Trois Pistoles Clone

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sirsloop

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2006
Messages
2,587
Reaction score
26
Location
South River, NJ
Recipe Type
Extract
Yeast
WLP570
Yeast Starter
recommended
Batch Size (Gallons)
5
Original Gravity
1.070
Final Gravity
1.012
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
14 days @ 68°F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
14 @ 68°F
Additional Fermentation
Recommended 2+ months to age
2.5gallons @ 155° - 15 minutes
9oz Crystal 60L
9oz caramunich
1/4lbs biscuit malt
1.5oz moravian black

60minute boil
1can Lyles Golden Syrup (1lbs)
10lbs Pale Extract
1lb Dark Belgian Candi Sugar

60min
1.25oz Styrian Golding

15min
1/8tsp anise spice
.5oz styrian golding
.25oz bittering orange peel

5min
1/8tsp anise spice
.25oz saaz

WLP570 Belgian Golden Ale Yeast
From East Flanders, versatile yeast that can produce light Belgian ales to high gravity Belgian beers (12% ABV). A combination of fruitiness and phenolic characteristics dominate the flavor profile. Some sulfur is produced during fermentation, which will dissipate following the end of fermentation.
Attenuation: 73-78%
Flocculation: Low
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 68-75°F
Alcohol Tolerance: High

There are "unibroue" yeast clones out there, but they are seasonal. This yeast seemed like a pretty good match for what I was shooting for.
 
I made monster sized variant of this beer that recently scored a 40,42,44 at the AHA October National Club only Competition in Michigan, and won a gold medal at the Belgian table at 2008 splitrock beer festival.

QUAD Pistoles
Belgian Dark Strong Ale
Type: Extract Date: 9/17/2008
Batch Size: 5.50 gal Brewer: JD
Boil Size: 4.02 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min Equipment: Brew Pot (4 Gallon)
Taste Rating(42 out of 50)
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
10.00 lb X-Pale LME (3.5 SRM) Extract 58.65 %
3.30 lb Gold Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) Extract 19.35 %
1.00 lb Lyle's Golden Syrup (0.0 SRM) Extract 5.87 %
0.70 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4.11 %
0.70 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 4.11 %
0.25 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 1.47 %
0.10 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 0.59 %
1.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (90 min) Hops 9.2 IBU
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (15 min) Hops 1.4 IBU
0.25 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (5 min) Hops 0.3 IBU
0.13 tsp Anise, Star (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
0.13 tsp Anise, Star (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
0.25 oz Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.00 lb Candi Sugar, Dark (275.0 SRM) Sugar 5.87 %
1 Pkgs
Belgian Golden Ale (White Labs
#WLP570) [Starter 3000 ml]
Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Measured Original Gravity: 1.104 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.019 SG
Bitterness: 10.9 IBU Calories: 466 cal/pint
Est Color: 32.1 SRM
 
2.5gallons @ 155° - 15 minutes
9oz Crystal 60L
9oz caramunich
1/4lbs biscuit malt
1.5oz moravian black

60minute boil
1can Lyles Golden Syrup (1lbs)
10lbs Pale Extract
1lb Dark Belgian Candi Sugar

60min
1.25oz Styrian Golding

15min
1/8tsp anise spice
.5oz styrian golding
.25oz bittering orange peel

5min
1/8tsp anise spice
.25oz saaz

WLP570 Belgian Golden Ale Yeast
From East Flanders, versatile yeast that can produce light Belgian ales to high gravity Belgian beers (12% ABV). A combination of fruitiness and phenolic characteristics dominate the flavor profile. Some sulfur is produced during fermentation, which will dissipate following the end of fermentation.
Attenuation: 73-78%
Flocculation: Low
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 68-75°F
Alcohol Tolerance: High

There are "unibroue" yeast clones out there, but they are seasonal. This yeast seemed like a pretty good match for what I was shooting for.

I have all of the stuff for this EXCEPT the anise spice. They have the anise stars and the anise seeds at my local. Are those close?
 
I made monster sized variant of this beer that recently scored a 40,42,44 at the AHA October National Club only Competition in Michigan, and won a gold medal at the Belgian table at 2008 splitrock beer festival.
i'm going to try this one. any changes you would recommend after doing that batch?
 
man... I have some I brewed up this spring. I just put a impy porter on tap... all this talk about pistoles makes me wanna bust that out instead!! MUST. WAIT. UNTIL. WINTERRRRRrrrrr!!!
 
I brewed sirsloop's recipe for Quad Pistoles 2 days ago and it looks epic. However I forgot to add orange peel, do you think I should throw some in the primary after it's done fermenting?

Also, how much corn sugar did you use for priming?
 
Yeah, boil it for a couple minutes in a small amount of water and throw it in. It won't hurt anything.

Sounds good! Any word on how much priming sugar you used?

I still have some violent bubbling going on periodically especially considering that I brewed this last Wednesday. 2 months of aging in the bottles sounds perfect for this brew.
 
wait another couple weeks for fermentation to stop... rack into a bottling bucket with a cup of dextrose (per 5 gallons), bottle, age. Depending on how much anise made it in there... you may want to wait a little longer than 2 months. I typically don't touch these for 6-12 months. I'd say ~9mo is the sweet spot. At 2 months I think the anise will still be quite sharp. I actually reduced the anise to just 1/8tsp on my last quad batch.... just give it a shot with a tiny bit less. The stuff really goes a LONNNNNG way!
 
wait another couple weeks for fermentation to stop... rack into a bottling bucket with a cup of yeast (per 5 gallons), bottle, age. Depending on how much anise made it in there... you may want to wait a little longer than 2 months. I typically don't touch these for 6-12 months. I'd say ~9mo is the sweet spot. At 2 months I think the anise will still be quite sharp. I actually reduced the anise to just 1/8tsp on my last quad batch.... just give it a shot with a tiny bit less. The stuff really goes a LONNNNNG way!

Rack onto a cup of yeast per 5 gallons?

Also, I used just a dash of anise in the last 15 minutes of the boil and another small dash 5 minutes before flameout. I like a hint of licorice taste so it should be quite good once it mellows out a bit.
 
I'm brewin' this up for a family get-together over Thanksgiving. When would you add the inverted sugar (lyle's syrup)? I'm guessing within the last 20 minutes.

Definitely looking forward to this! It'll be a full boil, so I'm only using an ounce of goldings and .5 oz of saaz (which are pretty light in AA% from my LHBS).

I'm kind of doing a modification of your original posted recipe and your Quad Pistoles recipe - would you recommend putting in 8oz carapils?
 
Anise and Star Anise are two different spices. Anise is a small seed, a bit like fennel. Star Anise has a unique flavour that is slightly different from Anise and Fennel.

I had heard somewhere, can't track it down, that Trois Pistoles uses Birds of Paradise as the finishing spice. To me the combination of spice from the yeast and whatever they are finishing with seems close to BOP.

Birds of Paradise is just Cardamon Seeds. If you can't find the seeds buy the pods and crack them open. I wouldn't use much more than .25 - .5 ounce to start with as it is a strong flavour.
 
Brewed a slightly-modified version of sirsloop's gold medal winning recipe with my brother and brother-in-law over Thanksgiving and came out with an OG of 1.092. I crushed up the star anise (which gave off a distinct licorice aroma) and I used 1 lb dark belgian candi sugar and no invert sugar (lyles) with 12 lbs of LME.

It took off with my starter within 6 hours of pitching. Can't wait to try it.
 
Brewed a slightly-modified version of sirsloop's gold medal winning recipe with my brother and brother-in-law over Thanksgiving and came out with an OG of 1.092. I crushed up the star anise (which gave off a distinct licorice aroma) and I used 1 lb dark belgian candi sugar and no invert sugar (lyles) with 12 lbs of LME.

It took off with my starter within 6 hours of pitching. Can't wait to try it.

Have you sampled yet or is it still aging?
 
Have you sampled yet or is it still aging?

Actually, I tried my first one the other day.

I thought I'd give it some time because even though the fermentation went nuts within 6 hours, it only got down to around 1.035. I was surprised at that and tried to figure out why that happened and came to at least one conclusion. During the fermentation, Atlanta's temps dropped wayyyyy low (between Thanksgiving and Christmas) and probably slowed it up or stalled it on the back end.

I used a starter, so I couldn't come up with any other reason as to why I had such a high FG.

Regardless, it's not so much a Trois Pistoles clone as a nice tasting Belgian malt-bomb. I definitely like it. I'll give it a shot all-grain next time I brew it.
 
I had heard somewhere, can't track it down, that Trois Pistoles uses Birds of Paradise as the finishing spice.

You mean grains of paradise, yes? A bird of paradise is a flower. Still, I'd like to know if this is the case if you've managed to track down some concrete information since this post. I wouldn't mind getting a clone of this down at all!
 
I believe that Birds of Paradise is just the seeds inside a cardamom pod. You can easily buy the pods and crack them open, or some specialty stores actually sell packs of the seeds.
As to the source. I'm still not sure but when I was researching the beer some time ago I did see more than one reference to this, and it is in the flavour of the beer itself. Subdued but present.
 
A buddy of mine and I are brewing an all grain 10g variation of this tomorrow with WLP550 starters. With a 33 lb grain bill, this will already be a monster, but my friend wants to drop it onto a vial of WLP655 Belgian sour mix to create a hybrid Belgian strong dark sour. Wacky!

I'll be sure to not over-prime this time. I'll check back in 3 months or so to report our findings
 
So yeah, I absolutely LOVE learning experiences - no sarcasm.

My 12g mash tun isn't large enough to hold 30 lbs of grain - rough estimate: 25 lbs at the max. So my buddy and I had to think on the fly and we ended up double-mashing our 10g batch (25g for an hour, 5 lbs for 45 minutes). We ended up with an OG of 1.090, just 5 points less than our expected OG. I'll take that, all things considered! We pitched our yeast starters and less than 6 hours later it was blowing off. The sample tasted extremely sweet, but I'll venture a guess that it was the 3 lbs of dark candi sugar and additions of star anise that did it. I can't wait to try this sucker.
 
I've only had one other batch (and that was an extract) that fermented even near as wild as this one has. I did a one-liter starter of WLP550 - and according to Jamil, I underpitched my yeast according to the anticipated OG. I even ended up with a mess on the blowoff - my exit vessel of starsan/water mix overflowed due to all the crap that blew off. I had a 1g jug 3/4ths filled up. Amazing.

My freezermenter smells of malt, spices and licorice. Awesome!
 
Bottled my AG batch about a week ago and there was still some yeast in suspension. After 12 hours in the bottle you could see a thin layer of yeast at the bottom of each bottle. Fermented all the way down to 1.019 in four weeks (FWIW, it dropped 10 gravity points in the last two weeks) - ending up at 9.3% ABV - and the sample tasted great! I'm anxious to taste the final product after a couple of months of aging - and compare it to my buddy's "sour" version.
 
Figured I'd provide a follow-up, considering I'm brewing a variation of this again (AG)...for anyone who's remotely interested. I enjoyed this beer, though I'd definitely like it a bit more dry and with a little less star anise. I mashed at 153ish for the first go-round (but I really can't use that experience as an accurate example, considering I had to mash 25lbs and 5 lbs separately on the fly). The result was slightly too sweet on the back end - almost like someone sprinkled sweetner on the back part of my tongue after each sip. For what it's worth, it scored a 35 at a regional homebrew competition.

This time, I'm going to mash around 148-149 (and will have the tun to hold 30 lbs of grains). Additionally, I'm going to ferment in the low-mid 70s.

Gonna be a blasty blast!
 
Any further updates on these tasting notes, now that fall is settling in? I bet it's awesome. Going to try this right away.
 
I am trying to plug this in to Beer Smith (I am new to it) and i can not seem to get my water profiles to add up right do you guys have any experience with this? I put 7.5 gals pre biol and finish boil at 5.5 and it is telling me I need 9.75 gal?
 
Did this end up tasting like Trios Pistole? That is one of my favorite beers, and I'd love to brew one up soon to leave until winter.
 
Ditto to the above. La Fin Du Monde + Trois Pistole are my two favorites from Unibrew
 
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