Help me hop my tripel

14lbs Belgian Pils
8oz Aromatic
2oz Acidulated
1lb sucrose
WLP500

I wanted Hallertau Tradition, but LHBS does not stock it. I have:
10oz 4.8% Willamette
8oz 3.2% Crystal
2oz 8.4% Centennial
2oz 3.9% German Spalt
1oz 5.2% Liberty plugs
1oz 4.5% Ahtanum

One thought is to go 100% Willy @90min to let the yeast play the lead.

Spalt looks like an obvious choice, but I get a bunch of artificial-blueberry and bubblegum notes from them, so I think they would clash with the yeast profile. Anyway, I'd rather save them for a pale lager.:fro: I'm thinking Ahtanum and Crystal are probably on the flamboyant/floral side, and Centennial is right out unless I'm doing a Cali-Belgique thing.

Liberty is like lemongrass to me. Would that play nice with 500?

For a bittering hop I don't think it matters that much, but if you want to hedge, just do a blend of willamette/libery/crystal or something like that. Otherwise it looks fine, but you could certainly swap out a bit of the malt for another pound of sugar. I tend to aim for ~20% by extract for big Belgians. Good luck.

If you want lemon-lemongrass notes you could try bittering with Sorachi Ace. It's grossly inappropriate if you're brewing to style, but I bet it could make an interesting mix with WLP500 fruitiness.

Other than that, I'd suggest noble or noble-derived hops. I've had good results with Mt. Hood and Belgians. And, yeah, pump up the sugar to at least 2 or 3 lbs.

I'm planning a single decoction mash with a really long rest around 140, which is why I'm being conservative with the sugar (which will be about 12% of extract if I hit 70% efficiency). I can always add more in the fermenter.

Mt. Hood sounds like a perfect match, and LHBS has them in leaf and pellet!

Brewing this today - have two 1L starters of WLP500 crashed in the fridge. The first was a vial about to expire that took two days to start, so I got another. Both seem healthy enough now.

I decided on two additions, both consisting 1oz 5.2% Mt. Hood and .5oz 4.8% Willamette, at 60 and 5. Targeting 40 IBU by Rager.

EDIT: 40 minutes to go in the boil. Never seen so much break!
Edit again: 12 hours from pitching and an inch of kraeusen already.
": Now 20 hours from pitch.:rockin:
": This is the most heavenly smelling fermentation evar! Lots of tropical fruit punch and warm spices going on.
Edit 6-12: Racked this to keg today, a little prematurely maybe at 17 days, but it's going to warm-condition in the keg for a couple weeks. It's tasting really nice, with upfront banana and mango and some prickly spice on the midpalate. If the bitterness holds up over time, this should be a really nicely balanced tripel. Estimated apparent attenuation 83% for about 9% ABV, right in line.

Just tapped this, since I noticed a touch of wetness on the top of the keg. The out poppet is a tiny bit leaky so I'll leave the cobra tap on it until I can address that. It only started leaking in the fridge; it was primed to about 2 volumes and seems to have held that all in.

It's a bit green, thin, undercarbonated, and yeasty, but OMG is it lovely! It has a low, wide swath of banana, tropical punch, pepper, and earthy. No hot alcohol at all! It's pushing 9% and at just over a month it's already tasting like the kind of tripel I like. The hopping is IDEAL, though I'd increase the bittering if I thought I was going to have to sit on it for several months.

Tripels are usually carbed to 3-3.5 vol so you may want to kick that up a little.

Yeah. Think I'm going to put a longer line on my cobra tap. I'm looking at about 20psi for this one.

It's nearly perfectly clear now.

I think I'll use softer water next time I brew this.

This beer is really intoxicating.

Very, very nice. How did the hops hold up?

Wow do i feel stupid...I read the title of your post as "Help me hop my tripe!". Thank god I misread it...that would be truly awful

With a relatively small portion of simple sugar, this beer finished a little sweet. The hop aromatics are almost nonexistant, and what is there is overshadowed by the yeast character, but the bitterness is just right for balance against the sweet.

Hopped tripe is a vast, unexplored landscape of flavor sensations....

944play said:

Hopped tripe is a vast, unexplored landscape of flavor sensations....

Click to expand...

Namely, the flavor of my dinner coming back up at the thought. Bleh.

944play said:

It's nearly perfectly clear now.

Click to expand...

I mean really damn clear. Like, commercial beer clear. Filtered beer clear.

I'm thinking of brewing this again. I need to break out of this session beer rut. Changes I will affect:
Softer water. I have a RO unit now.
More bittering. Too much dropped out.
More acid malt. Zippier would be nice.
A little less base and a little more sugar.

That's it. 500 performed admirably, and the flavors were pleasing. Mt. Hood and Willamette seemed appropriate yet unobtrusive.

Could you do this poor soul a favor and post the final recipe? I'm looking for an awesome tripel to make this weekend.

A little late maybe, but here's my tentative recipe (grain is purchased and milled, hops not pinned down yet):

13lbs Belgian Pils
10oz Acidulated
8oz Aromatic
RO + 400 mg/gal CaCl2 + 100 mg/gal CaSO4, single decoction 60-70ºC
1oz 8% Northern Brewer @60 34IBU
1oz 5% Mt. Hood @60 22IBU
1oz 5% Mt. Hood @5 4IBU
1oz 5% Willamette @5 4IBU
1/2 Whirlfloc tablet, 2gm Wyeast nutrient @5
2pkg WLP500 in 2000ml starter
2lbs Sucrose (in primary)

Effective OG (70% efficiency) 19ºP for just over 9% ABV, 64IBU by Rager.

Brewed this yesterday. Only .5 oz Willamette and 2x WLP500 direct-pitched as the only changes.

16.2ºP into the fermenter; with an estimated 4ºP to come from the sugar add, I got much better than 70% efficiency.

Kegged today with 4oz dextrose and 2oz DME. Estimated effective OG 19ºP, FG around 4ºP for 8.4% ABV. It's delish already -- after a couple weeks of warm conditioning, I'll start tasting it as soon as I chill it down.

Dude I am stoked. Thanks for the recipe! Brewing this tripel on 9/15. So much beer to make!

I think you'll like it.

While I have not tasted the final carbed, aged, and, chilled beer, I might actually tweak the recipe some based on the sample at racking and last year's batch.
Mash pH was a little low. Although this is probably not a problem, since efficiency was good and the beer tastes great, I'll cut the acid malt down to 6oz next time I brew it.
It isn't lacking for rich, malty goodness, what with the decoction and Aromatic. I'd cut the Aromatic in half or replace it with a pound of light Munich. I'm targeting something close to De Ryck Arend Tripel, with its brisk, snappy bitterness and easy cigar-box and bubblegum aromas.

Wow, batch #2 is TASTY! It's incredibly aromatic with intense sweet fruity stuff evocative of Fruit Stripe gum. It's objectively dry, but the esters and maltiness print a lot of sweet. Bitterness is pretty striking -- it should be better after a few more weeks, especially since this is the first yeasty pull off the keg. The RO water was a really good change, since I've had so many Belgian (and Belgian-style) beers lately with icky chalky stuff going on.

It's a little short on carbonation, which I can easily make up with bottled CO2.

It doesn't have the cool, woody, spicy stuff I'm after, but everything else is very pleasing. If there really is more than 8% alcohol, it's tucked in there very surreptitiously. This brew has panty-dropping potential.

Sounds great! My tripel is on schedule to be made in about 3 weeks- once the "starter beer" is done and kegged so I have enough WLP 500! I'm using Styrian Goldings, I think, for the hops.

Awesome job! I put in a mail order with my LHBS to get my corks + cages for my tripel today. Mine is hopped with 1 oz Tettnang @ 45 and .75 Saaz @ 30. Bottling today, hopefully!