Tripel Weizen

Since I have the ability to make a beer that I cannot find at the store, that is what I have been trying to gear my efforts towards.
I want to make a mash-up of the Belgian Tripel style with a German Weizen. Sort of a Belgium invading Germany thing, a flip-flop of the 1940s.

Starting with
Pale extract- 6 lbs
Wheat dry extract- 3 lbs
Caravienne malt- steep
2 lbs Turbinado Sugar

Can I start a German Wheat yeast for the first part of fermentation and then add WyyeastTrappist High Gravity #3787 after first 4 days when alcohol levels have become toxic to my Weizen yeast? I wanted to characteristics of both traditional styles.

Thanks

I'm no authority on the subject but I think you could.

Good luck, that sounds pretty cool.

Thanks I'm excited to give it a try. I haven't heard it's a bad idea not to so I have ordered and will hopefully brew it up soon.

While I'm not an authority on dual yeast strain beers, I see no reason why the alcohol levels will become overly toxic to your standard weizenbier strain after 4 days. If you haven't done this before, I'd suggest pitching at an equal rate at the beginning. If, after this batch is done, you find one of the strains not coming through enough, then adjust pitching rates on the next brew.

I believe weizen strains can handle up to 8-10% so you're probably going to get a lot of weizen flavor and a small amount of belgian flavor. I'm not sure exactly how much that trappist strain will add to the flavor profile with so little sugar (if any) to work with and in such a high alcohol environment. The flipside of that position is that the more stressed out environment might produce more esters but I'm not confident it would be a noticeable amount either way. Pitching the trappist strain second risks it getting stuck in a high alcohol, low nutrient environment.

Wit strains produce more clove than is common in some weizen beers. You could pitch a trappist and wit strain together to get some of the flavor. Otherwise you could try pitching both the weizen and trappist strains together. It will definitely be trial and error to get the pitching ratios down together.

I fermented my last tripel w/ 50/50 ratio of wyeast weihenstephan weizen and forbidden fruit with excellent results. I'd also recommend pitching them both at the start.

Yeah, no experience here but I'd echo the advice above and pitch both to begin with.

Or, you could use 100% Wheat Extract (which is usually 50/50 wheat/barely actually) and pitch Belgian yeast and ferment cool. That would give you an interesting hybrid to start with.

Or perhaps brew 2.5 gal of straight Hefe, along side 2.5 gal of straight Belgian pale ale, then blend the two together to taste in the end. That will give you the purest blend of the 2 brews.

Thanks for all the feedback and advice. I can't wait to get brewing this one!

I think blending makes sense, too. However, it may not have to be 50/50 depending on what yeast strain you want to be prevalent.

brandono said:

Thanks for all the feedback and advice. I can't wait to get brewing this one!

Click to expand...

I think I'm gonna have to try this. How did yours turn out? Any recommendations?

It turned out pretty nice, I liked it quite a bit as well as my friends who are Belgian tripel fans.

I ended up using a Trappist yeast Wyyeast 3787, because I had it on hand and the posts on here pretty much were mixed on need to use 2 types. It was a smoother trippel (if that's possible) than most. The wheat evened out the spicy overtones that are typically present and there was the usual wheat-haze. I enjoyed it and will probably make it again soon as well.

So, finally, did you blend batches at the end or pitch both yeast from start? I'll brew something similar soon!

Pitch both.

I brew tripel that uses two yeasts. 1214 and 3787. The firs time I brewed it the 3787 was more prominent because 1214 is known as being a slow starter. The second time I did it I made a starter for the 1214 and just pitched the pack of 3787. Just what I was looking for. Both yeasts contributed to the flavor.

So try a 50/50 mix the first time and see what happens.

Ok, thanks. I'll try that, except if @brandono can give feedback from his try?