Belgian Triple?'s

I just purchased a Belgian Triple Brewers best kit. I was wanting to know if there is any thing I could add to this kit to make it better. I was thinking of adding some orange peel rinds to the end of the boil. I plan on doing a full boil as well. Also how long should I let this stay in the secondary and in the bottle.

Thanks for any help, Nick

I just done this same kit, i bottled it sunday.

what i did was left it in the primary for 3 weeks then moved it to the secondary for two weeks and plan on leaving it in the bottles for a few more weeks as well. this is a pretty heavy beer and when I was bottiling it I tasted it and it tasted good (for a flat non-carbed beer) but the alcohol taste was pretty strong so in two weeks im going to pop one in the fridge for a day to test it out and then another one the next week and so on until it has conditioned long enough

Triples don't usually have spices added - you get fruityness and spicyness from the Belgian yeast. You can add if you want, it's your beer - but in my opinion, I like to keep the recipe simple to let the yeast complexity shine.

What ingredients are provided in the kit?

If it doesn't come with a real Belgian yeast strain, upgrading to that is the single best thing you can do to improve the kit. Aside from that, I like to do a mini-mash with a couple pounds of base malt along with the extract, so that the base malt enzymes can convert the extract a little more, for more fermentability/less residual sweetness. In my opinion, trying to do high-gravity beers with extract always leaves too much residual sweetness.

Since a triple is a big beer, a long primary (a few weeks), and a long secondary (a few weeks), and plenty of bottle conditioning (a few weeks at least) are good.

I added an OZ of Cascades at flame out for a little hop tickle to mine. turned out great! 8+ abv 2 and I'm done.

Found that my Orange Zest at flame out didn't do squat to my other beer. So added again in 2ndary. Time will tell.

Sounds good I was thinking about leaving this age in the bottle for awhile also let me know what you find. I am thinking of adding some orange peel to give it some flavor but I wonder if it will make it worse. I have not opened the kit but I am guessing it is a dry yeast correct?

Sorry did not see the other posts when I wrote this. Thanks for the input I was thinking of picking up some better yeast.

Tripels dont traditionally have spices like orange peel but if you think it sounds good, go for it! I'm sure it'll turn out great as long as you dont go nuts and add the zest from 10 oranges or something.

I have never seen a belgian-style dry yeast so I hope they gave you liquid. If that is the case, open up the kit and get that baby in the fridge!

As for aging, you may want to give it at least 2 months in the bottle to mellow out. It seems for Belgians that the best bottle from your batch is the last one since it aged more than the rest. It's hard to not bust them out after 2 weeks but it will be worth it if you wait.

this kit does come with a dry yeast, now i dont know if its a belgian style yeast or not to tell you the truth. but like the other guys were saying belgian tripelsare fine right by themselves with nothing added. this is the first belgian tripel I have brewed so im just going bye the other peoples i have tried

If it is a dry yeast, I'd hit up your LHBS and buy something else.

Ok went to the LHBS at launch and picked up some 530 yeast. I should have picked up some DME for a starter but I purchased 2 viles so I should be ok with out doing a starter right?

nbigger said:

Ok went to the LHBS at launch and picked up some 530 yeast. I should have picked up some DME for a starter but I purchased 2 viles so I should be ok with out doing a starter right?

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probably not. it depends on the OG and how fresh the vials are. use the calculator here http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

The production date for white labs vials is 4 months before the use date printed on the vial.

I would not add any flavors to the kit. The wlp530 yeast will make it great. You will most likely still need to do a starter.

Ok I will clean out my half gallon carboy and pick up some DME and set it up tonight. Again thanks to all that have given me help this will be my 4th batch and I have learned a ton in the last couple months.

Nick

nbigger said:

Ok I will clean out my half gallon carboy and pick up some DME and set it up tonight. Again thanks to all that have given me help this will be my 4th batch and I have learned a ton in the last couple months.

Nick

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you should consider making a stir plate for your starters. Using a stir plate will cut the size of your starters way down so they are more manageable. There are lots of plans out there on the web. I built mine with a computer fan, a hard drive battery and a cell phone charger. Total cost was like 5.00

I have been palning on building one I am addicted to the DIY threads I have just finished building a Immersion chiller. I also have a old keg that I am palning on building a keggle out of because I am using a freinds stainless steel turkey fryer to brew out of right now. I think I could get all the parts from out computer grave yard at work I will have to get moving on that.
Thanks again, Nick

I bought this same kit, too, and it has been in promary since last Sat (1/9/10). I don't have a secondary, so how long should I have it sit in promary for?

Ok did a starter last night and used a 1/2 cup out of the DME in the kit. I would not think that that small of a DME amount would change much in the kit so I am going to just finish brewing it today missing that 1/2 cup that is in the starter.

I moved the triple into my secondary last night and it is still bubbling away and gravity was at 1.029 and it started at 1.085. I am palning on leaving it there for at least another 2 weeks and then I might try bottling it using DME to prime. Is there any reason not to try the DME on this?

Thanks, Nick

im not sure NBigger, but you will not be disapointed with this beer. it has been close to a month since i bottled mine and i drank one last night and it is freaking great. i thought I had messed all kinds of stuff up with it but it turned out great. some on here said to leave it in the bottles for 3 months and it would be even better so i set some back to age.

nbigger said:

I moved the triple into my secondary last night and it is still bubbling away and gravity was at 1.029 and it started at 1.085. I am palning on leaving it there for at least another 2 weeks and then I might try bottling it using DME to prime. Is there any reason not to try the DME on this?

Thanks, Nick

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Why did you move it to the secondary before the yeast was done with the fermentation?

You can use DME for priming but regular sugar is cheaper, works just as well and results in a drier finish that is desirable in this style of beer.

I was a little worried that I may have moved it to soon. It has been in there 15 days and has not been very active. I have a bucket that is full and thought I could move this and due another batch this week end in my 6 gal. carboy. It is now as active or more than it was before and I think it will be ok does not look like fermentation has stalled. I think I am going to pick up a couple more buckets so I have more room I think I am getting addicted to this hobby.

nbigger said:

I was a little worried that I may have moved it to soon. It has been in there 15 days and has not been very active. I have a bucket that is full and thought I could move this and due another batch this week end in my 6 gal. carboy. It is now as active or more than it was before and I think it will be ok does not look like fermentation has stalled. I think I am going to pick up a couple more buckets so I have more room I think I am getting addicted to this hobby.

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15 days is usually plenty of time but seeing as it's still at 1.029 you probably have a problem in that it's not fully attenuated. Good Luck.

You probably should have made a bigger starter. High gravity beers need lots of yeast.

maida7 said:

Why did you move it to the secondary before the yeast was done with the fermentation?

You can use DME for priming but regular sugar is cheaper, works just as well and results in a drier finish that is desirable in this style of beer.

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I just made my first batch with the same exact kit and the instructions say to move the batch over to a secondary once the fermentation slows (5-7 days) and in bold letters it says but before it completes. Guess we'll both see how it turns out. I let my beer sit in the primary for exactly a week before moving to the secondary and I was getting about 1 bubble every 30-40 seconds in the airlock.

I did do a starter and had to use a blow off tube for the first time with this batch. I am hoping that it will continue to ferment. I do have a second vile of yeast that I did not use because I had a good size starter. Do you think I should use it in the secondary? Or should I just relax and wait it out.

nbigger said:

I did do a starter and had to use a blow off tube for the first time with this batch. I am hoping that it will continue to ferment. I do have a second vile of yeast that I did not use because I had a good size starter. Do you think I should use it in the secondary? Or should I just relax and wait it out.

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What size starter? The Mrmalty.com calculator recomends a 5 liter starter for a 1.085 SG ale and that is assuming the vial was made today.