AG#11 - Tripel Spuduliet II

[darthballs]

My 11th brew is a repeat of my 1st and this took place on the 24th March 2013.

I used this grain bill:
4.5kg Pilsner (2 Row) Ger
1kg Wheat Malt, Bel
500g Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel
300g Oats, Flaked
300g Oats, Malted
300g Wheat, Torrified
270g Candi Sugar, Clear Homemade
35g Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min
10g Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min
20g Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] - Boil 15.0
1/2 Protofloc 15 min
10g Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min
5g Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min
7.5g Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 mins)
5g Seeds of Paradise (Boil 5.0 mins)

1pkg Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500)

23 litre brewlength
Est SG 1071
7.9%

Some pics

Grain bill


Mmm, sweet wort


First Hops


Chiller in


Nice fruity fermentation


Nice smooth brewday, think I am starting to slowly get the hang of it now, only problem I had was the candi sugar, thought I had more of it to hand but this turned out very nicely and came in at 1072 at 23.5 litres and finished fermenting at 1010 so gives me a brew of about 8.2%, very close to what I wanted and I am very pleased with how this has turned out. Bottled this on the 12 April and I will keep this nice and warm in the house for two weeks before moving it to cool in the garage for 6 weeks.

[jmc]

Sounds lovely. Remember to tell us how it turns out.

[darthballs]

Big delay on the image but this is how this beer turned out.

Very similar to Tripel Karmeliet but not quite there on the carbonation and perhaps this is because Bosteels add yeast to their bottles to aid bottle conditioning and I didn't. This might be something to try when I brew this again in a few weeks.

[jmc]

I'm sure it's lovely and will continue to get better.

Agree about fresh yeast when bottling.

Reminds me I need to sort out by Christmas brew (Belgian Strong Dark) which is still ageing.

How's the coriander and grains of paradise coming through?

[darthballs]

It is a pretty sweet beer, as you would expect, with plenty of the vanilla/bananary esters and is very very much like karmeliet. You can both smell and taste the coriander, but only just which again seemed right to me and there is a very faint hint of herby pepperyness (is that a word?) in your mouth which must come from the grains of paradise and of course a good citrus aroma. I do think a lot of this is down to the yeast strain which I think is absolutely spot on.

Alas, I only have 2x330ml bottles left. Some friends came round for a weekend at the end of July and almost cleaned me out of it!!

I'm not realy sure about how to add the bottling yeast would you just add a few grains to each bottle or add the sachet to the bottling bucket sugar solution...


I recently made a kwak clone (also from the Bosteels brewery) using T-58 yeast which is I think the dry version of WLP500 and after the initial ferment had subsided I added two types of homemade candi sugar, about 700grams of dark left over from my dubbel brew and about 650grams of clear/amber it was just going amber when I stopped cooking it. When bottling (all 84 of 'em!!), it looked to me to have that distinctive copper colour of kwak, probably from the munich and special b malt additions, and I am hopeful that it will also be a close comparison.

Probably need to source a few bottles of kwak to compare as I haven't had one for a while.

[jmc]

It is a pretty sweet beer, as you would expect, with plenty of the vanilla/bananary esters and is very very much like karmeliet. You can both smell and taste the coriander, but only just which again seemed right to me and there is a very faint hint of herby pepperyness (is that a word?) in your mouth which must come from the grains of paradise and of course a good citrus aroma. I do think a lot of this is down to the yeast strain which I think is absolutely spot on.

Alas, I only have 2x330ml bottles left. Some friends came round for a weekend at the end of July and almost cleaned me out of it!!

I'm not realy sure about how to add the bottling yeast would you just add a few grains to each bottle or add the sachet to the bottling bucket sugar solution...


I recently made a kwak clone (also from the Bosteels brewery) using T-58 yeast which is I think the dry version of WLP500 and after the initial ferment had subsided I added two types of homemade candi sugar, about 700grams of dark left over from my dubbel brew and about 650grams of clear/amber it was just going amber when I stopped cooking it. When bottling (all 84 of 'em!!), it looked to me to have that distinctive copper colour of kwak, probably from the munich and special b malt additions, and I am hopeful that it will also be a close comparison.

Probably need to source a few bottles of kwak to compare as I haven't had one for a while.

That sounds like it was a real success

For my Belgian strong I'm going to make a new starter using same yeast. I skimmed some and stored in a fridge.
Once starter is active I'll add it to bottling bucket. Pour beer via keg tap/tube to bottling bucket to mix then bottle.

Some people just add a few grains of a neutral yeast at bottling but my brew is ~9% so I want yeast to have a chance.
I also like idea of using same yeast throughout as I tend to make starters from bottled beer dregs.

If you want to taste Kwak on draft they serve it at The Malt Shovel in Northampton. Lovely pub.