Westvleteren 12

[oliver]

Have never had the opportunity to taste this beer, so I want to brew something like it...
How important is it to use belgian malt? Here's what I'm thinking:

59% Gladfield Pils
29% Gladfield Ale
12% Dark Candi Syrup

Also thinking about making the candi syrup myself. Apparently they get their yeast from Westmalle so I think I'll use WLP530. Had a bit of a look around the net, a lot of the recipes seem quite complicated, the simplest recipe I found was on the candi syrup site so I'm thinking I might roll with that.

Any thoughts/experiences?

[Richard Rice]

That sounds very interesting and I'm really keen to give it a go myself, but I have a few questions to go with yours.

1, how do you repitch fresh Krausen?

2, Not fussed on buying three bags of hops for such a small volume - any thoughts on replacement hops I might have? Nugget, Fuggles, NZ Goldings?

3, Oxygenate slowly through what now?  Can't I just aerate like I usually do, with a good shake?

Will need to research candi sugars tho.  And find some "Heavy Belgian Bottles".

[oliver]

1. Wouldn't worry too much about that, your usual bottle conditioning approach should be fine. At a guess maybe they (Westvletern) use a centrifuge to clarify the beer so they need to add back some fresh yeast at bottling - just a guess though. If you filter or fine heavily or if you think the yeast is in bad shape you could pitch some fresh yeast at bottling. Easiest way to get fresh krausen is to either top crop another batch or make a starter and top crop that.

2. Yeh I'm not too fussy with hops either any of those varieties sounds alright to me

3. Yeh I would just try get as much O2 in as possible, shaking shuld be ok.

Haha yeh be nice to find some nice looking heavy duty bottles.

[Crusader-Rob]

Oli, I've got some 530 If you want. a full slurry from a 1.060 red beer... a small starter would probably get things running and away.

just bring a jar on the weekend.