Sure fire Belgian Tripel?

I'm going to be doing my first AG brew Friday and would like to do a Belgian Tripel. Is there a no-brainer, sure fire recipe out there? Thanks

Tons!

Oh you want a recipe? Try this one:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f71/un-tripel-43011/

First Ag? I would go with something simpler than a Belgian. They are typically big beers with more complicated (and longer) fermentation schedules. I jumped into AG about 6 months ago and brewed pale ales, stouts, browns, cream ales...now I feel comfortable enough with my system that I am planning a series of Belgians. You can jump into the deep end of the pool, but its better to know how to swim first

If you want to brew Belgians I suggest you read Brew Like A Monk...awesome book with tons of info

Good Luck

+1 to Brew Like a Monk, but you can make a great triple by keeping it simple:

85-90% Belgian Pilsner malt
10-15% Corn/Table Sugar
Shoot for 1.080OG.
Hop with 20-30 IBUs of any noble hop or French Strisselspalt, flavor and aroma additions optional.

Big honkin' starter of your favorite Belgian yeast... and I mean big. Even with a stirplate you'll probably need two quarts. People will recommend you underpitch, but I say don't risk it. You'll get plenty of esters and spiciness with a big starter, and an appropriate amount of yeast to ensure you get no off-flavors or hot alcohols that will need months of aging to drop out.

Mash long and low - you want 80%+ attenuation. 90 minute boil. Ferment at 64-65* for the first 24-36 hours, then let it go. You could boil the table sugar in some water to add a couple days in if you want, but I've always just added it to the kettle. You want to showcase the yeast flavors with a nice light malty backbone, and have it nice and easy drinking where the alcohol warmth only comes after you've had a few sips. It's hard to screw up as long as you treat your yeast right.

+1 Brew Like A Monk

indigi said:

+1 to Brew Like a Monk, but you can make a great triple by keeping it simple:

85-90% Belgian Pilsner malt
10-15% Corn/Table Sugar
Shoot for 1.080OG.
Hop with 20-30 IBUs of any noble hop or French Strisselspalt, flavor and aroma additions optional.

Big honkin' starter of your favorite Belgian yeast... and I mean big. Even with a stirplate you'll probably need two quarts. People will recommend you underpitch, but I say don't risk it. You'll get plenty of esters and spiciness with a big starter, and an appropriate amount of yeast to ensure you get no off-flavors or hot alcohols that will need months of aging to drop out.

Mash long and low - you want 80%+ attenuation. 90 minute boil. Ferment at 64-65* for the first 24-36 hours, then let it go. You could boil the table sugar in some water to add a couple days in if you want, but I've always just added it to the kettle. You want to showcase the yeast flavors with a nice light malty backbone, and have it nice and easy drinking where the alcohol warmth only comes after you've had a few sips. It's hard to screw up as long as you treat your yeast right.

Click to expand...

True to the style and simple...run with it my friend and keep us posted on the results!!!!

I'm one of those that overstudies and overthinks everything!!! Better to have something to compare your future Belgian awesomeness to than a freakin pale ale

If anyone finds a sure fire no brainer recipe for anything, please pm me.

The recipe recommended by warped looks pretty good. You should go for it. Just double the yeast and and add oxygen at fermentation.

Don't be afraid of mistakes. I haven't made a perfect beer yet,and it all still tastes great!

Cheers

I brewed this recipe.

It's still in bottles, but tasted great at bottling, except for the strong alcohol taste, which should fade with conditioning.

I like this one, I've 3 times with excellent results each time:

12 lbs pale malt
1 pound crystal 40
1 pound flaked wheat
1 pound flaked oats
1/4 pound aromatic malt
1 pound table sugar (or 1 pound candi sugar if you want it darker)

Hallertau hops 2 oz boil x 1 hour.
1/2 oz crushed/cracked coriander at flame out

Estimated OG should be in the 1.079-1.085 range
FG has been 1.008-1.012 each time.

I've used Belgian Abby II yeast and Trappist (I like the trappist better)

Its easy to tweak--if you leave out the wheat, oats and crystal malt, and only use table sugar, its more like a belgian golden


t

jamest22 said:

If anyone finds a sure fire no brainer recipe for anything, please pm me.

Click to expand...

No need. Here you go.

A recipe off the top of my head that tastes like 99% of the $10/six-pack, west coast IPA craft brews that you find in your local high-end beer store:

9 lb pale malt
2 lb crystal 60 (yup, 2 lb)
1 oz Centennial (60 min)
1 oz Cascade (20 min)
2 oz Cascade (0 min/flameout)
Dryhop with 1 oz of Cascade if you want (reduce flameout hope to 1 oz if you do)

Yeast: US-05

OG: 1.054
FG: 1.010 - 1.015

The result: an orange, hazy, fizzy west coast IPA that tastes and reeks of C-hops. Again, basically the same beverage as those expensive IPAs in the store.

mccabedoug said:

No need. Here you go.

A recipe off the top of my head that tastes like 99% of the $10/six-pack, west coast IPA craft brews that you find in your local high-end beer store:

9 lb pale malt
2 lb crystal 60 (yup, 2 lb)
1 oz Centennial (60 min)
1 oz Cascade (20 min)
2 oz Cascade (0 min/flameout)
Dryhop with 1 oz of Cascade if you want (reduce flameout hope to 1 oz if you do)

Yeast: US-05

OG: 1.054
FG: 1.010 - 1.015

The result: an orange, hazy, fizzy west coast IPA that tastes and reeks of C-hops. Again, basically the same beverage as those expensive IPAs in the store.

Click to expand...

, but what do you consider a "good" IPA recipe? Oh, and I'll take my answer sans petulance and pejoratives

mccabedoug said:

No need. Here you go.

A recipe off the top of my head that tastes like 99% of the $10/six-pack, west coast IPA craft brews that you find in your local high-end beer store:

9 lb pale malt
2 lb crystal 60 (yup, 2 lb)
1 oz Centennial (60 min)
1 oz Cascade (20 min)
2 oz Cascade (0 min/flameout)
Dryhop with 1 oz of Cascade if you want (reduce flameout hope to 1 oz if you do)

Yeast: US-05

OG: 1.054
FG: 1.010 - 1.015

The result: an orange, hazy, fizzy west coast IPA that tastes and reeks of C-hops. Again, basically the same beverage as those expensive IPAs in the store.

Click to expand...

Also, pretty sure he was looking for a Belgian Tripel recipe...but I get the need to vent every now and then.

millsware said:

Also, pretty sure he was looking for a Belgian Tripel recipe...but I get the need to vent every now and then.

Click to expand...

Agreed and apologies to the OP.

millsware said:

Also, pretty sure he was looking for a Belgian Tripel recipe...

Click to expand...

Follow exactly as posted.
houblon-chouffe-aka-hopchewy

jamest22 said:

If anyone finds a sure fire no brainer recipe for anything, please pm me.

Click to expand...

LOL, yeah put me on that list. Only one I know of is Beecave's Haus Pale ale.

im a big believer in start low, end low with belgians. i think too many people make beers with way too high starting gravity and end up with too high a finishing gravity. thus, the americanized, overly sweet, not as drinkable belgian-style...ive made a tripel that has won me an award, and i just brewed it again for the Bruery homebrew competition. I added some exotic ingredients to make it interesting so I wont include those, but Ill post the basic recipe...

5gal
75%eff
SG 1.075
FG 1.012
8.5ish ABV
26-30IBUs

9lb Belgian Pils 70%
2lb wheat (you can use regular malted wheat or flaked wheat...ive used both) 15%
2lb white table sugar 15%
mash@ 148

bitter to 26-30 IBUs with your choice of hop...60min addition only (ive used everything from styrians to summits to sorachi aces)

yeast of choice (lately, I really like wyeast belgian wheat 3942)

start fermentation at 66-68...let free rise up to mid 70s

if you want the exotic recipe, ill post it...it turned out great

So I brewed the recipie below and it was the batch of beer from hell. To start with, I forgot to print out the recipe, couldn't find it on my phone, and ended up using 14 pounds of Pils instead of 11 (luckily remembered everything else). I used my buddy's RIMS system which utilitzes a converted keg as a mash tun. We had to pretty much stir it constantly as it would get stuck within 5 minutes. He thinks that either his mill was set to fine or the little bit of wheat was enough to jam things up. He was fresh out of rice hulls and the LHBS was closed. The RIMS took over an hour just to come up to temp cuz we used ice cold water out of the hose and it was freezing out. After mashing, we moved to his electric boil pot, which worked awesome for the first 60 minutes. We came back outside to find the pot barely steaming. Both of the 1500 watt elements had burnt out. We had to transfer the wort to a real pot and throw it on a gas burner for the last 15 minutes of the boil. I'm pitching yeast tonight (was smart enough to do a starter with this batch), but I expect something to go wrong there too. All in all, if this batch comes out even remotely drinkable, I am gonna be very happy. But for now, I will relax, drink a home brew, etc.

If you check out BYO they have a recipe for a great Tripel. I have made it twice now with the second in the Ferm right now.

Ingredients for 5 gallons

12.4 lb Belgian Pils
3.5 oz Castle or Dingemans
2.2 lb cheap table sugar/15 min
1.9 oz Tettnang/60 min
0.4 oz Czech Saaz/10 min

Mash at 149 for 1 hr/that is what I did anyway
Sparge at 170 for 45 min/again that is what I did
Boil 90 min
Cool to 65 degrees and add large quantity of Trappist high grav yeast
Let temp rise to 70 degrees over a weeks time
I let it ferm in primary for about 2 weeks and then another 2 weeks in second
Turned out to be a very tastey beer.

BTW sorry to hear about the sh!tty brew day. I had one similar today. Making an IPA for a buddy and while I was pumping from kettle to chiller the screen in my pot got clogged. Took my about 45 minutes to figure out that I could just drop my hose into the top of the pot to pump out the rest of the wort. Felt like a real A$$hat.

I transferred from the cooling bucket Monday night, oxygenated it, pitched the yeast and it's been fermenting very vigorously every since ...and it smells fantastic. I am hoping this turns out well.