14lbs Belgian Pils
8oz Aromatic
2oz Acidulated
1lb sucrose
WLP500
I wanted Hallertau Tradition, but LHBS does not stock it. I have:
10oz 4.8% Willamette
8oz 3.2% Crystal
2oz 8.4% Centennial
2oz 3.9% German Spalt
1oz 5.2% Liberty plugs
1oz 4.5% Ahtanum
One thought is to go 100% Willy @90min to let the yeast play the lead.
Spalt looks like an obvious choice, but I get a bunch of artificial-blueberry and bubblegum notes from them, so I think they would clash with the yeast profile. Anyway, I'd rather save them for a pale lager. I'm thinking Ahtanum and Crystal are probably on the flamboyant/floral side, and Centennial is right out unless I'm doing a Cali-Belgique thing.
Liberty is like lemongrass to me. Would that play nice with 500?
For a bittering hop I don't think it matters that much, but if you want to hedge, just do a blend of willamette/libery/crystal or something like that. Otherwise it looks fine, but you could certainly swap out a bit of the malt for another pound of sugar. I tend to aim for ~20% by extract for big Belgians. Good luck.
__________________
Check out The Mad Fermentationist for my adventures in fermentation (cheese, bread, ginger beer plant, and of course plenty of funky beer).
If you want lemon-lemongrass notes you could try bittering with Sorachi Ace. It's grossly inappropriate if you're brewing to style, but I bet it could make an interesting mix with WLP500 fruitiness.
Other than that, I'd suggest noble or noble-derived hops. I've had good results with Mt. Hood and Belgians. And, yeah, pump up the sugar to at least 2 or 3 lbs.
I'm planning a single decoction mash with a really long rest around 140, which is why I'm being conservative with the sugar (which will be about 12% of extract if I hit 70% efficiency). I can always add more in the fermenter.
Mt. Hood sounds like a perfect match, and LHBS has them in leaf and pellet!
Brewing this today - have two 1L starters of WLP500 crashed in the fridge. The first was a vial about to expire that took two days to start, so I got another. Both seem healthy enough now.
I decided on two additions, both consisting 1oz 5.2% Mt. Hood and .5oz 4.8% Willamette, at 60 and 5. Targeting 40 IBU by Rager.
EDIT: 40 minutes to go in the boil. Never seen so much break!
Edit again: 12 hours from pitching and an inch of kraeusen already.
": Now 20 hours from pitch.
": This is the most heavenly smelling fermentation evar! Lots of tropical fruit punch and warm spices going on.
Edit 6-12: Racked this to keg today, a little prematurely maybe at 17 days, but it's going to warm-condition in the keg for a couple weeks. It's tasting really nice, with upfront banana and mango and some prickly spice on the midpalate. If the bitterness holds up over time, this should be a really nicely balanced tripel. Estimated apparent attenuation 83% for about 9% ABV, right in line.
Just tapped this, since I noticed a touch of wetness on the top of the keg. The out poppet is a tiny bit leaky so I'll leave the cobra tap on it until I can address that. It only started leaking in the fridge; it was primed to about 2 volumes and seems to have held that all in.
It's a bit green, thin, undercarbonated, and yeasty, but OMG is it lovely! It has a low, wide swath of banana, tropical punch, pepper, and earthy. No hot alcohol at all! It's pushing 9% and at just over a month it's already tasting like the kind of tripel I like. The hopping is IDEAL, though I'd increase the bittering if I thought I was going to have to sit on it for several months.
Help me hop my tripel
I'm thinking Ahtanum and Crystal are probably on the flamboyant/floral side, and Centennial is right out unless I'm doing a Cali-Belgique thing.
Linear Mode
