Extract Belgian Tripel: Secondary vs. Bottle Conditioning

I am on my second brew and this time it is a Belgian Tripel. It is an extract NB recipe. I think my OG was a little off and was around 1.084 instead of the 1.073 stated in the recipe and my FG leveled out at 1.016. I feel it might have finished too sweet, but I will work on that in my next brew. Although, I was much better in my fermentation than my first brew.

It has now been in the primary for 1 month and a week. The recipe from NB says to secondary for 2 to 3 months before bottling. The question I have is... Since it has been in Primary for a month and a week can I bottle now and finish conditioning in the bottle or would the beer do better bulk conditioning in a carboy before bottling?

I will say I have read many a thread about only using a secondary when dry hopping or adding fruit, but I haven't read any that addressed Belgians and longer than normal conditioning.

Thoughts?

You will get various opinions on the subject. Some say that bulk conditioning is better (personally, I think the argument is plausible), others say that conditioning in the bottle is fine. I've done it both ways and have not experienced a discernable difference. Regardless, I say get it off the main yeast cake now. My concern would be autolysis from the dead yeast in the trub.

I have a Belgian that I brew at least every year that I have done both ways. I have it working right now in a corny. My experiance is that I am unable to tell any real differance between the two.

Thanks for the insight. My plan was one month in primary before moving to either place.

I am inclined to bottle, because I feel my newness to brewing should involve the least amount of steps to minimize the chance of contamination.

I know that I will periodically sample a bottle to determine when the tripel hits a sweet spot, but aside from the time it takes to carb, what do you guys feel is the time to condition a tripel before it hits a good spot?

My experience has been that tripels don't hit their stride until 4-6 months minimum depending on abv,yeast used, fermentation temps, etc. I have a tripel that is 9 months old. I've begun to serve it to friends only in the past two months. Bottom line, though is to leave it alone for a minimum of 3 months after you bottle.

It might not even carb for a couple months. I had a quad take around 5 months to carb. Wasnt even drinkable for about 10 months. On bottling day, get a gallon jug and fill it up with your triple. Let it secondary for 2 months or so. Do your own side by side comparison. One thing i would not worry about is getting it off the yeast after 5 weeks. Ive given beers twice that in primary and they were great. The quality of yeast these days puts autolosys worries to bed. But like someone said previously, you'll get differing opinions on that

I did the NB tripel recipe last year. After 6 weeks in primary I did bottle and cellared for 3 months. I think it turned out pretty well.

As others have said, you probably can't go wrong whichever way you choose.

JBmadtown - do you remember or did you write down what your OG and FG were from the NB kit? Just curious.

If I get a chance I will look at my brewlog. For extract recipes (I do partial boil with top off) I don't worry about the OG all that much. If you top off at the end then you sample to measure gravity may have reflected wort that wasn't fully diluted by yet.

As for FG, I think it was in the low teens (1.012 - 1.015). I remember it wasn't as low as many people say their tripels are < 10. That was something I was going to work on the next time I did this recipe.

Also, did you use wyeast 3787? I had made the NB patersbier and then made this on the yeast cake.

I did check and my OG was similar to yours, but I assumed it was measurement error. The FG was 1.012.

After 6 weeks, I bottled. It really did not peak until 3 months later. At two months, I could taste the phenols/esters from the yeast, malt, and saaz hops. However, they were not meshed together in a smooth beer tasting experience. By 3 months it was a little better. At 6 months it was better yet. I had a bottle last night that I have kept and I really like it almost a year later(10 - 11 months).

JBmadtown said:

Also, did you use wyeast 3787?

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I used the 3787. I followed the NB recipe for the boil but I used the fermentation process from the classic styles book, which was pitch at 64 and bring it up to 70 over a week.

I'm not sure it has the esters and other profile elements I was expecting when I tasted it during gravity readings. But, I have never brewed a tripel before and this is only my second batch I have made. If you couple that with not being carbonated and having only been in the carboy for a month, I can't say I know what it should taste like.

So into the bottles it will go today and it can sit for two or three more months. Then I will know what it will taste like.

I think this question has basically been answered in this thread, but I want to be sure. I'm planning on brewing the NB Belgian Triple this weekend. Everything I've read says it needs 3+ months in bottles to get really good. Would I be able to leave it in secondary for a longer to reduce the amount of time needed to rest in the bottles?

I have extra carboys, but not bottles. Also, I think I'd be too tempted to crack open the bottles early. It sounds as though I'll need to pick up more bottles and a "Don't open till x'mas" sign.

My opinion is that it really doesn't matter where you age. If you bulk age (carboy) then you will probably have better consistency from bottle to bottle. However, after 3 months you may need to re-pitch some yeast if you don't keg. if you prime the bottles will still need 2-4 weeks to carbonate.

I don't have a 5 gal carboy and didn't have the option for bulk aging. I am sure it will turn out good. Enjoy.

Regardless of how you age the beer, I'd encourage you to go ahead and get some more bottles, since that is what is forcing your decision. A Tripel is a great beer to discover how beer changes character over time. Save 8 and start drinking one a month starting after 3 months aging and it's carbed, however you elect to age it. Higher gravity Belgians really do evolve. As many have said on this forum, the best beer of the batch is often the last beer.

Also, if you plan to brew this or similar styles routinely, make sure the bottles you use are sturdy. Carb rates for Tripels can be up to 4 volumes. Most commercial US beer bottles couldn't reliably handle that co2 volume. The kit you bought likely included a priming sugar amount standardized regardless of bjcp style so that won't matter now. However if you begin carbing to style the bottle strength may become a factor eventually.

Even though it might go slightly faster to bulk age, I would bottle it now instead of waiting 3+ months. The reasons I see are:
* I'd rather have the pipeline going and have the fermenter available for another beer.
* You would be able to try the beer from time to time by opening a bottle when you feel like it, and see how it changes. Trying from the fermenter is possible, but the carbonation changes a lot of things as well.

Too bad you are not in California, I have too many bottles now that I keg.

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I'll have to go pick up a few extra cases of bottles.