BeerBorg

So, to use up the other half of my "monks juice" which was if you remember was a pre-mashed mix of 42% oats (1/3rd of which was unmalted and slightly toasted), 29% wheat (half of which was oak smoked), and 29% barley (half of which was unmalted) - also remember this already had about 4-5 IBUs equivalent when diluted to my volume here, as I pre-hopped it a bit. So with that I made this.

That is a lot like the adjunct mix for Tripel Karmeliet, except it's not quite right. As in it has more oats, less wheat, and some hints of oak smoke (but the oak is really quite mellow, hints is accurate).

Also I got a couple of 4oz packages of Triskel hops from Farmhouse brewing, and wanted to try them out as a single hop to see what they would bring. I decided to add them on the same schedule I'd use if I was doing a Karmeleit clone, except just use only the Triskel.

They are a Streisselspalt / Yeoman (an English high AA hop) hybrid.

They seem to have been intended to be a higher AA type hop, but it seems something happened so the AA's are turning out lower, but the other oils are cranked up. They seem lately to be ending up at like 3.4% AA more like Streisselspalt. The difference is the amount of total oil. These things have *a lot more* - 2-3x more total oils then Streisselspalt. You could tell just by crushing a pellet in your fingertips.

So for 5 gallons, I used that, and added:

7.0# MoreBeer Pils LME (2# up front and 5# as a late addition @10)
1.5# Dextrose
1.50oz Triskel (3.4%) @60
0.50oz Triskel @20
1.50oz Triskel @10

Cooled, split between 2 LBCs and pitched Abbaye yeast.

Should give me around 28-29 IBUs with the stuff already in the juice added.

OG was 1.077

Although not traditional, I'm going to dry hop the other 1/2oz of Triskel in one of the 2 fermenters, just to see what Triskel brings to the party there.

Everyone who I've read about that used Triskel says it is the most floral hop they have ever used, so it should be interesting.

FWIW, during the boil you could tell how oily these hops were. The hop oils blending into the wort and bubbling up to the surface were the best I could describe "intensely orange colored" vs. just your normal yellowish lupulin. So the surface of the wort actually looked like I had used Vienna malt instead of Pilsner in it if that helps describe to you what it looked like. I don't know if any of that color will blend into the beer and stick around post fermentation or not, but if it does this might be a funky colored tripel.

So LOL you know how I was complaining that I didn't get enough Brett beer this summer. Well this also got my Brett C, which chewed it up, so it fermented down to 1.005. So like 93% attenuation and 9.5% abv.

I actually split the dry hop between both batches. So 1/4oz in each. Which doesn't sound like much. But after popping open the first fermenter and smelling it, I didn't think I wanted to crank it up a single batch of a tripel that much more.

Between the 1.50oz at @10 and that little dry hop, this stuff smelled like flowery perfume. The extra Brett fermentation blew off some of that aroma, and that's a good thing as it was a bit much for a tripel.

It still smells and tastes pretty floral, like I put rose water in it, except it's not roses but something else.

But basically this hop puts the F in floral/flowery.

So take that, add some tropical fruit behind it because of the Brett, and it is a bit strange, but I think I will like it. If not I'm sure I can find some ladies who will. If the aroma and flavor drops a bit more with time then I will not be sad though.

It is a bit on the sweet side, even with that level of attenuation due to all the alcohol and the recipe/adjunct mix - Tripel Karmeliet done normal way is also on the sweeter side of tripel. So I carbed the crap out of it, which should add some perceived bitterness.

If you were going to use this in an IPA or APA and were thinking about using a lot of this as a dry hop/finishing hop, I would be careful, or it might put the FU in floral/flowery.

BTW, it does seem a tad darker then it should be (MoreBeer Pils makes quite light beer normally), so I do think some of the orange color from all the hop oil I was talking about did stick around.

Since I have another 4oz of this, if I decide to make an IPA out of that, I think I will steal this image for my label.

mashani wrote:Triskel Tripel (edit: it puts the F in floral/flowery)

Good for you. I know that I always enjoy brewing an F in beer.

This beer is 3 weeks in the bottle and delicious. Back in the old days I'd cellar a beer like this for a couple of months... but it seems between my semi-open fermenting and pitching a lot more yeast then I used to (in a beer like this what they call "Pro Brewer 1.25" in the Brewers Friend calculator), everything is good right away. It will be interesting to see how it ages regardless, but it doesn't *need* it.

It's less spicy then if I had used Aramis hops, although there are similarities. It smells much more like flowers and berries though, and has a bit of wildflower honey like vibe when you drink it (like if you added a bit to some tea). I'm glad I carbed it aggressively as if I didn't it would seem a bit too sweet. But the carb is balancing it out well. The tropical/funky vibe has mellowed out, but its there in the background.

I'm liking it a lot, and I think I like these hops a lot and will use them in more Belgians and Saisons next year as an alternative to Armais.