By Greg B. In preparing my latest beer, a Belgian themed dubbel, I decided to use some of the yeast from an actual Trappist brewery, along with yeast from my usual provider.  I could think of nothing better than the Rochefort yeast to experiment with.  But in order to get the yeast, I had to endure the pleasure of drinking a few bottles of their beer, with friends of course.

The Rochefort 8 and 10 are beers that are similar in construction and brewing to the 6, though the outcomes are noticeably different.  The monastery uses the same yeast in the 6, 8 and 10, as well as the same basic recipe for 6, 8, and 10, though with slightly different quantities of sugars and malts to ensure a balance of flavors accompanies the increase in gravity.  Knowing that the Belgians have selected some incredible strains of yeast to deliver some of the intense complexity in their beers, I really wanted to see if I could make a beer comparable to some of these, and so I drank these and here are my notes.

The Rochefort 8 pours a nice dark honey color, not really buckwheat, but a dark golden color.  It has a big head (as most Belgian beers do) which rapidly forms and froths from the bottle upon opening, so be sure to have a glass handy when drinking this beer.  The head also recedes quickly from the pour but leaves a small layer on top of new bubbles replenishing the foam. The beer really smells like roasted candy sugar and even a roasted nut/brownie kind of food.  It has a light toffee aroma.  I guess the way to describe all of this would be a toasted hazelnut?  There are definitely sweet aromas that play nicely with the roasted malt in the beer.  To taste, there is first and foremost a high carbonation that is noticeable.  But second, this beer tastes just like it smells.  Malty at the start, tart at the end and with the flavor of toasted nuts on top of a hint of sweetness.  At 9.2%abv, this beer really hides the alcohol well, or is able to effectively mix it into the flavor profile.  A great beer!  Gets a score of 4.3.

The Rochefort 10 is a little different.  This beer is definitely a ‘bigger’ brew, coming in at 11.3% abv.  It pours a darker beer than the 8, though not by much.  It also has a large head, though it did not explode out of any of the bottles we opened, so slightly fewer atmospheres of CO2 in the bottle, though this is not noticeable on the palate, you still feel the carbonation.  On the nose, there is definitely a more fruity component, figs are an excellent description as the wikipedia link says.  But when you taste the beer, you get basically what the 8 provided, plus the added element of a dark, raw chocolate bit, from the dark roasted malts.  This beer is amazingly good, and it is evident why Tim Webb wrote the following statement about the Rochefort 10 (much more eloquently than what I wrote!) “A deep, dark, potent, warming cosmic meltdown of a forcefully contemplative brew, begging to be the last of the evening”.  This beer gets a 4.4/5 because of the more complex and varied dark malt flavors that come through.

So these are the reviews of the beers and they are quite impressive.  Having drank plenty of Belgian beers in the past, and enjoyed a few at Belgian Beer fest at Max’s on Broadway, I had an idea of what would need to go into the beer to make it.  I’ll list my ingredients and recipe at another time, but I know that most of these flavors can be achieved with a mixture of malt, sugar, very minimal hops in the Belgian beers (though there are some good floral/fruit notes that can be achieved), but the key ingredient was going to be the hops.  So, I drank two bottles of the 8 and one of the 10, left some beer and as much of the sediment as possible in the bottles, fed them a tiny bit of my first running from the first mashing of grains (just to wake them up a bit), and poured them to my wort.  I can tell you now, the beer is in the secondary, and it has a lot of the fruity, spicy components that only really excellent Belgian yeast can provide.  And I am pleased!