# Leffe Blonde - Lager Yeast?



## iralosavic (4/1/12)

I love the taste of the Leffe Blonde, but sometimes it's just a bit too much.

What would happen if you took the standard clone recipe and diluted it to 4.5-5%ABV and treated it as a (vienna) lager? Obviously you'd lose some fruitiness... is it a feasable idea?

84.4% Pilsner
6.6% Munich
2.2% Caraamber
1.6% Melanoiden
5.2% Candi Sugar, Clear.


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## black_labb (4/1/12)

When you say a bit too much do you mean too much flavour or too much alcohol for the situations you want it for? 

I'd suggest that a bit of yeast character is a big part of the beer. cutting back the fermentables/hops a bit would work well to reduce alcohol and mellow the flavour.


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## blakie21 (4/1/12)

I tried a kit version of a leffe with a lager yeast... and got a lager.. haha

Personally i think the maltiness is actually too much sometimes more than the yeast character? so maybe just dial down the fermentables like black_labb said?
Plus thats pretty much what gives leffe its signature taste, the yeast (at least i think so?)


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## Mearesy (4/1/12)

yeah if you fermented with a lager yeast you would end up with something that tasted like... well... a lager. Not a leffe. A more sensible idea to create a subtle leffe would be to:

a) make it lower in abv 
B) ferment it cooler, to limit the flavours your belgian yeast strain creates


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## iralosavic (4/1/12)

Clutch said:


> Leffe clone:
> 
> 5.7kg Pale Pilsener malt.
> 0.45kg Munich I malt
> ...


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## Clutch (4/1/12)

She's coming along quite nicely too.


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## iralosavic (4/1/12)

Thanks for the advice, gentlemen. Yes, by too much I meant both the sweetness/fullness of flavour and the alcohol strength. I have taken for granted the extent to which a yeast strain influences a beer. So if I reverse engineer the recipe to be 5% and ferment at, say 20c, I'll end up tasting a Leffe that has been tamed a bit... Sounds worth a shot!


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## Mearesy (4/1/12)

I reckon you could even go lower if you wanted... 17-18 deg. Might take a little bit longer, but would help in your aim to mute the flavours. 20 would be perfectly fine though of course.


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## Mearesy (4/1/12)

oh and another thing you might consider.... is using some sugar in place of grain to get a thinner, dryer finish. Maybe around 10%?


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## iralosavic (4/1/12)

I was thinking of 18c, although I don't want to completely dry it out as I do love the original - its simply too much to drink all evening (to me and even moreso to my brewery assistant). Adding sugar in place of pilsner would Probably take it too far from a Leffe, I think. Or not?


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## Mearesy (4/1/12)

yeah its a sliding scale I guess... depends how dry/light/easy drinking you want to go!


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## alfadog (5/1/12)

Belgian candi sugar does come out a bit more round than straight dexi, thats if you want to go the extra cost


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## iralosavic (5/1/12)

I would get my wife to candi the sugar for me, so that's no drama there. I could split a percentage of candi/cane though.


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## Nick JD (5/1/12)

For starters - Leffe DOES NOT USE 1762 yeast! You will not even get close! 

Sorry for the yelling, but Leffe use 3787 and the two yeasts are chalk and cheese.

The word "leffe" and the number"1762" should not be used together, EVER. :angry:


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## bkmad (5/1/12)

Nick JD said:


> For starters - Leffe DOES NOT USE 1762 yeast! You will not even get close!
> 
> Sorry for the yelling, but Leffe use 3787 and the two yeasts are chalk and cheese.
> 
> The word "leffe" and the number"1762" should not be used together, EVER. :angry:



I don't think 3787 is leffe yeast either. Its Westmalle yeast. Nevertheless, it should give a better result in a leffe clone than 1762.


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## iralosavic (5/1/12)

bkmad said:


> I don't think 3787 is leffe yeast either. Its Westmalle yeast. Nevertheless, it should give a better result in a leffe clone than 1762.




Well there's also 1388 and 1214 to at least consider (I've not tried them myself), but my recipe uses 3787 as the default. I neglected to mention which yeast I would've used in the original.


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## Clutch (5/1/12)

Nick JD said:


> For starters - Leffe DOES NOT USE 1762 yeast! You will not even get close!
> 
> Sorry for the yelling, but Leffe use 3787 and the two yeasts are chalk and cheese.
> 
> The word "leffe" and the number"1762" should not be used together, EVER. :angry:



I curse the names of all at Craftbrewer who recommended it then.


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## bkmad (5/1/12)

Out of interest I had a look at the wyeast website to see what they recommend for a Belgian Blonde - 1762 is one of the recommendations so there you go. I have used 1762 in a blonde and found it didn't have much belgian character, so based on that experience something like 3787 would be a better match.
http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_styledetails.cfm?ID=185


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## blakie21 (5/1/12)

I used 3787 in my leff kit clone. Turned out quite well, benefits from a bit of aging though as its quite intense for the first month or two. Really nice and smooth now with heaps of yeast character still.


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## iralosavic (5/1/12)

I wonder if diluting it will reduce the length of aging required before it's ready to enjoy. I wouldn't mind having this as a house beer if it turns out.


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## Nick JD (5/1/12)

Clutch said:


> I curse the names of all at Craftbrewer who recommended it then.



So do I. Bought a pack of 1762 on their advice and when I first tasted it I went, WTF? Where's all the delicious esters and phenolics? Took me two batches to realise I should probably have googled and read that every other Leffe recipe on the web uses 3787 or the Whitelabs equivalent (530 IIRC) as this is the closest yeast to the one Leffe's megabrewery use. 

I probably should have read the Craftbrewer site's blurb "High gravity yeast with distinct warming character from ethanol production. Slightly fruity with dry finish, low ester profile" and also clicked. 

So now I'm trying to tell others so they don't also make two batches of a "clone" that would be like cloning dolly the sheep by making a cow.

Leffe is not Rochefort!


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## alfadog (5/1/12)

iralosavic said:


> I would get my wife to candi the sugar for me, so that's no drama there. I could split a percentage of candi/cane though.



I wish my wife would give me some sugar


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