A Well-Made Tripel - One Gallon Batch

Brooklyn Brew Shop - This was a recipe from their book titled Beer Making Book

• Belgian trippel
• according to the book, it's suppose to have a 9.9% ABV
• brewed on June 4, 2014

More notes

• we used Wyeast Trappist HG 3787
• we finished brewing and added blow-off tube around 11:00 p.m., June 4
• OG was 1.074, temp 73.4, adjusted OG was 1.075.
• around 7:00 a.m. on June 5, no surface activity existed. but within an hour or so, considerable surface activity existed, filling the carboy to the lid with bubbles.
• by 11:00 p.m. on June 5, the most vigorous fermentation activity had already subsided.
• at 7:00 a.m. on June 6, fermentation activity continues at nice pace with gas flowing through the blow-off tube, but the activity is less than the evening before.
• fermentation on June 4, 5, and 6 occurred in the dining room with an air temp between 68 and 71 degrees. i wrapped a blanket around the carboy, and i stopped opening the window in the dining room because our morning temps this week were around 50 to 55 degrees.
• temps in the dining room remained in the mid 70s from Jun 7 through Jun 9.
• on Mon eve, Jun 9, turned the furnace on to 80 degrees for a while. Then later, I moved the fermenter to the upstairs bathroom and closed the door.
  • july 4 update: i think that on June 9 when i moved the carboy upstairs, i replaced the blow-off tube with an air-lock. the blow-off container contained a fair amount of trub-like sediment in the bottom. the extremely active fermentation pushed a fair amount of wort and yeast into the blow-off container. not enough headspace existed in the one-gallon carboy that was filled with wort on brew day the went a little above the one-gallon mark.
• we had cool mornings and days all week, Jun 9 through Jun 13. temps in the upstairs bathroom remained in the 70s.
• on Fri, Jun 13, I moved the carboy to the basement.
• around 3:00 p.m. on July 3, we brought the carboy upstairs and left it on the kitchen counter until bottling. we planned to bottle on the afternoon of July 3, but we had outdoor plans. weather was cool on July 3 with outdoor temps mainly in the 60s, eventually reaching the low 70s in the late afternoon.
• on July 4, we bottled between 12:30 p.m. and 1:00 p.m.
• produced 9 bottles of beer.
• we drank the small amount of left-over beer. it tasted smooth, sweet, and seemed strong, alcohol-wise. we liked it. it could be a winner after a couple weeks of carbonation.
• the final gravity on bottling day measured 1.010. room temp / outdoor temp at about 1:00 p.m. on July 4 in West Toledo was 75 degrees. the beer temp was 75.3 degrees. beer would have warmed a little after resting upstairs overnight.
• http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/
• maybe our ABV is between 8.5 and 9.0 percent. if so, it's well below the book specs, which stated that this beer is suppose to have an ABV of 9.9%. as long as it tastes good, i'm fine. we may always be a bit inefficient.
• On Thu, Jul 17, 2014, we drank our first bottle, and it tasted good. It has a good strong Belgian yeast flavor. Maybe hints of fruitiness from the hops, possibly, since no fruit was added. It has a golden yellow color. It had good carbonation. This is a keeper. I could see doing this one as a five-gallon batch.
• Fri, Jul 18, 2014: Drank another trippel. This is probably my favorite beer that we've brewed thus far, right after the stout. This is a close second or maybe a tie with the stout. Two drastically different beers, but the taste for both is excellent.

Ingredients

• Belgian Pilsner malt
• Caramel 10 malt
• East Kent Golding hops
• Saaz hops
• Belgian Candi Sugar
• Book recommended: Wyeast Belgian Abbey 1218 or Safale S-33
• We used Wyeast Trappist HG 3787
• Book suggests orange blossom honey for bottling.

tags: #home - #beer