Belgian Tripel needs a little sum-n sum-n

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punkerdru

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So, I brewed a Belgian Tripel from this recipe I found laying around, and it ended up a little out of style... It's around 10.5% and a little darker than you would typically see them at. The thing is, I've had a bunch of stuff going on lately, and so I didn't add any grain (I usually do a partial mash or at least steep something) and I find the beer to be lacking that special taste that homebrew usually has. Granted, it's only a week old so I'm jumping the gun here, but I was trying to get some suggestions on what to add to a secondary to maybe spice it up a little. We've got a bunch of fresh herbs growing (thyme, rosemary, sage, basil, dill, etc.) and I was thinking of either thyme or sage. What do you guys think?
 
bump.


I am also considering adding some fruit/berries to the mix: I have some blackberries that grow in the yard that would be delicious I think. Is this too big a beer to use fruit with?
 
Did you use Pilsner extract? Belgian Tripels usually use Pilsner malt exclusively, and some belgian candi sugar. If you didn't, that might be why it tastes a little off. You could brew another beer (maybe a Dubel around 7%) with Pilsner malt/extract and blend them together when you bottle/keg. If you decide to use some fruit, go with some strawberries. It will definitely bump up the alcohol a bit, too. Rosemary and honey would add some complexity too.

Good luck!
 
If you decide to use some fruit, go with some strawberries. It will definitely bump up the alcohol a bit, too.

Hold up there, Tex. The addition would have to be around 15% sugar and ferment out completely to increase the alcohol content. Fresh strawberries are around 5% sugar. The fruit would have to be dried or candied to increase the alcohol concentration in a 10+% beer.

To the OP, I think most homebrew Tripel recipes lack adequate bittering (and possibly acidification).
 
Hold up there, Tex. The addition would have to be around 15% sugar and ferment out completely to increase the alcohol content. Fresh strawberries are around 5% sugar. The fruit would have to be dried or candied to increase the alcohol concentration in a 10+% beer.

If you add any amount of sugar, in any form, to a beer with healthy yeast it will increase the % of alcohol. Maybe not a lot, but it would also depend on the amount of fruit that you add.
 
If you add any amount of sugar, in any form, to a beer with healthy yeast it will increase the % of alcohol.

No, it won't. That's like saying that adding a pint of beer to a shot of whiskey results in a big glass of eighty proof.

Fruit contains water.
 
No, it won't. That's like saying that adding a pint of beer to a shot of whiskey results in a big glass of eighty proof.

Fruit contains water.

It is nothing like adding a shot of whiskey to a pint of beer and calling it 80 proof. I'm not saying that the addition of fruit will radically increase the alcohol concentration.

So, when I rack my beer onto a bunch of fruit in secondary and there is a big krausen and the airlock is bubbling for over a week that means that the yeast aren't producing alcohol from the sugar in the fruit? Could have fooled me.

Fruit may contain water, but it also contains sugar.
 
rcsoccer said:
It is nothing like adding a shot of whiskey to a pint of beer and calling it 80 proof. I'm not saying that the addition of fruit will radically increase the alcohol concentration.

Unless it's 5 lbs of dried strawberries or something along those lines the alcohol contribution would be so minor as to not be worth mentioning.

Also I think it's way too early to judge this beer. 10.5, that's a massive beer like Gulden Draak, it will take months for you to even be able to assess it's flavor. The only batch of beer I've ruined was one where I just thought it needed something and in the end I overdid it. Let it be, and if you want it fruity there are a lot of really nice fruit syrups you could mix it with when you serve.
 
Unless it's 5 lbs of dried strawberries or something along those lines the alcohol contribution would be so minor as to not be worth mentioning.

Also I think it's way too early to judge this beer. 10.5, that's a massive beer like Gulden Draak, it will take months for you to even be able to assess it's flavor. The only batch of beer I've ruined was one where I just thought it needed something and in the end I overdid it. Let it be, and if you want it fruity there are a lot of really nice fruit syrups you could mix it with when you serve.

I definitely agree. I would leave it in secondary by itself for about 3 months before kegging.
 
I'm not saying that the addition of fruit will radically increase the alcohol concentration.

So, when I rack my beer onto a bunch of fruit in secondary and there is a big krausen and the airlock is bubbling for over a week that means that the yeast aren't producing alcohol from the sugar in the fruit?

The OP's beer is already at 10.5% abv. To achieve that concentration of alcohol, assuming 100% real attenuation, requires about 15% sugar concentration in the fermentable solution (wort/must). If you add fruit that contains only 5% sugar, the alcohol concentration CANNOT GO UP, unless you remove water, either by distillation, (reverse) osmosis, or evaporation (dry the fruit before adding).
 
944play said:
The OP's beer is already at 10.5% abv. To achieve that concentration of alcohol, assuming 100% real attenuation, requires about 15% sugar concentration in the fermentable solution (wort/must). If you add fruit that contains only 5% sugar, the alcohol concentration CANNOT GO UP, unless you remove water, either by distillation, (reverse) osmosis, or evaporation (dry the fruit before adding).

So what you are saying is that to increase alcohol, the added fruit would have to be able to produce a net yield of greater than 10.5 alcohol in it of itself. That seems like sound logic.
 
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