the right track.
First off, here's the recipe from Stout Fellow converted to U.S. measurements:
"Rochefortesque"
6.6 gallons
90 minute boil
70 minute mash @ 150.8*
13.23 # German Pilsner
1.1 # Caramel/Crystal 120L
1.32 # Special B
1.32 # Flaked Wheat
0.66 # Black Malt (specified that it may be best to use Carafa or De-Bittered)
1.1 # Demerara sugar @ 20
1.1 # Soft dark sugar @ 20
2.29 oz East Kent Golding @ 80
1.41 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker @ 10
Now, my attempt at it....
Monk's Ten - BIAB
my notes specify that I oversparged and had 4.25 gallons pre-boil and around 3.25 or so at bottling, but no other specifics on volumes
6.5 # German Pilsner
0.6 # Caramel/Crystal 120L
0.75 # Special B
0.75 # Flaked Wheat
0.36 # Debittered Black
0.6 # Table sugar (I believe I did half and half table and light brown sugar) @ 10
0.6 # Dark candi syrup D-180 @ 10
0.75 oz East Kent Golding @ 60
0.6 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker @ 10
0.4 oz Amarillo @ flameout
*Chill times were extended due to the lack of an ice bath, I just did a cold tap water bath. I also managed to fail at noting gravity readings with the exception of the FG of 1.002. In theory, my starting gravity into the fermenter should have been around 1.098 although I suspect my efficiency wasn't up to par with that prediction because it doesn't taste like it's over 9-10% ABV. IBU was supposed to be around 25.45. BeerSmith claims that what I brewed should be a 1.074 OG with 13.3 IBU which doesn't match very well with what my thoughts on the taste are.
Now, when I put Stout Fellow's recipe in Beersmith using the generic BIAB brew settings and tell it to scale to my equipment settings, I get the following.
21 # 14 oz Pilsner
2 # 3 oz Flaked Wheat
1 # 15.6 oz Special B
1 # 13.7 oz Demerara (substituted to table sugar)
1 # 11.1 oz Soft dark sugar (substituted to D-180 syrup)
1 # 10.3 oz Caramel 120
15.8 oz Debittered Black
3.74 oz EKG @ 60
2.30 oz Hallertau @ 10
OG - 1.081
IBU - 27.4
I should mention, my current equipment is set for a target batch of 11 gallons into the fermenters. I'm pretty sure I have my current equipment settings dialed in pretty close. I used to use a free program (Brewers Friend) and write out all of my recipes after building them. I also used an app on my phone that gave me similar results to Brewers Friend. When I transfer either of those recipes into BeerSmith using my current equipment settings, everything comes out pretty much dead on (all three agree). Where it gets strange is before I got my current equipment, I could never get all three programs to agree (Brewers Friend and the app would agree, but BeerSmith had other ideas) and I could never figure out what the problem was.
Telling BeerSmith to scale my original results in numbers not too far below Stout Fellow's recipe that I scaled, but it retains the pitifully low IBU number of 13.3 and still gives me an OG of 1.074.
18 # 4.8 oz Pilsner
2 # 2.9 oz Special B
2 # 1.8 oz Flaked Wheat
1 # 15 oz Soft dark sugar (substituted to D-180 syrup)
1 # 14 oz Demerara (substituted to table sugar, will divide between table and light brown)
1 # 11.9 oz Caramel 120
1 # 0.8 oz Debittered Black
1.44 oz EKG @ 60
1.16 oz Hallertau @ 10
0.77 oz Amarillo @ 5 (to adjust for the slow chill)
Now, I tried tweaking those numbers to be more like the ones from Stout Fellow and this is what I came up with, but I'm not sure if I'm on the right track or not.
22 # Pilsner
2 # 3 oz Special B
2 # 2 oz Flaked Wheat
2 # D-180 candi syrup
2 # light brown sugar
1 # 12 oz Caramel 120
1 # Debittered Black
3.25 oz EKG @ 60
2.25 oz Hallertau @ 10
1 oz Amarillo @ 5
OG - 1.084
IBU - 25.8
As above, these are numbers for an 11 gallon batch into the fermenters
So I'm at a bit of a loss as to exactly how to handle this. I don't know if I'm on the right track with tweaking the numbers or way off base. Things just don't seem to be adding up to me and I just want to brew another batch of this awesome beer.
So I'd like some help from ya'll to try to get this worked out so I can produce something similar to what I already made, just in a larger quantity. I spent most of the afternoon fighting with it and I'm not convinced that I'm on the right track.
First off, here's the recipe from Stout Fellow converted to U.S. measurements:
"Rochefortesque"
6.6 gallons
90 minute boil
70 minute mash @ 150.8*
13.23 # German Pilsner
1.1 # Caramel/Crystal 120L
1.32 # Special B
1.32 # Flaked Wheat
0.66 # Black Malt (specified that it may be best to use Carafa or De-Bittered)
1.1 # Demerara sugar @ 20
1.1 # Soft dark sugar @ 20
2.29 oz East Kent Golding @ 80
1.41 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker @ 10
Now, my attempt at it....
Monk's Ten - BIAB
my notes specify that I oversparged and had 4.25 gallons pre-boil and around 3.25 or so at bottling, but no other specifics on volumes
6.5 # German Pilsner
0.6 # Caramel/Crystal 120L
0.75 # Special B
0.75 # Flaked Wheat
0.36 # Debittered Black
0.6 # Table sugar (I believe I did half and half table and light brown sugar) @ 10
0.6 # Dark candi syrup D-180 @ 10
0.75 oz East Kent Golding @ 60
0.6 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker @ 10
0.4 oz Amarillo @ flameout
*Chill times were extended due to the lack of an ice bath, I just did a cold tap water bath. I also managed to fail at noting gravity readings with the exception of the FG of 1.002. In theory, my starting gravity into the fermenter should have been around 1.098 although I suspect my efficiency wasn't up to par with that prediction because it doesn't taste like it's over 9-10% ABV. IBU was supposed to be around 25.45. BeerSmith claims that what I brewed should be a 1.074 OG with 13.3 IBU which doesn't match very well with what my thoughts on the taste are.
Now, when I put Stout Fellow's recipe in Beersmith using the generic BIAB brew settings and tell it to scale to my equipment settings, I get the following.
21 # 14 oz Pilsner
2 # 3 oz Flaked Wheat
1 # 15.6 oz Special B
1 # 13.7 oz Demerara (substituted to table sugar)
1 # 11.1 oz Soft dark sugar (substituted to D-180 syrup)
1 # 10.3 oz Caramel 120
15.8 oz Debittered Black
3.74 oz EKG @ 60
2.30 oz Hallertau @ 10
OG - 1.081
IBU - 27.4
I should mention, my current equipment is set for a target batch of 11 gallons into the fermenters. I'm pretty sure I have my current equipment settings dialed in pretty close. I used to use a free program (Brewers Friend) and write out all of my recipes after building them. I also used an app on my phone that gave me similar results to Brewers Friend. When I transfer either of those recipes into BeerSmith using my current equipment settings, everything comes out pretty much dead on (all three agree). Where it gets strange is before I got my current equipment, I could never get all three programs to agree (Brewers Friend and the app would agree, but BeerSmith had other ideas) and I could never figure out what the problem was.
Telling BeerSmith to scale my original results in numbers not too far below Stout Fellow's recipe that I scaled, but it retains the pitifully low IBU number of 13.3 and still gives me an OG of 1.074.
18 # 4.8 oz Pilsner
2 # 2.9 oz Special B
2 # 1.8 oz Flaked Wheat
1 # 15 oz Soft dark sugar (substituted to D-180 syrup)
1 # 14 oz Demerara (substituted to table sugar, will divide between table and light brown)
1 # 11.9 oz Caramel 120
1 # 0.8 oz Debittered Black
1.44 oz EKG @ 60
1.16 oz Hallertau @ 10
0.77 oz Amarillo @ 5 (to adjust for the slow chill)
Now, I tried tweaking those numbers to be more like the ones from Stout Fellow and this is what I came up with, but I'm not sure if I'm on the right track or not.
22 # Pilsner
2 # 3 oz Special B
2 # 2 oz Flaked Wheat
2 # D-180 candi syrup
2 # light brown sugar
1 # 12 oz Caramel 120
1 # Debittered Black
3.25 oz EKG @ 60
2.25 oz Hallertau @ 10
1 oz Amarillo @ 5
OG - 1.084
IBU - 25.8
As above, these are numbers for an 11 gallon batch into the fermenters
So I'm at a bit of a loss as to exactly how to handle this. I don't know if I'm on the right track with tweaking the numbers or way off base. Things just don't seem to be adding up to me and I just want to brew another batch of this awesome beer.