Abbey Ale recipe? Something like Nota Bene.

[Ralph]

Just having a Nota Bene and I am really enjoying it. I would very much like to brew myself something similar, and thought I would ask here if anyone is able to give a recipe and hints on how to make something very similar to this Abbey Ale?

[Ralph]

Ah... just reading more and this is one of those brews that has Brett... hmm might be more difficult than I first thought?

And I see it was brewed at Harringtons in Ferrymead... which from what I heard the Ferrymead brewery building is red stickered after the earthquake on the 23rd Dec...

[Dougal]

Great isn't it? If you wanted to get a Brett 5112 culture in the next RB wyeast order I'd be keen to go in.

I've been experimenting with reculturing bottle dregs but this doesn't give you the same control as adding a pure strain at the right time, as Kelly pointed out in this thread.

There are abbey beers without Brett or sour cultures. Rochefort 8 is pretty interesting and complex, and my clone of it from this recipe is tasting promising. 

[Ralph]

Ah, thanks for the links Dougal. I had been wondering about culturing from the dregs myself. I guess I might have at least got an interesting yeast, but maybe not the brett character I was looking for? I am interested in what dregs you are culturing and whether you have brewed anything with your culture yet? I may end up playing with this myself yet.

That Rochfort 8 recipe looks good. I may have to try it at some stage soon but today I have been thinking maybe I try a Saison or 2 before I go all abbey/brett.

[Dougal]

Check out the Mad Fermentationist blog too. He's quite out there but really interesting. It's got me inspired to try some funkier styles this year.

I'm planning some saisons soon, and I'll look at adding brett in the secondary to a higher gravity one.

[Liam Callaghan]

Hey Dougal, will that recipe work ok with a single mash temperature rather than all the stepped ones?  If so I am making that tomorrow and splitting to try both the new belgian yeasts.  Otherwise I am going to run a tried and tested recipe from a mate of mine (Leffe clone).

[Dougal]

Hey Liam. I did a single infusion mash at 65C for 90 min to make a really fermentable wort. The 1762 yeast isn't that attenuative, so I wanted to aim for the driest result I could get.

Unless you've got a really big starter on hand, I'd think about doing a smaller beer and repitching. I went from belgian pale ale to a dubbel to the Rochefort 8 recipe. By the time I came to the Rochefort 8 I had a big cake of healthy yeast to ferment it with and got pretty good attenuation.   

[Liam Callaghan]

Thanks Dougal.  I think I have that sorted.  I am going to run with a 30 litre leffe blonde and split it into two batches of 15 litres.  I have 1 litre of each yeast so will pitch one in each batch and maybe look at the Abbey recipe once I get a small mountain of yeast slurry to work with :)

I'll make sure to mash for a longer period too and check the conversion as I go.