Designing a Belgian Tripel, take a look?

[luckybeagle]

I do enjoy a good, dry, effervescent Tripel.

I followed Josh Weikert's Tripel recipe to a "T" and took 2nd place in my local homebrew competition (thanks Josh!), but it kind of felt like cheating. I want to create my own very simple Tripel and so far have come up with this:

13 Lbs Belgian Pilsner
1.5 Lbs Table Sugar
Calcium Chloride to raise hardness (trying to model Chimay's water since I'm using Chimay yeast)
0.75 oz Magnum at 60 minutes for ~30 IBUs
0.5 oz Crystal at 5 minutes
0.5 oz Styrian Goldings at 5 minutes
Whirlfloc, yeast nutrient, yada yada

Pitch at 62, ramp to 72 over 10 days with WY1214 Abbey Yeast slurry.

This recipe should yield an OG of 1.076 and a FG of 1.006. I achieved 88% attenuation on this yeast in a Quad I brewed 2 weeks ago, and saved about 20 oz thick slurry from it.

My questions are:

1. I want it DRY. I get fairly dry from Josh's recipe, but nearly every Tripel recipe I've found calls for up to 20% sugar for the fermentables. I'm at about 10% on this one. Should I up this to 15% or am I verging on a harshness/cidery taste given I only am using one malt if I go that high? Will 2 lbs help with extra dryness?
2. In the quad I just brewed, I mashed at 148F for 90 minutes and want to do that with this one as well. Would you expect that to help with drying the beer out and hitting those higher attenuation numbers?
3. Is 3 volumes too much carbonation for this one? I'm bottling and have done 3 before, but not sure if too much carbonation for a potentially very low FG beer is OK?

Any feedback on this recipe would be very greatly appreciated!

Also, I knocked this glass over tonight and it exploded into a hundred pieces. RIP to my favorite chalice.

 

[Big Monk]

1.) Myth. Feel free to go up to 18%.

2.) If you are using single infusion mash as slow and as long as you can tolerate and for what is appropriate for the malt.

3.) I’ve stopped using high carbonation in these beers. 2.6 volumes is good.

 

[brownni5]

WSome thoughts in no particular order. You're using a slurry from a (dark) high gravity beer for a light high gravity beer - are you sure you want to do that?

15% is not too much sugar. Cidery flavors are a myth, or at most a holdover from the early days of home brew kits.

Is 3 volumes too much for a tripel? No. Is 3.5 volumes too much for a triple? No. Drink a Duvel, a BGS (very similar style) and you'll understand.

I suggest you look at the "All things Trappist" thread in the Fermentation forum for more info.

Edit: Disregard everything I've said and do what Scotty says!

 

[luckybeagle]

Thank you both!

The slurry is pretty dark, but I'm low on my SRM with just using the Belgian Pilsen malt (3.7). I'm ok with it coming out a little darker since the BJCP guidelines state 6 on the low end for a Tripel. I am a little concerned about what it'll contribute appearance wise to it, though. Hope it doesn't make it a weird light brown poop color. Logically it should just raise the SRM along that color spectrum, I think?

I will up the sugar content and fear not!

And I'll shoot for 2.75 to 3 volumes. I had a Monkless Tripel a few months ago and was astounded at the carbonation level. It was downright violent. But they're corking in heavier bottles.

Do either of you know where I can find a resource regarding maximum mash times based on grain type? Does such a reference exist? I know Hefeweizen mashes take much longer with the crazy decoction schedules etc, but there's got to be an upper end of what's OK without pulling some off flavors from the grain, right?

 

[Dr_Jeff]

Some people do an overnight mash.
I've found that adding 30 minutes to whatever mash time you had planned is worth the little bit of extra time to me.

Consider adding some Belgian aromatic malt.
I like a bit of coriander and orange peel in my triples. (just my preference)

And up the sugar to 4-5 pounds, go for a full bag.
I have never had a cidery taste from using table sugar. (all BS in my opinion, a cidery taste from using table sugar)

I use it in saisons, to bump them to a super saison, in an IPA to bump it to an IIPA. Initially I believed in the myth, and when I was in a local craft brewery and they were adding it into their flagship IIPA, I decided that it is BS and don't think twice about using it any time to bump up the gravity. Some folks will say that it takes the beer "out of style", I'm brewing it for me. Some folks don't seem to understand, when it comes to style, they need to read and comprehend, the pamphlet's title is BJCP 2015 Style Guidelines, not laws or mandatory rules, or even rules. If you are not brewing it for a label, it can be whatever you want it to be (the joy of homebrewing). Some people look at it as sheer economics, get the taste/recipe right, up the gravity, and the keg lasts longer because you drink less to get the desired effect. Now it will tend to "dry out" a beer, because there is more alcohol, yep it does. That can be compensated for by mashing a few degrees higher, simple. I know that there will be folks with all sorts of opinions and arguments, but this is how I feel and have been brewing great beers for over eight years.

As far as the yeast, Ive had best results, keeping Belgian & French yeasts cool for the first couple of days, then let them rise to where they want to go, mid eighties and low nineties don't cause off flavors as far as I'm concerned and insure that the yeast will finish the job.

If you have bottles that can handle the pressure, go for at least 3 volumes, but you don't want gushers.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Recipe looks quite reasonable, but (and I might be getting a bit picky here) I'd expect it to drink more like a Golden Strong than a tripel - hoppy, dry and fruity (not that Belgians get hung up on style guidelines).