Drying out my Tripel

Hey everyone,

I have a tripel a friend and I brewed a few weeks ago. Due to my crappy partial mash and probably some problem of mine as well, the efficiency was 39%, giving an OG of 1.064, even after the jaggery (used instead of boring table sugar or expensive candi sugar) was added. So, I added another 1.5 lbs of table sugar to get the gravity up, which bumped up the gravity an additional 13 points, which was more where I wanted to be.

The holidays meant I had to leave the house three days later, and return a week after that. When I returned, the tripel was no longer fermenting, and the gravity was at 1.030. The house was cold (room temp ~64 F), so I wrapped a heating pad around it and roused the yeast at the bottom of the bucket. This brought the gravity to 1.018. Adding 10 g rehydrated Red Star Premier Cuvee, and a week after that the gravity is only 1.016.

tl;dr -- Tripel is 1.016 despite 3.5 lb of sugar, and heat and champagne yeast haven't dropped it lower.

Is there something else I can do to get the gravity lower, or am I stuck with a sweet tripel?


Thanks,
T

Also, here's the recipe:

I forgot to add this to the Beersmith file, but the yeast was a 2 liter starter of White Labs WLB575, the Belgian Ale Blend.

Have you tasted it? 1064 before the sugar would put you in the 1070 or higher starting gravity range. Down to 1016 might still taste pretty dry.

In the future, I'd suggest wrapping it with the heating pad after the second day. Keeping cool for a day or two will keep you from producing the higher alcohols, and the warmer temperatures will help you dry out.

Have you tasted it? I'd be more concerned it tastes hot with that sugar to malt ratio. You may not want it any lower.

Drummer Guy,
It does have a bit of a sweet taste, behind the current yeasty bite. Not nearly as much as when it was 1.030, but still noticably sweet. I know this means I'm totally a square, but I was looking at style guidelines. The effective OG, after adding the sugar, is around 1.077, the low end of the style OG. Therefore, I was shooting for a FG around the low end of the style FG, or around 1.010. The guidelines state that FG should be 1.008-1.014, so I figured I should expect a lower terminal gravity. I know BJCP is not an all-knowing god, but having no other good reference (besides BLAM saying dryness is critical) the discrepancy in expected FG and actual, plus a noticeable sweetness in the samples, got me worried. I'll definitely try your recommendation next time; I could see where that would work well.

Joety,
I have tasted it, and it isn't hot at all. I had thought about that before I added the additional sugar, but the jaggery and the table sugar puts me at ~25% sugars. BLAM says that up to 30% of the fermentable bill can be sugars (I think that was the number; I don't have it in front of me), so I'm pushing the limit, but the colder fermentation temperature prevented issues, I think. It is pretty strongly banana-y, and right now kind of yeasty, but no headache-inducing hotness noticed. Hopefully that's still true after I drink a bottle or two.

Thanks!

I think you are way over 25% (even 30%) given your low conversion efficiency. Remember, the sugar (and extract) didn't need to be converted. In Beersmith, pull up your recipe, and adjust the efficiency until you hit your actual numbers on "Estimated O.G.". Then back off the 3.5 pounds of sugar and check the new "Estimated O.G." The original estimate, less the new estimate, divided by the original estimate, will tell you the percentage of fermentables from sugars. I'm not doubting your taste buds, just the math.

Here's what I came up with in Beersmith. I used my volume calculations of 5.5 gallons post boil to allow for trub. I came up with 23% efficiency to produce a gravity of 1.064. After I remove the sugar, it's 1.035. That means 45.3% of your fermentables was derived from jaggery and table sugar.

I'd give it some more time, with warmer temps to see if it comes down. If not, you could re-pitch some more yeast. With 45% sugar, there is no way you should come out too sweet.

As I mentioned, in future batches, don't let your temperature drop too much. After the first couple days, I get my Belgians into the 80's.

Also in the future, invert your sugar, or use candi sugar, and add it later during the ferment. I have good luck drying out a Belgian if I go with whatever my "all malt" wort gravity is, and start that fermenting. I watch my airlock, and when the activity slows or stops, I add my invert sugar in at like a 15 gravity point amount. Almost instantly your fermentation will kick off again, and rock for a few more days. If I need more sugar to get my total gravity to a certain level, I'll add it again when activity slows/stops again. This method should get you into the single digits FG.

lalnx, do you have good luck inverting your own sugar? Given the price of Lyle's I have wanted to do that, but it sounds like you need some special chemical.

Joety,

I also used Beersmith, but I assumed that the % column was what I had to watch; it didn't occur to me that the number given was % by weight, rather than % by gravity contribution. As my computer science friends like to say, if you want software to work right, write the damn code yourself.

Sidenote: I used the same process to find the efficiency, and got 39%, with a gravity of 1.046 with all sugars removed, but that's just me quibbling to have a slightly less embarrassing efficiency .

Steve,
Yeah, I know, but the holidays were coming up, and if I didn't brew then, it wasn't happening for a while, so I had no choice but to brew it and then abandon it. Plus, it was my birthday, and what better way to celebrate than brew with my fiancee and best friend?

The problem is, my heating pad is one of those new-fangled ones with an auto-off feature that means I need to turn it on every few hours. At some point I'll probably have to buy one of those wraps they sell for brewing buckets and carboys. Also, I may stop by my LHBS next week and see if they have any Belgian yeast in stock, in case the Premier Cuvee keeps at its current sluggish rate.

lalnx,

I plan on doing something similar next time; I just had this huge block of jaggery I wanted to use. I'm actually thinking I want to try one of the the cooked sugars from BLAM next time; it seems like a pretty straightforward process, and WAY cheaper than buying the candi syrup or Lyle's.

topherman, yeah it depends how all your defaults are setup. I really don't know if I am calculating my efficiency correctly, but as long as I do it the same for every batch I can produce consistent results for my O.G., and that's all that matters.

For your recipe as a partial mash, it's not as sensitive to the efficiency, so 39 or 25, take your pick, will be close.

joety said:

lalnx, do you have good luck inverting your own sugar? Given the price of Lyle's I have wanted to do that, but it sounds like you need some special chemical.

Click to expand...

1lb sugar
1/4-1/2 teaspon lemon juice, (citric acid is the special chemical)
1 1/2 cup of water

bring mixture to boil, simmer/low boil for 20-30 minutes. Remove from heat, cool and pitch. (You can add a touch more water to thin it, and help cool it, before you pitch)

1lb table sugar yields 46 gravity points/gallon of liquid, so for a 5 gallons brew, 1lb will net you roughly 9 points in gravity.

I had problems with sweet Belgians for some time. Temperature control in my chest freezer was the key to solving the problem. My current best practice is to pitch @65F, then shut off the thermostat. No artificial cooling. Wort temperature usually rises to 72F, then falls gradually to 70F. I got the idea from Brew Like A Monk, where the author states that even slight cooling will knock out the yeast.

Speaking of which, yeast health is also important. You need to pitch a high krausen starter into well-oxygenated wort. Shaking or aquarium pumps don't cut it - get an oxygen regulator, they're not too expensive at the LHBS. And you gotta be patient. I leave my Belgians in the primary for a minimum of four weeks, more for dubbels and quads. Often the last two weeks are spend grinding the gravity down from 1.020 to 1.010.

A more radical option would be to dump some brettanomyces into your beer and wait a few months. Brett will chew the crap outta the residual sugars and drop your gravity into the 1.006 range. YMMV.

I'd go with some Brett, but that's because I love the Brett flavor.

You could also make another batch, and blend them, with or without Brett.