Belgian Tripel Mash Temps

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Poobah58

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Going to kettle this weekend. A little different from my first attempt. I'm debating the mash profile:
A) 90 minutes @ 150°F or
B) 45 minutes @144°F and 30 minutes @ 158°F.
Did option B last time. Finished @ 1.010 (from 1.094) but was a little sweet and 11% alcohol. Any thoughts?

#16 Belgian Tripel
Batch Size: 12.00 gal Boil Size: 14.00 gal Boil Time: 75 min Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Est Original Gravity: 1.080 SG Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG Bitterness: 30.4 IBU Est Color: 4.8 SRM

27 lbs Pilsen (Dingemans) (1.6 SRM) 82.44 %
1 lbs Aromatic Malt (Dingemans) (19.0 SRM) 3.05 %
12.0 oz Wheat Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (3.5 SRM) 2.29 %
2 lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) 6.11 %
1 lbs Candi Sugar, Clear (0.5 SRM) 3.05 %
1 lbs Honey (1.0 SRM) 3.05 %

0.50 oz Styrian Goldings (Pellet) [4.20 %] (75 min) (FWH) 2.4 IBU
0.75 oz Magnum [11.50 %] (75 min) 10.0 IBU
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.18 %] (60 min) 11.5 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent (plug) [5.50 %] (30 min) 4.8 IBU
1.00 oz Tettnang [4.80 %] (5 min) 1.1 IBU
0.50 oz Tettnang (plug) [4.60 %] (5 min) 0.5 IBU

1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)
1.00 items Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 min)

2.00 gm Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 min)
2.00 gm Ginger Root (Boil 5.0 min)
2.00 gm Grains Of Paradice (Boil 5.0 min)

1 Pkgs Trappist High Gravity (Wyeast Labs #3787)

Notes
Pitch @64°F for 3 days then let rise to 70°F until done.
Sugars are 17% of fermentables.
 
If you are going from 1.094 to 1.010 then you should be pretty happy. I would stick with what works. On the other hand, you could try option A, but I would go a little bit lower, 148 or so.
 
Poobah58 said:
Did option B last time. Finished @ 1.010 (from 1.094) but was a little sweet and 11% alcohol. Any thoughts?

Its on the lower end for a tripel, but certainly could go lower. Lowering the OG should help, you could also increase the percentage of sugar. I think its great you want it lower than 1.010, I like my belgian style beers to finish dry as well.
 
I agree with landhoney, you can push your sugar out pretty far on a Tripel (up to 20% is not unheard of), compensating by lowering the grain. That will have a 'drying' or 'lightening' effect as well. You are hitting a very high attenuation as it is. If it is too sweet, perhaps looking into slightly tweaking your bittering. Imho a great Tripel has a hint of sweetness, but should be light and simple at the same time.

I guess I am a little confused. You have 2 lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) 6.11 % + 1 lbs Candi Sugar, Clear (0.5 SRM) 3.05 %+1 lbs Honey (1.0 SRM) 3.05 % = 12.21%, but you mention 17% sugar. Is there something I missed or is omitted from the recipe?
 
The sweetness may be from the honey. For experiment's sake I'd go with option A and see what the difference is.
 
1.010 from 1.094 is pretty good, you might be able to eek out a couple more gravity points lowering mash temps, but it would be easier to just increase the percentage of cane sugar.
The honey and clear candi sugar shouldn't add any final sweetness (you could replace them with simple table sugar).
I think you could also get results looking at the fermentation temperature.

edit: looking at your notes again, stating at 64˚ and moving up to 70˚ should be great for keeping your yeast at work... I hope you had a starter for that one package of yeast :)
 
Zoe, the sugar is 12% by weight but 17% of fermentables using 75% efficiency for the gist:

Grain Potential Weight Gal. Eff. O.G.
Pilsner 1.037 27.0 12.0 0.75 1.062
Aromatic 1.037 1.00 12.0 0.75 1.002
Wheat 1.038 0.75 12.0 0.75 1.002

Candi Sugar 1.036 1 12.0 1.00 1.003
Corn Sugar 1.046 2 12.0 1.00 1.008
Honey 1.035 1 12.0 1.00 1.003

Grain 1.066
Sugar 1.014
Total 1.080

14/80 = 17.5% of fermentables
 
Poobah58 said:
Zoe, the sugar is 12% by weight but 17% of fermentables using 75% efficiency for the gist:

Grain Potential Weight Gal. Eff. O.G.
Pilsner 1.037 27.0 12.0 0.75 1.062
Aromatic 1.037 1.00 12.0 0.75 1.002
Wheat 1.038 0.75 12.0 0.75 1.002

Candi Sugar 1.036 1 12.0 1.00 1.003
Corn Sugar 1.046 2 12.0 1.00 1.008
Honey 1.035 1 12.0 1.00 1.003

Grain 1.066
Sugar 1.014
Total 1.080

14/80 = 17.5% of fermentables

Ahh, k. Yar that makes sense :D. I've always assumed that with sugar inclusions that I've seen in other's recipes was by weight, I suppose there are probably a mix of ideas floating around! I usually do it by weight, I'd like to hear what others do...but that's probably for another thread :)
 
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