Tripel Saison made with Tripel/Wit/Saison Juice

[mashani]

So, I went right for the Tripel. 5 gallons of it. Why not. Except it's a saison too. I used a mixed yeast culture, some of the WLP500 I saved from the last batch to get some banana and Belgian 'Tude, and Bella Saison to get it to ferment out dry without using a lot of sugar. So it will be light bodied and have the abv and flavors of Tripel, but I didn't have to push the OG up as high, nor will I have to feed it sugar. Although I might feed it some sugar anyways. Just depends on how it seems to be doing.

So I used enough of my "Juice" (see insane experiment) to get a 1.013 wort if I diluted it to 5 gallons of volume.

That would work out to something like:

2/3# White Wheat
2/3# Flaked Oats
1/3# Six Row
1/3# Rye
1/3# Flaked Barley

To that I added:

3/4# Wheat DME
1/2# Dextrose
6# MoreBeer Pils Extract

I usually do a 50/20/10 hop addition in my tripels, but since I have a bunch of those Jaryloo hops, I went with a shorter boil:

1oz Jaryloo (14.2AA) @30
1oz Styrian Goldings (@10

I would normally have used 1.5oz of Styrians in something like this, but I figured the Jaryloo will still carry a lot of flavor forward, so cut back a bit.

My OG was 1.065. Which if you have ever used Bella Saison, you know is more then plenty. It's easily going to end up the same ABV as a 1.075-1.080 wort using a normal yeast.

Should be 5 SRM. Should be around 32 IBUs.

Hopefully the Jaryloo won't make it taste like the loo. But I think it will be fine. I tasted the wort, it was spicy, but not unpleasant or off-putting. The spiciness should go well with the Banana. This is likely going to sit around a long time too, so the hops will fade with age.

This was split between 2 LBCs, 2.5 gallons each, with 400ML of WLP500 starter wort, and 1/2 pack of Bella in each.

[mashani]

This had a strong/fast fermentation at warm (74ish) temps, and smelled great. It's mostly done, just waiting a few days to make sure. What the WLP500 didn't finish, the Bella gobbled up. It has some bubblegum as well as the banana because of WLP500 at 74, but that's ok - it will be less then if I had just used WLP500 due to the mixed yeast culture - and the bubblegum will fade some with age. And I don't mind it anyways. If it's too much to seem like a tripel after a while in the bottle, I'll just call it a saison, and drink it happily anyways.

It has cleared nicely in the fermenter, more then I expected. But because of how much stuff has dropped out, the trub layer is higher then my spigot, so it might make bottling interesting. I have fermenters slightly tipped backwards using a shim, to try to keep the spigots clear. But I might go to brew store and get a small auto siphon "just in case".

[mashani]

Weeeeeeell. My summer brett is in the house. I had a 7+ month run without any infections, so I guess I should not complain.

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It's looked like that for a while now and the gravity has been at 1.003 since the 20th, not moving at all (not much left to eat at 1.003). So I just went ahead and bottled it, with a bit less priming sugar then I'd normally use so that if the brett eats a point or two more over the next few months it won't turn into a foamer, just a nice highly carbed Belgian. I know from experience that my house brett works pretty slow in the bottle, so it's safe, and I like to drink my brett infected beers younger then older, as I like the pinapple/tropical flavors more then the wet hay flavors that develop later.

It tasted quite good, some spice, some banana, some nice grainy/wheaty/oaty flavors. And some pineapple. That's the Brett C there. The brett flavors aren't very strong, there isn't much left by the Bella for it to eat. I don't think they will get strong at all in this beer.

So ugly or no, it's going to be beer.

Besides the beautiful esters I get, one of the other reasons I "semi open ferment" such beers it to make sure I know if it's got the Brett before I bottle. That little bit of extra oxygen gets the pellicle to form quickly as soon as primary fermentation settles down. If I airlocked it, I'd not have gotten a visible pellicle for another 2-3-4+ weeks, which means I would bottled before I noticed, and have primed normally and ended up with foamers/gushers at some point. Tricks you learn when you live in a Brett C infected house.

[Inkleg]

Thanks for posting your Brett diaries in a calm manner along with how you work around it. This might help others understand that an infection might not be the end of the beer or world. Looking forward to tasting notes on this.

[mashani]

That is why I share them. Too many folks would just dump it if they saw something like that on top. But brett makes good beer too. Maybe not the beer you intended, but still it can be really good beer. When you live in my house you just roll with it. Or go insane. I choose to roll with it, and have learned all sorts of tricks to try to prevent them, and if not to mange them if they happen, which is pretty much a sure thing in the summer.

I never get unintentional lacto or pedio (true souring) infections. Or acetobacter. It's never happened. *knocks on wood*. My sanitation reaches paranoid levels. But the brett floats in the air, lives in my ductwork and becomes very active when it's warm and humid - so a minor secondary infection is always possible here if my wort is exposed to the air at cool temperatures for any amount of time. It's just a matter of luck.

The nice thing about Brett is that it's works very slow in the bottle once a "stable" FG has been reached, and it doesn't make harsh flavors up front - so you don't need to secondary it forever like a real aged sour beer. You can just bottle it with a conservative amount of priming sugar, and then taste it as it goes, and save some bottles for a long time if you want it to really get funky, or drink it sooner if you want to enjoy the more fruity fresh flavors it makes. It will continue to ferment in the bottle, but it's slow, so as long as you are aware and careful, no reason not to just bottle it.

So my semi-open fermenting trick for estery beers is how I stay "aware". Plus I like the esters I get regardless.

[mashani]

Trub bottle. What would Joan Crawford Brew? (Can you guess who was seen in concert last week?).

This needs to age a bit. Has a bit of an alcohol taste that needs to mellow. And it has esters and phenols from 3 different yeast strains fighting it out and not blended yet. It tastes ok, I could easily drink it now, but is bit rough around the edges, and I'm sure it will be a lot better with some age... so patience... deep pipeline is good. It has some banana, some tartness, some spice, some pinapple, a bunch of other stuff, is a bit grainy, and has a nice mouth feel. It's pretty strong, so it will age well. Once it cellars the rough edges should mellow and the brett will do it's thing and I'll like it more I'm sure, so that's my plan. Most folks cellar a Belgian this strong for 3-4 or more months anyways, but I was hoping to drink some sooner to enjoy the more pinapple like Brett esters, before it got more funky. It's not over carbonated at all at this point, so the Brett is going to work on it slowly, and with some cellaring should have a nice Belgian carb level if it drops another few points. I'm going to stick it in some dark coffin and revisit it in 3 months or so, and see where it's at. It will rise from the grave. It will be more funky, but I enjoy the funk. If I didn't enjoy the funk, I'd have to burn my house down LOL.

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[mashani]

3 months turned into 6 weeks. I couldn't resist trying another.

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But that 6 weeks did wonders. Smells slightly of spiced tropical fruit punch. Tastes that way too except it's not sweet like punch but slightly tart - with banana, pinapple, orange like citrus, and spice (some slight cloves and pepper from the yeast and some slight earthy undertones from the WLP500 and hoppy spice from the styrians). Earthy is like... if you put a TINY bit of nutmeg in something - so you can't tell it's nutmeg. It's just "something" in the background... kind of earthy. The tartness complements the fruit and is making this very refreshing to drink on this hot evening even though I have to sip on it instead of gulp it.

But nothing it is overpowering or fighting with each other anymore like the first pour. The hot alcohol notes are gone, just some peppery phenols from the saison strain. It has a nice "graininess" behind it. It is not "malty" as such. "grainy" is a better word. Like oatmeal or cream of wheat mixed with pils like graininess. Which makes sense based on the bill. The graininess reminds of Tripel Karmeliet but this has a lot less residual sweetness, and pinapple esters replacing the pear esters, and an orange instead of lemon like citrus. But it's not a bad thing for it to remind me of in any case. It might taste a lot more like Karmeliet if the Brett wasn't there, although this would still be a lot drier due to the Saison yeast. (if you've never had Karmeliet, it's somewhat different then other tripels, and is worth your time to find and try at least once).

It's pretty hazy, due to the ingredients and likely some of the yeast still being in suspension, as the Brett has been working. Some of it is condensation on the glass, and some is chill haze - it brightens a bit as it warms up, but it never gets totally clear. This doesn't bother me, it is what I would have assumed would have happened to every batch I used that "juice" in. (except it didn't in the batches I made with Abbaye with it). The color reminds me of bananas, hence the pic. With long aging it might clear up a lot more, it's hard to say. It will lose some pinapple and get some funk with age, but that's ok, its all part of embracing the Brett. This brett never gets really "sweaty leather" funky like Orval. It just gets a little bit of wet hay like aroma kind of funk and a slight tartness. There isn't much in here for the Brett to eat. But it did eat some, it has better carb levels then the trub bottle did. It might drop another point or two and achieve true "Belgian Carb" levels with enough age. Probably a little bit more tartness. I don't think it will ever truly taste "sour" just "tart" though. My brett doesn't really get sour, at least not as a secondary infection.

I'm officially putting this into my pipeline, but some of it will last 2 years. That's how I treat these strong batches with Brett.

EDITS: (I am getting tipsy and can't type for crap LOL).

EDIT EDIT EDIT: When this warms up the spices come out more, it gets more peppery, the pineapple fades a bit, I can taste a bit of the "hay" which will come out more with age, and there is some noticeable pear which I'm not sure is from yeast esters or from the Jarrylo, but I suspect the Jarrylo in this case (if I had used 3787 I'd say yeast), and it seems a bit less tart, and it's still quite nice, in fact I think I like it better warmer. I'll have to do a side by side with a warmer and colder glass. But not tonight, I'm already kind of drunk.

[Kealia]

That is a hell of a write up and a hell of a palette you have there.

[mashani]

Well, it's just because I make and drink a lot of Belgians. There is a lot of complexity and interplay when it comes to the esters, phenols, and hops in these kinds of beers. It's very different then IPA "in your face" flavors and aromas - everything is softer and more subtle, but there is just as much if not more overall complexity in a good Belgian.

Now I actually want to do a more close Tripel Karmeliet clone. I haven't done one of those in a while. I have to see if I have any washed Wyeast 3463 (Forbidden Fruit) yeast from that batch I made with it, or go scrounge up some WLP720 from my LHBS. That's the closest yeast I know of to Karmeliet as a single strain. I think the real thing uses 2 strains, but I don't know what they really are. But the level of attenuation in this beer is way to high, it's much to dry and tart - the real thing is stronger, and sweeter then this. That's why I said "reminds me of". The real thing also has orange peel and coriander. The Jaryloo and the Saison yeast are what's giving it some of those flavors here, as is keeping the WLP500 esters/phenols suppressed a lot by using the Saison yeast to fight with it.

With only just WLP500, this would taste very very different. I would not guess that WLP500 is in this blind tasting it.