Belgian Tripel

Hi Camaradas,

I'm brewing a Belgian Tripel from "Brewing Classic Styles" book, the recipe specifies a pre-boil gravity of 1.063 and my pre-boil gravity was 1.040, I'm thinking the beer never will get the % alcoholic, what do I've to do???


Mash.

- wheyerman pilsner malt 6.35 kg
- aromatic 113 gms
Pre-boil gravity 1.040

I think the wort never will get the corresponding OG

now is boiling....

I don't have my copy of BCS in front of me at the moment, but I believe that recipe is supposed to have a couple pounds (.9 kg?) of cane or beet sugar added during the boil. Since it's added during the boil, it won't contribute to your pre-boil gravity points, but will increase your post-boil OG. Take another look at the recipe and confirm the amount of simple sugar required.

Yeah Belgian tripels almost always have 10% or so simple sugar. You could even add this a few days into fermentation if needed. This will help you up your OG

But I think something is off with your mash efficiency. Maybe it didnt get mixed well, or you mashed too low, or shouldve done a mashout?

Another.. you need some sugar in that recipe. The Belgians use it to dry the beer out and make it " more digestable" as they would say.

The very basic, very classic tripel recipe is 80% pils, 20% sugar.

Great Camaradas!

Starting the boil (60 minutes ago) 1.13 kg of cane sugar was added, just in 10 minutes will finish the boil, I'll take the OG and tell you how it goes...

happily the brewing Belgian Tripel is over OG 1.072, now is fermenting, but.... the wort has a lot of foam, do u think is a problem with the process????

It's not at all uncommon for a Belgian beer to have a very active fermentation. Belgian yeasts are agressive and are often fermented at higher temps. What is your strain and temp?

Hi Hex23,

Sorry, what would u refer with strain??? the temp is almust 22° its a little bit hot, the beer is fermenting very hard!

maescobarl said:

Hi Hex23,

Sorry, what would u refer with strain??? the temp is almust 22° its a little bit hot, the beer is fermenting very hard!

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By strain I mean e.g. Wy3787 or WLP550. Some strains are more active than others. 22 C is not too high for most Belgian strains, but if that's just the ambient temperature, the beer is likely fermenting a little hotter than that.

maescobarl said:

happily the brewing Belgian Tripel is over OG 1.072, now is fermenting, but.... the wort has a lot of foam, do u think is a problem with the process????

Click to expand...

You also should tell us what you mean by "a lot". It's not uncommon for very active fermentation to spew foam out of the fermenter, or if you're unlucky and the airlock gets clogged, the whole lid might blow off. If you can predict that you'll have a very active fermentation, it's a good idea to rig up a "blow off" ahead of time.

Hex23 said:

By strain I mean e.g. Wy3787 or WLP550. Some strains are more active than others. 22 C is not too high for most Belgian strains, but if that's just the ambient temperature, the beer is likely fermenting a little hotter than that.

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Hi Hex23, ok thanx, the yeast was safbrew t-58, I prepared 2 packs (11 gms each pack) of yeast with a starter, 1 hour before add it to the wort, still fermenting

Regards

Hex23 said:

You also should tell us what you mean by "a lot". It's not uncommon for very active fermentation to spew foam out of the fermenter, or if you're unlucky and the airlock gets clogged, the whole lid might blow off. If you can predict that you'll have a very active fermentation, it's a good idea to rig up a "blow off" ahead of time.

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Hi Hex23, I mean to much foam from the wort like if the wort has soap, really very strange, now its good no to much foam and fermentation is hard, but ok

maescobarl said:

Hi Hex23, ok thanx, the yeast was safbrew t-58, I prepared 2 packs (11 gms each pack) of yeast with a starter, 1 hour before add it to the wort, still fermenting

Regards

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I've not used T58 before, but I do see some accounts of vigorous activity. By the way, no need to build a starter for dry yeast, unless you really need to build cell counts higher. But two packs of 11g sounds high enough for that gravity of ale.

maescobarl said:

Hi Hex23, I mean to much foam from the wort like if the wort has soap, really very strange, now its good no to much foam and fermentation is hard, but ok

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Sounds very normal to me.

Thanx for comments Hex23 , now the beer is very happy!!