Public Service Announcement for Wyeast 3863

[brewerTristan]

This is the Canadian/Belgian ale yeast and is supposedly the Unibroue yeast. I just thought I'd let everyone know that I recently made a Maudite clone with this yeast and it came out amazingly well. I think this yeast is pretty much right on for making any of the Unibroue beers. If anybody wants the recipe I used, please say so and I'll post it.

[Bellmer]

This is the Canadian/Belgian ale yeast and is supposedly the Unibroue yeast. I just thought I'd let everyone know that I recently made a Maudite clone with this yeast and it came out amazingly well. I think this yeast is pretty much right on for making any of the Unibroue beers. If anybody wants the recipe I used, please say so and I'll post it.

So.

Please.

Thanks.

[brewerTristan]

This recipe has been adapted from a few recipes I've seen on the internet with my own input also.

O.G. - 1.074
Est F.G. - 1.012
IBUs - 26

Malts
Pilsner Malt - 50%
Munich Malt (10L) - 25%
Wheat Malt - 7%
Cane Sugar - 7%
Aromatic Malt - 4%
Special B - 4%
Caramunich (type I) - 3%

Hops
Hallertauer - 60 mins

Yeast
Wyeast 3863

Spices (6 gallon batch at 15 mins for all)
Grains of paradise - 3 grams
White pepper - 3 grams
Bitter Orange peel - 13 grams
Coriander seed - 13 grams
Clove - 3 units

[Spidey]

I think this yeast is pretty much right on for making any of the Unibroue beers.

Agreed. I love this yeast. FYI, the number is 3864. Thanks for the recipe. I've been trying to come up with a recipe that I thought would come close to Maudite myself. I've seen others' recipes out there, but didn't like them as they were for various reasons. I think your recipe looks pretty good though. For clove, it says units in your recipe. Did you add whole cloves? Thanks.

[brewerTristan]

I think this yeast is pretty much right on for making any of the Unibroue beers.

Agreed. I love this yeast. FYI, the number is 3864. Thanks for the recipe. I've been trying to come up with a recipe that I thought would come close to Maudite myself. I've seen others' recipes out there, but didn't like them as they were for various reasons. I think your recipe looks pretty good though. For clove, it says units in your recipe. Did you add whole cloves? Thanks.

Thanks for the correction on the number. I don't know what I was thinking.

I got the spice info from a thread in the homebrewtalk forum and it seemed to be tried and tested. It had clove in units, so yes I used whole cloves. It's so little, I'm not sure how much of it a difference it makes, but I think it works.

The rest of the recipe I kind of put together based on style, of which I'm not really sure what style it would be. Any ideas? It's the colour of a dubbel, but is more complex flavour wise. I guess it could be called a specialty ale.

[Spidey]

The style for Maudite is a little tough. Without putting a whole lot of thought into it, I think it falls on the border of Belgian Dubbel and Dark Strong? Unibroue calls it a strong red ale. Still waiting for BJCP to create the "Belgian strong red ale" category. This is one of those beers that doesn't fit a BJCP category, but still tastes damn good.
Since you seem really pleased with how it turned out, can I ask a few more questions? Did you pitch the packet direct or grow a starter? How big was the starter? What were your fermentation temps?

[brewerTristan]

The style for Maudite is a little tough. Without putting a whole lot of thought into it, I think it falls on the border of Belgian Dubbel and Dark Strong? Unibroue calls it a strong red ale. Still waiting for BJCP to create the "Belgian strong red ale" category. This is one of those beers that doesn't fit a BJCP category, but still tastes damn good.
Since you seem really pleased with how it turned out, can I ask a few more questions? Did you pitch the packet direct or grow a starter? How big was the starter? What were your fermentation temps?

Yeah I was quite pleased with it and that was without having it carbonated fully (I couldn't wait to sneak a taste). I actually did a 3 gallon batch and grew up a starter from the wyeast pack. I think it was 2L starter and the packet was a little old, so I compensated for that. The fermentation was not controlled as my space was kind of packed. I would say it was between 68F and 75F. I wasn't terribly worried about it, since Maudite has some pretty wild esters. I will definitely do it again though and make sure to temp control.

One think I find interesting about this beer is that there doesn't seem to be a consensus on whether the beer actually is spiced, or it is just the yeast strain creating those flavours. I'm also curious how Wyeast got the strain. There seems to be some debate over whether the yeast they bottle condition with is actually the fermentation strain. It seems unlikely to me that it is, since it is such a unique beer. The Wyeast strain smelled reminiscent of the Blanche de Chambly yeast also, so maybe they are the same. I could go on forever about this beer, but I'll stop now.