Westvleteren 12

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Permalink Reply by Richard Rice on April 24, 2014 at 10:27am

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".

Permalink Reply by oliver on April 24, 2014 at 5:16pm

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.

Permalink Reply by Crusader-Rob on April 24, 2014 at 8:50pm

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.