Trippel - Mr Beer

[ssorck]

I was intrigued by a thread BeerRust posted awhile ago:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1349&p=19680&hilit=Trippel#p19680

I thought I'd like to brew a MB Trippel using this recipe and some of Mashani's suggestions. I had bookmarked it way back when and recently came across it. I checked out my stock and basically have everything I need to give it a brew, minus some Styrian Golding hops. I'll be making a trip to the brew store at some point in the next 2 weeks so I'll grab the hops and do her up soon.

I kind of wanted to try and push the style guidelines a bit and see how it turns out. According to qbrew I'm in style everywhere except I'm over on OG. I think I'm gonna come in under what Qbrew is predicting there anyway so not too worried about that. What I do have a question on though is the yeast - I've never used it and don't know what to expect. Should I expect this yeast to munch through the predicted FG and keep going?

I figure I'll add 6 oz. sugar at the end of the boil and then do 2 feedings after.

So using some of my remaining Mr. Beer stuff I'm planning on giving a Trippel a shot, utilizing some of the suggestions from the above thread:




Trippel (M Beer)
----------------
Brewer: Ssorck
Style: Generic Ale
Batch: 2.50 galExtract

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.097 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 31 IBU
Recipe Color: 5° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.024
Alcohol by Volume: 9.4%
Alcohol by Weight: 7.4%

Ingredients
-----------
Mr. Beer/Coopers Canadian Blonde 1.87 lb, Extract
Mr. Beer/Coopers Classic American Light 1.87 lb, Extract
Muntons DME - Extra Light (Starter) 0.25 lb, Extract
Muntons DME - Light 1.00 lb, Extract
Cane Sugar (in boil) 0.38 lb, Sugar
Cane Sugar ( 4 days in) 0.38 lb, Sugar
Cane Sugar (6-7 days in) 0.38 lb, Sugar



Sterling 0.50 oz, Pellet, 30 minutes
Styrian Golding 1.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes

Mr. Beer/Coopers Canadian Blonde 1.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes
Mr. Beer/Coopers Classic American Light 1.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes



Wyeast 3787 - Trappist High Gravity™ 1.00 unit, Yeast


Notes
-----
Recipe Notes:


Batch Notes:

[mashani]

At that high of a gravity, I would put no sugar in the boil and do 3 feedings personally. You want to put as little stress on the yeast as is possible up front, let them adjust to their conditions...

I would personally leave out some of the DME and get the gravity down a bit too. No need to push it that high IMHO. But that's me.

[BeerRust]

I was intrigued by a thread BeerRust posted awhile ago:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1349&p=19680&hilit=Trippel#p19680

I thought I'd like to brew a MB Trippel using this recipe and some of Mashani's suggestions. I had bookmarked it way back when and recently came across it. I checked out my stock and basically have everything I need to give it a brew, minus some Styrian Golding hops. I'll be making a trip to the brew store at some point in the next 2 weeks so I'll grab the hops and do her up soon.

I kind of wanted to try and push the style guidelines a bit and see how it turns out. According to qbrew I'm in style everywhere except I'm over on OG. I think I'm gonna come in under what Qbrew is predicting there anyway so not too worried about that. What I do have a question on though is the yeast - I've never used it and don't know what to expect. Should I expect this yeast to munch through the predicted FG and keep going?

I figure I'll add 6 oz. sugar at the end of the boil and then do 2 feedings after.

So using some of my remaining Mr. Beer stuff I'm planning on giving a Trippel a shot, utilizing some of the suggestions from the above thread:




Trippel (M Beer)
----------------
Brewer: Ssorck
Style: Generic Ale
Batch: 2.50 galExtract

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.097 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 31 IBU
Recipe Color: 5° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.024
Alcohol by Volume: 9.4%
Alcohol by Weight: 7.4%

Ingredients
-----------
Mr. Beer/Coopers Canadian Blonde 1.87 lb, Extract
Mr. Beer/Coopers Classic American Light 1.87 lb, Extract
Muntons DME - Extra Light (Starter) 0.25 lb, Extract
Muntons DME - Light 1.00 lb, Extract
Cane Sugar (in boil) 0.38 lb, Sugar
Cane Sugar ( 4 days in) 0.38 lb, Sugar
Cane Sugar (6-7 days in) 0.38 lb, Sugar



Sterling 0.50 oz, Pellet, 30 minutes
Styrian Golding 1.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes

Mr. Beer/Coopers Canadian Blonde 1.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes
Mr. Beer/Coopers Classic American Light 1.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes



Wyeast 3787 - Trappist High Gravity™ 1.00 unit, Yeast


Notes
-----
Recipe Notes:


Batch Notes:

the Trippel I brewed was one of my favorites. I still have one left that Have been saving. It was a good amount of hops for a Trippel but you could def taste the higher ABV. I think mine came out at about 8%.

[ssorck]

At that high of a gravity, I would put no sugar in the boil and do 3 feedings personally. You want to put as little stress on the yeast as is possible up front, let them adjust to their conditions...

I would personally leave out some of the DME and get the gravity down a bit too. No need to push it that high IMHO. But that's me.

Thanks! So I think I'll back the 1lb DME to 1/2 lb which should bring me down to 8.5%. Also will do 3 feedings as suggested.

My LHBS only carries White Labs so picked up a vial of WLP530 Abbey Ale Yeast instead of the Wyeast 3787. Any thing of concern with that yeast?

[haerbob3]

WLP530 Abbey Ale Yeast looks like a good yeast going to have to it a go Thanks!! Glad to see that you are cutting the extract back and add the sugar in 3 feedings. keep us posted

~~Bob

[mashani]

WLP530 is what I use when I can't score 3787. It is derived from the same strain (Westmalle).

[ssorck]

Any suggestions on how warm I should let my basement (where the fermenters go) before I brew this?

[mashani]

I like Westmalle yeast started in the mid-upper 60s, and allowed to free rise during fermentation up to the mid-upper 70s, and then brought back down to mid-upper 60s to finish. That develops the full flavor profile. For me the free rise can go from 65-75 or 68-78 sometimes even 80 in the summer and it still makes good beer.

But it's hard to make bad beer with that yeast. Lower you get a bit more phenols, warmer you get a bit more esters. The esters are like pears, melons, green apple (but not acetaldehyde cider), and plums if that helps. It does not make much banana or bubblegum, even at temps higher then I posted above. But don't try this with WLP500 / Chimay strains or you will be making extreme banana and bubblegum beer with it. The Westmalle yeast will still make good beer if you control the temps more tightly but you will be focusing more on a specific flavor of the yeast instead of the full profile.

EDIT: One other thing - if it is happy it is a BLOWOFF MACHINE. It will potentially eat up 1/3rd of your fermenter with krausen, especially once you start feeding it. Also the krausen will be dense, rocky, and may not fully fall even at 3 weeks. I give it a very respectful headspace unless I'm brewing just a very low gravity patersbier that I will not feed.

[ssorck]

EDIT: One other thing - if it is happy it is a BLOWOFF MACHINE. It will potentially eat up 1/3rd of your fermenter with krausen, especially once you start feeding it. Also the krausen will be dense, rocky, and may not fully fall even at 3 weeks. I give it a very respectful headspace unless I'm brewing just a very low gravity patersbier that I will not feed.

I just finished brewing this one. I changed the recipe a bit to make it work as a 3 gallon batch. I also went a little longer on the hop boils. I pitched at 66 in a 5 gallons fermentor with blowoff tubing. The room is a steady 66 as well. I'm curious to see what happens!

It looks like I came in right where I wanted to. Removing the sugar additions and the DME from the starter QBrew says I should be at 1.060, I was at 1.059 so pretty good. Here is the recipe I landed on:


Trippel (Mr Beer)
-----------------
Brewer: Ssorck
Style: Generic Ale
Batch: 3.00 gal Extract

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.087 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 36 IBU
Recipe Color: 4° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.022
Alcohol by Volume: 8.4%
Alcohol by Weight: 6.6%

Ingredients
-----------
Muntons DME - Extra Light 1.00 lb, Extract
Muntons DME - Extra Light (Starter) 0.25 lb, Extract
Mr. Beer/Coopers Canadian Blonde 1.87 lb, Extract
Mr. Beer/Coopers Classic American Light 1.87 lb, Extract
Cane Sugar Feeding 1 0.50 lb
Cane Sugar Feeding 2 0.50 lb
Cane Sugar Feeding 3 0.50 lb



Mr. Beer/Coopers Canadian Blonde 1.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes
Mr. Beer/Coopers Classic American Light 1.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes

Sterling 0.50 oz, Pellet, 45 minutes
Styrian Golding (Slovenia) 1.00 oz, Pellet, 15 minutes

White Labs WLP530 - Abbey Ale Yeast™ 1.00 unit, Yeast

[ssorck]

Added the 3rd sugar addition yesterday. I've got to say its pretty neat to have fermentation slow down and then kick back up with the additions - I used a blowoff tube on this one and withing 30 minutes of adding the sugar she started blowing bubbles again (in the blowoff water - never had an overflow because I gave it 2 gallons of headspace).

I took a gravity sample yesterday as well - looks like she's probably gonna finish lower than qbrew predicted. It's at 1.011 right now so if it stays close to that it'll be a hair under 10%, lol. Looks like my Tripel just became a Belgian Golden Strong Ale!! OH and the gravity sample tasted pretty damn good. Fruity and a bit boozy, but not solventy boozy. Tastes pretty good so far. I'll leave it alone now for 2 weeks or so and look to bottle at the beginning of May.

[mashani]

I took a gravity sample yesterday as well - looks like she's probably gonna finish lower than qbrew predicted.

FYI, AFAIK QBrew doesn't properly account for sugar as being fully fermentable. And feeding tends to also shave a few points off of a projected FG if your using certain yeast strains.

[mtsoxfan]

I thought Tripels went up to 12%? Either way, sounds like a nice strong brew. My one and only Tripel ended at 9.4%, but it didn't age as well as I had hoped. Once it hit the 12 month mark, the hops were pretty non existant, making it unbalanced....

[mashani]

I thought Tripels went up to 12%? Either way, sounds like a nice strong brew. My one and only Tripel ended at 9.4%, but it didn't age as well as I had hoped. Once it hit the 12 month mark, the hops were pretty non existant, making it unbalanced....

The difference between a triple and a strong golden is primarily in the body/dryness (digestibility is what a Belgian would say). Strong goldens tend to have higher amounts of sugar, which makes them seem lighter in body, lighter in color, and makes them easier to drink. The alcohol levels are well hidden in good examples of either. This makes them dangerous. Really the difference is subtle and somewhat arbitrary in the style guidelines (arbitrary as in real life beers ignore those guidelines, because real Belgian brewers could give a crap about what the BJCP says) and you can find beers that call themselves one and beers that call themselves the other and find them to be very similar.

[ssorck]

Bottled yesterday (finally) - finished at 1.007 for 9.98%.

Sample was yummy, got 14 bombers and 5 12's. Will let it sit until at least Oct. before trying her.

[BeerRust]

Nice! Feel free to send some my way! Or at the very least name it after me since I was the inspiration!