[Crossposted to and .]

Click for gallery…

Well, after arriving home from consuming a few pints of a locally brewed Hefeweizen with friends I checked on my Rochefort 10 clone-ish and it seems to be fermenting. Yay! With an OG of 1.120 – 1.130 it’s definitely going to be strong, and I had some concerns about there being enough yeast to get things going. However, I did a two-pint starter (first pint made, then a second pint of wort added later) and it seems to have taken. There are bubbles ~6 hours after pitching…

Anyway, if you’re interested in the recipe, it’s available here: http://www.nuxx.net/files/beer5_notes.txt

The original intention was Rochefort 10 clone, but due to available grains, slightly varying hops, and other iffyness, I’m going to call it a somewhat modified clone-ish beer. Hopefully it’ll be good… There’s a lot of aging in store for this batch, and I can see it taking up through autumn before it’s properly aged, but that’s fine. Something of this strength needs some time to settle down.

If you’re interested, a few pictures from today’s brew are available here: http://www.nuxx.net/gallery/rochefort10clone

Here’s links to some of the individual pictures that I find notable:
· Partial mash, right after the grains were added.
· Wrapped up pot to keep the heat in during mashing.
· Grains before sparging.
· Grains after sparging. (Note how much lighter they are…)
· High res shot of sparged grains, great for wallpaper.
· 11 lbs of DME and 1 2/3 lbs of amber Belgain candi sugar.
· Hydrometer showing a rather high OG.
· Before fermentation began.

So, yeah. That’s it… Enjoy. Hopefully you’ll like this beer if you try making it, as well…

Click for huuuuuuge…

If everything goes according to plan, that will be >48 bottles of 11.3% belgian-style ale in about five or six months. Just in time for fall/winter.

Yeah, sour mash beer is kinda ass-y.

Fortunately I just went and got the ingredients to brew the 11.some % belgian I posted about earlier.