Description

 

Your chance to brew this award winning beer by the awesome Neil Werdmuller. This beer won Best in Show in the 2023 LAB Open. LAB open in the large scale homebrewing competition honest by the wonderful folks at London Amateur Brewers.

I really enjoy Duvel and I created this recipe aiming, not for a clone, but to capture some of the aspects I really enjoy. The light golden colour, big head and dry effervescent finish with strong fruity yeast and noble hop character. I added the chit malt with the aim of getting, and retaining, the big foamy head. The M41 Belgian Ale yeast achieves very high attenuation with a highly fermentable mash profile combined with 20% simple sugar. This is 10% ABV but it is very deceptively drinkable.

Ingredients Included

Crisp Small Batch No.7 – Chit Malt
Crisp Lager Malt (Europils)
Saazer – BarthHaas® Pure Hop Pellet (120 packs)
Hallertauer Magnum – BarthHaas® Pure Hop Pellet (26 packs)
Mangrove Jacks Belgian Ale M41 Yeast (2 packs)
Brewing Sugar (Dextrose) 2kg (1 pack)

5KG Total Grain Bill

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Method

Beer Style (main): Belgian/French Ales
Beer Style (sub): Belgian-Style Pale Strong Ale
Batch Size: 20
Original Gravity: 1.070
Final Gravity: 1.000
ABV %: 10
IBU: 32
Mash efficiency:
Brewing equipment:

THE MASH
Temperature °C (Step 1): 53
Length (mins) (Step 1): 20
Temperature °C (Step 2): 62
Length (mins) (Step 2): 40
Temperature °C (Step 3): 70
Length (mins) (Step 3): 30
Temperature °C (Step 4): 75
Length (mins) (Step 4): 10
Temperature °C (Step 5):
Length (mins) (Step 4):
Mash notes: This strong beer needs to end dry to be really quaffable. I used a step mash on my system

THE BOIL
Boil time (mins): 60

Hop / kettle additions and timing:

Magnum – (11.9% 26 IBU) 26g first wort (in kettle at start of sparge)
Saaz – (2.2% 5 IBU) 60g @ 15 min
Protofloc – 1/2 tablet @ 10 min
Yeast nutrient – @ 8 min
Dextrose 1.25kg – 0 min (end of boil)

Whirlpool / hop stand:

Saaz (2.2% 1.2 IBU) – 60g steep/whirlpool at 75C for 30 min

Chill to 19c when transferring to FV

Yeast: Mangrove Jacks M41 “Belgian Ale” – two 10g packets in 20L
Fermentation temperature/steps: Start at 20°C then raise 2°C a day until 28°C (four days) Hold at 28°C for three weeks to get full attenuation Cold crash and then condition cold for a month and the beer will drop brilliantly clear.

Secondary additions:

Comments:

I chose M41 yeast to get the high attenuation this beer needs. The starting temperature is key with this yeast to getting the flavour profile right. I much preferred this version starting at 20°C to the other half of the split batch that I started at 18°C.

The beer needs to be very highly carbonated, to 3.5 to 4 vols/CO2.

Water Profile:
Ca2+ – 97
Mg2+ – 12
Na+ – 0
Cl- – 110
SO42- – 106
HCO3 – 28