Low Gravity Wort With WLP500?

[Alex Kirk]

I recently brewed my first Trippel with WLP500, after getting the base recipe down with WY3787. I can really taste the difference that the yeast strain makes - the 500 really is a Chimay-esque taste - and so now I'm looking to mess around with different yeast setups to see what I can do. My wife, after sampling the 500 Trippel, and having recently sampled a Gose I did as it was going into bottles, asked what would happen if I did the Gose recipe with the Trippel yeast - which sounded like a really good idea to me.

I'm thinking that since I pitched two packs of the WLP500 onto my 1.090 Trippel, I'd want to just pitch a single pack of the stuff onto my ~1.040 Gose. I'm also thinking I'll skip the souring on this batch, since a) I'm still learning what I'm doing there and b) a 50/50 Wheat/Pilsner blend with Chimany notes ought to be great on its own without any sour effect. Is there any reason that shouldn't work? Has anyone here ever done a low-gravity wort with any of the classic high-gravity Trappist yeasts?

 

[brownni5]

No reason it won't work, though might not be a Gose. I did a Trappist Single last year with 3787 that was nice, and that was a lowish gravity beer. Just because they are alcohol tolerant doesn't mean they won't shine in a low gravity beer. Tell us what you find!

 

[Alex Kirk]

I'm totally fine with it not being a classic Gose - experimentation is the point here, so if I get, say, a salty, fruity Belgian, I'll consider it a win.

We cracked open some of the traditional Gose the day I brewed up the wort for this experiment, and it was so surprisingly good (after starting with "chicken ****" flavors at the end of the souring process) that I'm calling it the base recipe, and as such am sticking to it and souring this batch. My yeast goes on tomorrow evening. I'll update as it progresses!

 

[Alex Kirk]

Reporting back now that the stuff is bottled and properly carbonated: the yeast made a hell of a lot less difference than I expected. I can taste some flavor difference vs the OYL-200 that I'm using on other batches, but it's subtle, and definitely not distinctly Belgian. What's funny is that when I opened the secondary fermenter to go to bottles, it smelled very much like the tripels I've brewed with the WLP500/WY3787/etc. - but as I put my hydrometer in to get an FG reading, I stirred up the bottom, which came up with a completely different color and smell. I think the more classic Belgian characteristics are just overwhelmed by the Lactobacillus and the salt of the Gose.