Belgian Tripel Belgian Trippel (2006 World Beer Cup Gold Medal: Dragonmead Final Absolution clone)

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Tasted a 5 month old bottle yesterday. Only now is it getting to be mellowed and carbed enough to where I like. Patience really pays off on this one. Might attempt an AG version of this now that I'm equipped.

Interested to see how mine ends up...i tasted it after primary when i moved it to a keg to age in my closet, and holy moley, it definitely has a strong kick too it.

Granted when i did this, i didnt realize the recipe was for 6 Gallons and made it with 5 gallons, so its probably a bit more potent than it otherwise would be.
 
Brewed this yesterday and only hit a OG of 1.073. Should i add anything to primary or secondary to bump that up some? Not sure of how to go about that.
 
pshepard327 said:
Brewed this yesterday and only hit a OG of 1.073. Should i add anything to primary or secondary to bump that up some? Not sure of how to go about that.

Extract or all grain?

Was your sample hot or cold when you took the gravity?
 
Getting the ingredients together now for this recipe, hoping i can brew it up next weekend.. Looking forward to it! thanks for sharing the recipe...
 
Sorry been out of town. It was AG and I added the correct points for temp. It has been 11 days in primary and I just checked it at 1.02. Think I should stir it up some or just go to primary. Tasted pretty darn good though.
 
Brewed this up last night. (extract version). I did add the candy at the beginning of the boil, (didn't see the thread saying to add it in at the last 10min until today :( ). but hit an OG of 1.084

The wort tasted pretty good.. looking forward to seeing how it progresses :)
 
I did the ag version 2 months ago and bottled it least week. I think it might have bene infected...but again, I'm not sure.

There was a white film on top of the wort. It was thin and breakable - I tried to scoop it out, but it would not come as a "skin" - it was crumbling. It was pretty thin. It reminds me of the salty deposit on top of pickled olives or dills. Anybody ever had something similar? I should have taken pictures, but I totally forgot.

I bottled it anyway and will wait just before Christmas to try it out as I was told to leave enough time for it to mature.
 
I had the same thing, I didnt think much of it I try not to freak out. I bottled on 9/6 and popped one a couple nights ago- they taste great! I was a little surprised actually since mine came in at 11.1 and I figured it would need more time to mellow.
 
Ok thanks. But was that infection or some other type of "normal/expected" reaction? What is it exactly?

In any case, I planned on waiting and see if I get sick after the first one :)

Cheers!
 
After 3 weeks in the bottles, it started to form that crusty layer in the bottles too. Did you experience the same thing or was it gone once you bottled?
 
No, I don't think so because it seems to be the exact same thing as while it was fermenting in the bucket. Still trying to figure out what exactly it is.
 
That's what I did too, leaving a good quantity in the bucket to ensure I didn't get it in the bottles. We'll see how it turns out when I pop one open in a month or so...
 
Just started a batch of this. I use to get a growler every couple of weeks from Dragonmead if the taste is right the 800 miles I moved this past year won't be so bad.
 
Gave it a quick taste test last night. Split the glass between myself and the woman, She took 1 sip and said "Put more in the fridge now!"

I must say it was pretty damn good. Still a tiny bit green, estimating it will be ready on Dec 5th. Also not a beer i would sit there and get drunk off of; but a great beer for sipping at the dinner table..
 
Mine hit 8 months in the bottle. So naturally it was time to crack one. It has less banana than I remember when it was young, but much more mellow and less hot alcohol. Can't wait to taste it on its year anniversary!


Good things come to those who wait!
 
Ok, so I brewed this tonight. Clearly I havent brewed extract in a while so I forgot that adding all the fermentables raises the volume of the boil. Therefore what was supposed to be 6gallons turned out to be about 7.5! Now I used 2 lbs sugar and one extra lb of dme so about 14 total lbs of fermentables. It came out at 1.090, areated with pure oxygen for 2 mins and pitched a 2l active starter. Im happy with the OG, but what do you think will happen to the hopps?? I know theyre not prominent in the beer to begin with, but a extra 1.5 gallons, you think itll still be ok? I plan on aging this for a year because Ill be on deployment. I was thinking of maybe dry hopping a week or so before kegging to get some hop flavor back. Thoughts?
 
Hi everyone, newbie here!
First of all thanks for this recipe, especially to Hurricane!
I'm planning now to do the AG version of this, but I have some doubts concerning to the mash volumes. Do you guys think its correct a total mash volume of 10.30 gal (as it's written in the recipe posted here) for a batch size of 5.0 gal? Is not too much mash volume? I don't think I will loss this amount of water boling. I only have done 2 AG before, so any explanation will be appreciated.
 
Look at the water chart in joy of home brewing or any of the other books or Palmer's book online.

One quart per gallon mash, probably twice as much for sparge.

You will lose an amount of water per pound of grain. You will also lost an amount of water to evaporation.

If your math doesn't end up with the proper amount in the carboy, it means you have to boil longer. People common boil big beers for 1.5-2 hours. But that would of course change your hop schedule.

You don't want to go with less mash water than you need because it will affect the mash process, probably in a bad way. I.e, not enough water for effective conversion and run off etc.
 
Here is my rough and ready way to figure mash volumes.

Numbers are based on my system- YMMV.

I want to end up with 6 gal in the kettle at the end of the boil

I know I will boil off ~1 gal in an hour.

I always plan on adding < 1 gal to bring the per boil volume up to my required per boil volume. I deduct .5 gal in the formula. (I'd rather top up than have to extend my boil time.)

I will loss ~ .10 gal / lb of grain to absorption.

Assuming 10 lbs of grain for this example and a one hour boil

6 + 1 - 1 + .5= 7.5 gals of brewing water.

I mash with roughly 1/2 and batch sparag with the other 1/2. Any grist / water ratio between 1 gt and 4 gt per pound works fine. I get very consistent efficiency anywhere in that range.

Hope this is clear...
 
TX-straggler said:
When does the candi sugar go in when doing the AG

Candi Sugar is just sucrose aka table sugar, a simple sugar. For high gravity beers I put simple sugars in after fermentation has begun to slow down a bit. The idea is to let the yeast work on the more complex malt sugars, than feed 'em the easy to digest ones. This will help get a full attenuation. And, yes, this means they don't get boiled.
 
Thanks Mike and Scook for the helpful advices

I think I willl decrease the mash volumes from the 2.5 Qts water/Lbs grain (as it is in the recipe) to 1.13. Doing it like that I think I will have total mash volume of 8.47 gal according to ProMash software so I hope I will end somewhere between 6 - 5 gal after boiling ( 14.5 lb of grain and boiling 70 minutes). Do you think that this change is ok or I should keep volumes as in the recipe? Anybody has tried the AG version of this?

Thanks in advance
 
I think your volumes look about right. Promash is pretty good. But in brewing there many ways it can be done. Brewing is a pretty robust thing. I think the most important thing is to develop a standard repeatable process that works for you.


The one thing you might want to consider is doing a 90 minutes boil. Pilsner malt needs the time to blow off the precursor chemicals for DMS. You'd need to allow for the extra boil times in your water requirements, of course.
 
Just checked to see how well mine was coming along. Its been fermenting 21 days today in the "normal" part of the house which is around 68 degrees. Hydro said 1.012 - Perfect! I was worried about stuck fermentation but it was smooth as butter.

My OG was about 10 points lower than expected (1.082) so it comes in around 9.4 abv. The hydro sample was amazing. Threw it in the fridge to cold crash, will bottle in a couple of days. Really excited for this one!
 
Candi Sugar is just sucrose aka table sugar, a simple sugar. For high gravity beers I put simple sugars in after fermentation has begun to slow down a bit. The idea is to let the yeast work on the more complex malt sugars, than feed 'em the easy to digest ones. This will help get a full attenuation. And, yes, this means they don't get boiled.

Candi sugar WAS table sugar, not IS.

Table sugar is sucrose, which is a more complex carbohydrate when compared to dextrose, which is in all purposes Candi Sugar.

The theory is that the low pH of the wort in addition to the high heat of the boil breaks the chemical bond of sucrose (table sugar) into the more simple dextrose (candi sugar).

So adding table sugar to the boil is ok. But using table sugar post boil could leave the more complex sucrose, which yeast will have to expend more energy to convert.

Candi sugar is easy to make! And fun! And dangerous!

Cheers!
 
Candi sugar WAS table sugar, not IS.

Table sugar is sucrose, which is a more complex carbohydrate when compared to dextrose, which is in all purposes Candi Sugar.

The theory is that the low pH of the wort in addition to the high heat of the boil breaks the chemical bond of sucrose (table sugar) into the more simple dextrose (candi sugar).

So adding table sugar to the boil is ok. But using table sugar post boil could leave the more complex sucrose, which yeast will have to expend more energy to convert.

Candi sugar is easy to make! And fun! And dangerous!

Cheers!

I made the assumption that the OP was talking about clear Candi Sugar. If you are talking about CS of any color of course it will bring flavor and color to the party, and it is easy to make.

Sucrose is not a simple as dextrose, but much simpler than maltose. Boiling simple sugars won't hurt at all, and is commonly done. I was just describing my process. I was having trouble getting my high gravity beers to fully attenuate until I got this tip. Since then my beers have dried out nicely. Not a single BPCP score sheet has come back with comments on off flavor.

(I am pretty sure I first heard "add the simple sugars to an actively fermenting beer" from John Palmer - either in his book or on Brew Strong. Not at home now so I can't check for sure.)

Also see...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/clear-candy-sugar-vs-table-sugar-sucrose-belgian-86287/

Happy brewing!

Steve
 
I just wrapped up my first brew of this beer. Three days fermenting so far. I thought my Simple Hefeweizen had the smell of banana. It is nothing in comparison to this beer! Man does it smell awesome! Sweet banana fills the room! I can't wait to drink this one! I don't know if I can hold out for 2-3 months waiting though....
 
Hey guys new to forum..... Bought all ingredients to make this except my store only had one vial of white labs Trappist yeast. So I bought 2 vials of Belgian ale yeast wlp500 instead. Couple questions. anyone brew with this strain because I've used it for Belgian wit.... Not a heavy triple. Will the abv be too high for this strain? was thinking of returning it and just using one vial of Trappist but is one enough? Recipe calls for 2.... Thanks for the help... My wife said "trial and error" but she doesn't know everything cost me 80 bucks! Thanks again
 
Recipe is wrong. The real recipe uses the saaz hops in all 3 phases, also the amber dme needs to be removed. I got this from Bill Wrobel, he is one of the owners:

"Ditch the amber. Make all three hop additions Saaz. That&#8217;ll get you as close as you can. We use all pilsen grain and all saaz hops. That yeast is good or use Belgian Strong. Let me know how it tastes. Watch fermentation temps. Don&#8217;t go over 68 degrees."
 
Back
Top