Belgian Tripel

4/12/2010

Brewer's Best Belgian Tripel

Start date: 4/12/2010                     keg date:                             drink date:

BG: 1.074             FG: 1.018                             ABV:  7.35%

Hop Bittering units: 24-30

Ingredients

3.3 lbs light malt extract

3.3 lbs Amber malt extract

3 lbs Pilsen dried malt extract

1 lb light candi sugar

8 oz maltodextrin

4 oz aromatiz grains

2 oz bittering hops

.5 oz aroma hops

1 pack of yeast

Process

·         boil 2.5 gallons water

·         Steep grains for 20 minutes

·         Add all malt, candi sugar, and maltodextrin to boil

·         add bittering hops and boil some more

·         add aroma hops

·         transfer to fermenter

·         ferment for about a week, take hydrometer reading when fermenting is done

·         keg it

Comments

This recipe called for 2.5 gallons of water to boil instead of the 1.5 gallons we had done previously.  We almost overflowed the brew pot because of this and all the ingredients required.  It was a lot of stirring to keep it from foaming and overflowing but after a few minutes it kept a rolling boil for the majority of the cooking time.  I screwed up the steeping of the grains by putting the bag in before the boil had stopped and the water had cooled down a bit.  Some grains came out of the bag.  Hopefully I didn't leech tannins into the wort and give it a burnt taste.  Other than that it was a good cooking session with more ingredients than we have ever used before, but not as much hops as we have come to like.  The beginning gravity range was 1.083 - 1.086 so I'm a little disappointed that ours is only 1.074.  Hopefully it's still a nice strong beer. 

The directions say you can ferment for a week and then transfer to a secondary fermenter for another 2 weeks before kegging it.

We kegged it and let sit for a few weeks in the fridge.  It is still sitting in the keg fridge and we will hook it up to the CO2 after we finish the European Bock.  This is supposed to be 7.35% ABV, which is by far our strongest brew yet.  Needless to say we are excited.  I've never had this type of beer so I don't really know what to expect.

The taste test reveals that it is average.  Belgian Tripels are supposed to be a little sweet and extra carbonated.   We got that part down, but it just doesn't taste phenomenal.  Maybe it's just because we don't know what to expect with this type of beer.  It's definitely strong though.  Not to the point where it is tough to drink, but you can tell it's higher in ABV than normal.