The Belgian Up-Rising

The bloke who posted the recipe for my Chimay Blue clone reckons it gets better after about six months. Well, I reckon it is pretty good after a couple of months in the bottle, and so do one or two of my Belgiaphile friends. It's not quite the same as the original (that could be because I managed to not follow his recipe exactly), but it certainly stands up very well as a Belgian-style dark ale.

And I gotta tell you, I love this style of beer. Particularly when you can make it yourself for a tiny fraction of what it would cost to buy it off the Trappists themselves - or at least through the modern distribution systems that sit between them and me.

So, next brew into the fermentation facility was a Belgian-style Golden Ale of my own design fermented with a starter of Wyeast 1388 made on my stirplate. After just three short weeks in primary, it's still going. I wish it would hurry up so my next brew - currently in cube - can start feeding a pack of Wyeast 3787...

Brew Small. Brew Often.

The combination of my Obsessive Compulsive Brewing Disorder and a brew system that has a minimum batch size of 24litres means I get frustrated by not being able to brew often enough.

If I had heaps of spare money laying around, I guess I could do something about it. I don't. But I still did.

I built a half-batch system, allowing me to brew 12litre batches. This should be a magic number as it:

• is exactly half the size of a standard batch (so scaling is easy, from recipe to energy input);
• fits many easily-available bits of equipment; and
• allows me to fit two brews in my little Fermentation Cabinet.

It's surprisingly cheap to do such a thing and it occurs to me that the half-batch is possibly the very best way for someone to get into extract or all-grain brewing. You can brew half-batches, brew two halves (to make a whole) or brew then just add water.

A stainless steel pot from a local homewares shop, a little brew-bag and a plastic jerry can comes in under fifty Australian dollars. Of course, I bought a little more, as will become apparent when we finally get to The Pictures.

First, the brew bag nestled snugly in the pot:

From Beer Equipments

Second, the bag draining into the Half-Sized Brew Pot from a conveniently-placed rope-ratchet skyhook:

From Beer Equipments

And third, the pot (complete with tap) full of wort being annoyed by an electric immersion heater:

From Beer Equipments

Finally, the detail of the Rope-Ratchet SkyHook:

From Beer Equipments