Karmaleit tripel recipe help requested.

[Rivvo]

Hi guys, after having a bottle of this last night it reminded me how good it is, I am thinking of trying to brew something very similar, though the complex flavours may be difficult to replicate.
It says barley, wheat and oats on the bottle, so I'm guessing less than 10% wheat and oats between them, pilsner malt and some recipes seem to call for about 5% aromatic malt.
I'm presuming some noble hops for bittering and late additions, saaz, Hallertauer or Tettnang I suppose, a Trappist style yeast for fermentation maybe?

I am thinking of trying to replicate the spicy ness by adding coriander, grains of paradise and dried orange or alternatively (and maybe controversially) using a Saison yeast instead to get the spice and fruit notes and omitting the spice and orange additions, any comments/ideas are welcome, particularly if anyone has ever got anywhere near it before.

[simpleton]

http://www.candisyrup.com/recipes.html

It's here: http://www.candisyrup.com/uploads/6/0/3 ... _-_004.pdf

[Rivvo]

Thanks for flagging that up to me, do you know how accurate their recipes are as I've never used one before?

[darthballs]

Hi,

I've made a couple of attempts at a Karmeliet clone, both turned out pretty damn close...

White Labs #WLP500 = the perfect yeast for this beer.

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=54069

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=59076

[Rivvo]

Thanks Darth, the colour of the finished product looks a little dark for a tripel though that could be the lighting, the spice additions was what I was thinking of though your proportion of oats and wheat look high, how did it affect the final product and would you change anything for your next attempt (there's always a next isn't there!)

[darthballs]

I thought both were very close indeed especially in taste which is my priority, and won't be changing my recipe at all. Although to be fair I have not managed to produce the huge head you get from real Karmeliet. I think this is because of the bottling yeast but I have been too chicken to try for fear of wrecking the whole brew, maybe next time I will do a test with 5 or 6 bottles just to see how it goes.

I did try to brew this a third time this year but only realised I had no styrian goldings half way through the mash so substituted EKG which made it a very different beer. Tastes much more like Popperings Hommel Bier with the EKG, at least I now know how to make both!!

I will give this another go sometime in the new year but first I need to give my new shiny braumeister some test brews and learn how to brew all over again

[jmc]

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=47885

Above recipe turned out lovely. Only think I'd change is swap torrified with flaked wheat as I prefer the flavour.

I added the sugar at secondary stage. I find if you add sugar with malt, brew can be a few points short of ideal FG.

Strongly advise not to use Saison yeast unless you want to taste Saison funk/ phenolic spiciness. I like Saison but just in Saison brews.

[Rivvo]

Thanks darth and JMC, yep you're right taste is the most important thing!
I will probably give this a go in the New Year after I've brewed a small beer to pitch it onto the yeast cake, I'll post back how it goes, thanks for the replies.

[jmc]

Thanks darth and JMC, yep you're right taste is the most important thing!
I will probably give this a go in the New Year after I've brewed a small beer to pitch it onto the yeast cake, I'll post back how it goes, thanks for the replies.

Good idea to do a 5% ( or less) 'single' first to build up a great yeast cake. It will taste great too!

[Rivvo]

Yeah I was thinking of a simple 'Paters biere' with just some Pilsner and wheat malt aiming for about 4%.