All things Trappist

[Bassman2003]

I broke down and purchased one because I am spunding all of my beers now. So it takes the guess work out of when to transfer to keg. And it gives an internal temperature. But I do not know how reliable the temperature is? My lager fermenting now has an internal temp lower than my wine fridge! But it is moving in tandem so who knows. I should do some testing on the temp readout and maybe it can be calibrated.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I've gone over the book titled "Brew Like A Monk" multiple times, and it appears in reading it that the Trappist Monks let their ferments rise into the mid 70's to even the mid 80's as a standard practice (the upper tolerance limit for which varies by Monastery). At least one of them only seems to absolutely panic when they are potentially about to hit the 90's during fermentation.

By comparison, holding Trappist Ale yeast to the 60's (Fahrenheit) does not seem to be a good practice for one wishing to duplicate their magic.

 

[Bassman2003]

I agree, but I think it is important for the first few days to keep the temps low. Band-aid is a sign that things got too hot, and in this case, too early. I like tripels, so I will be experimenting with this style and the same yeast going forward.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

By comparison, holding Trappist Ale yeast to the 60's (Fahrenheit) does not seem to be a good practice for one wishing to duplicate their magic.

That, Scotty's tips, and my prior (only 1 data point) experience getting the Westmalle yeast to finish out when trying to control temps was my motivation. Right now the ambient in my bath is 63F, the Single is fermenting well with a 3/4" krausen, and the strip on the outside of the fermenter reads about 65F. Setting the fermenter directly on the cool tile floor will cool it 2-3F based on past experience.

 

[isomerization]

May have missed it, but is there empirical evidence supporting the suggested pitch rate? I understand the goal is to limit yeast growth, just wondering if someone has looked at lag time versus pitch rate for these Trappist-style yeasts.

Just pitched into 8 gal of Tripel last night (1.076 OG), used 2 packs of 3787 (made 12/19) in a 2.5 L starter. Visible fermentation in 4 hr at 64F, machine gunning by 12 hr. Doesn’t look like I was anywhere close to the 1.25 million cells/mL/P.

 

[tripelthelightfantastic]

Pitch at 64F with no temperature control except the ambient temperature in my basement and submerge in room temp water bath. Typically rises into the low to mid 70s by 4-5 days in.

I package right after it hits final gravity and leave the bottles at room temperature for a few weeks before drinking.

I definitely want to give this a try.
What is the basement ambient /water bath temp to go from 64deg pitching to low-mid 70s 4-5 days in?

 

[mlaen]

Been reading through this thread a few times as i prep for my first trippel with 3787, and i'm wondering if i can reuse the part of the trub for the next batch of trippel and/or quad or is the yeast to stressed at this point?

 

[Kee]

Been reading through this thread a few times as i prep for my first trippel with 3787, and i'm wondering if i can reuse the part of the trub for the next batch of trippel and/or quad or is the yeast to stressed at this point?

That would work, especially if your first beer's original gravity is not too high, but I'd rather overbuild a starter and save some of that yeast. Alternatively, 3787 is a top cropping yeast and you could harvest fresh krausen from the first batch if your risk tolerance and fermenter allow you to scoop up some at high krausen.

 

[Jayjay1976]

That would work, especially if your first beer's original gravity is not too high, but I'd rather overbuild a starter and save some of that yeast. Alternatively, 3787 is a top cropping yeast and you could harvest fresh krausen from the first batch if your risk tolerance and fermenter allow you to scoop up some at high krausen.

I agree, and IMHO there is minimal risk involved in harvesting kraeusen because on the slight chance something does pop up, you'll likely have a comfortable window to enjoy it. This is why I adore Belgian styles.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I learned a lot from this thread, and Belgian beers are a core in my rotation these days. It seemed like a good place to share...

A recent Craft Beer & Brewing podcast is an interview with some guys from St. Bernardus. There are a few places where they hold back info, and some cases where there is a bit of an "English is not my first language" confusion in what they say, but (like the book "Brew Like a Monk") there are some small bits of useful insight into a Belgian brewery.

https://beerandbrewing.com/podcast-episode-366-wouter-dely-and-marco-passarella-of-st-bernardus/