Straffe Hendrik Tripel Clone

[mschoeffler]

I was smitten by this over Christmas in Brugse and was hoping to clone this. This beer is more complex than Westmalle. Several local tripels were more complex which was surprising. Information provided states that there are SIX grains used to reach OG 1.081.

My thoughts:

10lbs Belgian pilsener
2lbs UK pale (they like Fawcett)
1lb. Munich
1lb. Flaked wheat
1lb. Flaked Oats
0.5lb. Acid malt (needed for my water)
2.5lbs sugar

2oz styrian @ 60
2oz saaz @ 20
35 IBUs

WLP550

Any thoughts?

 

[dchmela]

I think I would up the Pils and lower the sugar. I find anything over 1.5lbs of sugar give off a boozy smell.

 

[bkboiler]

U doing invert sugar, Candi sugar, table sugar??

Some breweries take the effort and expense to do Candi and some don't think it's worth it...

 

[mschoeffler]

I think I would up the Pils and lower the sugar. I find anything over 1.5lbs of sugar give off a boozy smell.

That’s just 14% of the OG. I’ve had no problems with more than that before, especially with this complex of a grain bill. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[mschoeffler]

U doing invert sugar, Candi sugar, table sugar??

Some breweries take the effort and expense to do Candi and some don't think it's worth it...

Table sugar.

 

[bkboiler]

Gotcha...what info did you find on WLP 550?
yeast is a MAJOR component, as important as grain bill...and even tho you've got plenty of plain sugar, you'll want to really build a big starter and follow proper temp ramps to help it finish strong.
Also, did you find out if this brewery follows refermentation in the bottle and how they prime? Do they have a warm room that they use to bottle condition?
Stalled sweet is a common flaw for tripels and many Belgian beers in fact...in my experience the Belgian strains can tend to poop out after maybe 65% attenuation unless the heat is on!

 

[mschoeffler]

Gotcha...what info did you find on WLP 550?
yeast is a MAJOR component, as important as grain bill...and even tho you've got plenty of plain sugar, you'll want to really build a big starter and follow proper temp ramps to help it finish strong.
Also, did you find out if this brewery follows refermentation in the bottle and how they prime? Do they have a warm room that they use to bottle condition?
Stalled sweet is a common flaw for tripels and many Belgian beers in fact...in my experience the Belgian strains can tend to poop out after maybe 65% attenuation unless the heat is on!

The 550 is just a guess based upon the description and my tastings at the brewery. I could be totally wrong. I’ve almost exclusively used WY3787 but this should be fruitier. I probably overpitch a good starter and plan on starting at 66 degrees and letting it go as high as it wants. At least that’s what has worked with my Westmalle clone.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Rehashing this one, as I'm potentially going to do a clone or something similar. Has anyone tried this one out?

I'm not seeing much out there by way of clone recipes (aside from this one), but even though Straffe Hendrik tripel is not a typical tripel, oats and wheat still seem somewhat out of place.
Any reason why WLP530/WY3787 (westmalle strain) wouldn't do the job?

 

[mschoeffler]

Mine was good but not close enough. As I recall, the oats were a mistake. I’d take those out and put some vienna in it’s place. I’d cut the wheat to 1/2lb and use the malted variety. The Faucett pale was great and true Belgian Munich is better for this than German. I used some Halletauer that I had on hand, and that was not the same. Stick with the Styrian/Saaz. There’s no reason not to try the Westmalle yeast.
Post back your results. I’ll retry this in the spring.

 

[NTexBrewer]

So sometimes when Belgian breweries state that they use X number of grains. It may be that most of those grains are actually 2-row malt. They may just have a propriety blend that they buy from the maltster that consists of Winter 2-row, spring 2-row etc. I had the same problem trying to clone Poperinge Hommel Ale. I ended up just simplyfing the grain bill and concentrating on yeast and hops