There are two main trains of thought in homebrewing. When they start, most people start with the first, which is to make tried and true recipes out of a book or from an online source. There are many 'clones' of commercial beers, and even several books dedicated to the subject, so you can try to make your favorites such as Guinness, Sierra Nevada, or Chimay Rouge.Then there is the other train of thought. After making a number of book recipes one may start to wonder... 'What can I really do? Will it be difficult? What if it's not good?'.
I would say at this point after spending alot of time in the first category, I am now firmly in the latter. One of my thoughts is if I can buy a beer, why would I want to try to make it? I was scared to try to formulate my own recipes. It seemed very intimidating. But it is not very hard at all. I have made some really good and interesting beers.
Of course then again, there are some commercial beers that I really love. I decided to take aim at one of those and here are the results, tasted side by side with the beer in question.
My lost for life vs. Unibroue's Maudite.
Color- Pretty darn close. Maudite looks a tad darker, with more streaming carbonation. Head color looks identical. Both are cloudy, though Maudite is clearer than mine.
(Maudite left, mine right.)Strength- Maudite is 8% with mine being 7.6%.
Aroma- Maudite has more of the Belgiany yeasty aroma. Orange, spices, little hop perception. The hops are much more prevalent in my beer. The same yeasty aroma is there, but less so. I used Wyeasts Canadian/Belgian strain which comes from Unibroue.
Taste- Maudite is luscious and smooth as always. Nice rich mouth feel. Dark fruits, spiciness, great lingering after taste. Hops in the finish, but as a generalized bitterness. My beer has a lighter mouth feel, not as rich and filling. Both have maybe a touch of tartness. Spicy and hoppy. I added way too much in the finishing stages of the boil. More or all of that should have been at the beginning. Both seem to be retaining the head identically with a little lacing in the glass. Mine has a lingering finish as well, though it is different tasting. Hoppier for sure.
Overall- I got pretty close I would say. I think a change to the hopping plus maybe a touch more of special b malt I could be even closer. The beer under the hops tastes very close. In fact, I was close enough that one of my beer loving coworkers was able to identify what brewery I was going after, though he said he felt it was closer to Fin du Monde in taste.
I am very pleased with this beer. I wish I had thought more about the hopping ahead of time, but oh well. It is not exactly Maudite (though close enough I could say 90%), but it is good in and of itself.
Recipe and brewing information.
