Pour Moi - Abbey Style Trippel

[arturobandini]

What's the score with this one adm?

[escapizm]

Beer porn at its finest

Excellent photos adm deft use of the camera too. Do you pump from boiler to FV? How do you cool?

[adm]

Thanks!

Normally I pump from the boiler, through a plate chiller and into the FV, although I have got an IC as well....

[simple one]

What did this taste like adm? Might doctor the recipe slightly, maybe darken it up slightly, hop it up, but wondering how the FG and the high ABV made it taste.

Cheers!

[adm]

To tell you the truth, I haven't tried it yet!

It's sitting in a corny in the keg fridge.... I just haven't had a time when I actually fancied an 11% pint yet. Although it's three months old now......so my willpower has been pretty good! Maybe I'll give it a try today and see what it's like....

[adm]

You piqued my curiosity so I just went and got a (small) glass of this.

And it's....well.....certainly very strong. You can really taste the alcohol and it warms the back of the throat as it goes down. It's not harsh, but definitely has a real kick. It'll certainly be a good "winter warmer"!

It has that sort of typical "Belgian" tangy smell and taste from the yeast and despite it having such a low FG, it has a lot of mouthfeel - I don't have any Belgian trippels in the fridge to do a compare and contrast with, but I'd say it's a bit sweeter - and there's a taste of caramelised sugar too. I'd have liked it a bit dried tbh - maybe up the sugar content at the expense of some malt.

It actually reminds me a bit of Carlsberg Special Brew! But in a pretty good way.

Hopping is quite light, but very smooth and it leaves a pleasant bitterness to compete with the malty sweetness.

Not bad at all.

I think if i did it again, I'd probably replace the regular table sugar with something else to try and get a bit of flavour out of it - maybe jaggery if you can get it, or alternatively knock up some home made candi sugar.

I'd also up the IBU a bit - it could definitely take more hops. I might dry hop this now to see how it goes. Maybe 50g of Saaz for a month or two and then try it again. I think I'll keep this one for when the nights start to draw in a bit - it's definiteyl not a summer quencher!

[simple one]

Thanks adm,that exactly what I wanted to know. I think I'll do a small 10-15L batch in sept, so temp control will be a bit easier. Definitely use the same yeast, sounds really nice from what you and others have said about it. I'll up the hops as you suggest. I think I'll make some home made candi sugar too and maybe a very small addition of some crystal.

I think the only option for me is to make it on top of a yeast slurry (I dont trust myself with big starters).

Would you be looking for a sub 1010 fg next time then? I dont think I would dare go that low with it!

[adm]

I just had another sample of this (OK - two samples)...and it's coming along really nicely. Now crystal clear, and tasting a bit more "elegant".

Still - I fancy some more hoppage, so I just dry hopped it with 40g of EKG. I'll give it a week or two then pull them out and leave the beer to sit until Christmas. Or maybe Bonfire Night/Halloween. It should be just perfect by then. Nightmarishly strong, but subtle with it.

[GARYSMIFF]

That looks great, I bet that will smell mighty fine in the morning. I love the smell of yeast.....you know the drill.

If only we did not need to keep testing our beer...if I manage to get to week 3 its OLD.
I have been trying to get a few on the go, a keeper and a drinker.

Your set up looks kewl, nice view, also.

[adm]

Well...I kind of forgot about the dry hops in this and just remembered they were in there today, so I've just had a glass and it's made all the difference. I think it's gone past the in your face hop aroma, and through the grassy hop stage and mellowed out to just a nice finishing hop flavour and aroma.

I'll probably pull the bag of hops out tomorrow, but for now it was certainly an enjoyable glass, and tasted very much like I think a trippel should taste, but with some sweet after notes.

The dry hops have made it a tad hazy now, whereas before it was crystal clear, but another few weeks in the fridge should see it clear again just in time for Halloween and Bonfire night. I can give it to the trick or treaters and "penny for the guy" kids....

[bosium]

Great pics, I love your setup! I wish I had a room that I could devote to a dedicated brewery
Also the recipe looks amazing, I also probably would have made it more bitter but other than that it looks delicious! I bet it will just get better and better with some more time in cold storage.

What temp did you primary at? I've found 1214 to be a banana-bomb over about 20.C, belgian yeasts are incredible.
+1 also on the litre of yeast slurry, that's an enormous beer!

[adm]

Bosium, if I made this again, I'd definitely make it a bit more bitter - and add some more hops at the end too. At first it was a bit bland and alcoholic, but with time and the try hops it's really come into it's own.

As for the fermentation temperature, I started it at 18C and ramped it up 1C per day to 25C, then left it there for a few days before cooling and racking, but I didn't end up with a huge amount of banana flavour. I think that was due to pitching so much yeast, so it didn't have to work as hard....

Funnily enough, I have a 2L 1214 starter in the fridge that I need to brew something with.....might kick off a Belgian Pale this afternoon....

[pantsmachine]

Well...I kind of forgot about the dry hops in this and just remembered they were in there today, so I've just had a glass and it's made all the difference. I think it's gone past the in your face hop aroma, and through the grassy hop stage and mellowed out to just a nice finishing hop flavour and aroma.

I'll probably pull the bag of hops out tomorrow, but for now it was certainly an enjoyable glass, and tasted very much like I think a trippel should taste, but with some sweet after notes.

The dry hops have made it a tad hazy now, whereas before it was crystal clear, but another few weeks in the fridge should see it clear again just in time for Halloween and Bonfire night. I can give it to the trick or treaters and "penny for the guy" kids....

The time draws close.....

Cracking thread and a real nice looking recipe and final product.

[Barley Water]

Interesting thread, the original Triple (Westmalle I believe) is fairly hoppy while many others are somewhat sweet (and some are even spiced). I guess what that means is that you can do whatever you wish, which is why we are all in this hobby in the first place. What you really ought to do is scrape together some coin and go down to the local beer store and get several commerical examples to try (in the name of research of course). I would suggest a bottle of Westmalle, Chimay and Triple Kalument (sp?) at the very least. Also, just for calibration purposes, get a bottle of Duvel and a bottle of Leffe Blond. Neither of them are Triples but the Duvel is a hell of a lot drier and the Leffe is a smaller beer and if anything a little bit sweeter. The ones on my list should give you a good range of flavors so you can get a sense where your effort falls in the grand scheme of things. You may find that you want to push the flavor of your beer in one director or another within the style or perhaps you will decide yours is best (in which case you can just leave the formulation alone). At the very least though, you will have fun comparing and contrasting and of course, you will feel no pain after a couple of bottles.

By the way, I source jaggery at a local Indian market. As it turns out, it is really easy to find here in Texas. With the large Indian population in the UK, I bet you will have no trouble. While you are in there, check out some of the spices, they have all kinds of neat stuff to experiment with.

[adm]

Well, here's a pic as of this lunchtime (yes, I know drinking 11% beer at lunchtime probably doesn't make for a productive afternoon......but it is Friday and your comments made me go and get a glass) Sadly I screwed the picture up, and didn't get round to loading it onto the 'puter and finding out until I'd already drunk the glass.....maybe I'll get an "art" shot later....



BW - going out and buying a bunch of Belgians is a good plan! I actually did that when I was thinking about making this beer, but that was quite a while ago and to be honest, I can't remember enough about each one to make an educated comparison....so I may have to go and get more!