Belgian Tripel Belgian Trippel (2006 World Beer Cup Gold Medal: Dragonmead Final Absolution clone)

[andrewmaixner]

I've waited 2.5 weeks after bottling and made sure the temps have been around 70-72F minimum. I still get little to no carbonation. Do I just need to wait longer?

The last beer I brewed had the same problem - and I'm wondering if cold-crashing and bottling don't mix. I've seen where people say they cold crash and have no trouble with bottle carbing, but I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong.

I've cold crashed down to about 37F is the lowest I can get. Am I not getting enough yeast to bottle carbonate? I ended up with about 10.5 gallons of beer and used 10oz of corn sugar for batch priming.

I'm hoping I just need to wait longer and will end up with carbonated beer.

The amount of yeast shouldn't be the problem -- you'd have to filter or do a VERY good series of cold-crash/transfers to really get almost all yeast gone.

If you have a Finishing Hydrometer, you could open one, degass, and measure the gravity to verify that it had consumed the priming sugar and returned to the FG measurement from before you added priming sugar. Your standard priming sugar addition would have added about 0.003 gravity.

I once had a tripple seem to have problems carbonating, or seem undercarbonated, after a month+.
(Safety warning: if you don't know why you aren't supposed to do this, don't try it)
What I did was chill them, and very carefully open each bottle, add a couple of the small priming sugar tablets (the kind that usually need 4-5 per bottle), and immediately re-cap.
Let warm back to room temperature, and give each a good shake the next day to make sure the sugar was well mixed.
Then I stored them in a large plastic container for a month, and gave it a good mild shake before opening to make sure I didn't have any exploding bottles. It turned out good.

 

[Dog House Brew]

I would check again at 4-5 weeks. I’ve had some Imperial Stouts take a few months to reach full carbonation.

 

[rkhanso]

Is it better to shake up the bottles now and again? Or just leave them sit?
Going to brew a pumpkin beer in a couple days. This might be the first time I have 2 different beers available to drink at the same time.

 

[andrewmaixner]

Is it better to shake up the bottles now and again? Or just leave them sit?

when bottling with sugar (heck, even when kegging with sugar) , I always give a gentle shake a day later to ensure that no stratification is happening. It's easy, might not matter sometimes, might help sometimes.

 

[rkhanso]

I gotta switch over to kegging!

 

[Dog House Brew]

I gotta switch over to kegging!

Kegging is the way to go for sure. It is quite an investment, but worth it. That said, my Belgian beers always are bottled. I like to transfer to a primed keg and bottle the primed beer with my bottle filler.

 

[rkhanso]

I went to Unmapped Brewing tonight in Minnetonka, MN. I've had their Belgian Tripel before I brewed mine - and when I had it tonight, it wasn't highly carbonated. Yes, more than mine currently is, but not as much as I would prefer. They tasted very similar though.
I might see kegging in my future.

 

[Sudz]

I brewed this back in August. All went well and I hit all my numbers. Long fermentation, cold crashed and bottled in new Belgian Bottles since I had anticipated higher than usual carbonation. Then waited...

One month, nothing, two months, nothing. Somewhat surprised I started to look closely at things.

When I capped my new Belgian bottles using my standard gold caps, I noticed the capping felt different when using my bench capper. I inspected things, even removed several caps which did seem like they were firmly attached although they did appear to sit higher on the bottle.

I took six bottles of the aging Tripel and added a touch of dry yeast and recapped each. I placed these bottles upside down in the case so they sit on the cap. Then waited a week.

Inspecting these bottles after the week revealed 5 of the 6 had seeped around the cap. Two had actually leaked a tablespoon or so of beer. I concluded from this that the missing carbonation actually had leaked out of the rather poorly capped bottles.

So here's my question. For those of you who use Belgian bottles, do you use a special cap for this bottle. Maybe a metric item?

 

[Dave Sarber]

Are you talking about New Belgium Brewery bottles (US)? Or Belgian cork/ cap bottles? I use the New Belgium (US) bottles and have never noticed a problem. The Belgian cork/cap bottles are a different size.

Edit: I save the Belgian cork/cap bottles, but I haven't used them yet. Was planning on plastic champagne corks with wire closures.

2nd edit: I just measured, an the Belgian bottles are 29mm, while standard US bottles are 26.5mm.

 

[Dave Sarber]

Here you go:
L to R, standard US bottle, 26.5mm
Belgian cork/cap bottle, 29mm
Belgian cork bottle, 32mm

I just did a quick search, Midwest Supplies carries them, as well as Amazon. Never used them, wondering if a standard capper will work?

 

[Sudz]

I purchased my Belgian bottles from Northern Brewer. No idea where they may have originated. They do look like the center bottle in Dave's response. I measured 26.7mm max OD at the cap position. All I know is std caps will leak/seep on these bottles when using a rather nice bench capper.

 

[Dave Sarber]

Go with the 29mm caps. That is the standard size in Europe.
Amazon also has 29mm bell cap housings for various cappers.

 

[Dave Sarber]

If you are getting a measurement of 26.7 mm and are comfortable that that is an accurate measurement, the standard caps should work fine, that is only an .008" difference.
Instead, the weird collar may be giving your capper a problem.
I normally use a hand capper (on normal bottles) because I get a tighter crimp than I get with my bench capper. Might be worth checking out.

 

[Sudz]

The collar does appear taller which would also explain the feel of the capping. As it stands, I'll probably dump this brew. Not happy. I've been brewing for about ten years. This will be the first batch I've dumped. Appreciate the feedback guys...

 

[carpathia]

I've used a colonna [sic] capper for the past year or two. I also have a number of belgian bottles in cases from when I lived in europe. I've never had an issue using standard bottle caps with Rodenbach, Chimay, St. Bernardus, Westmalle, or Duvel bottles (11.2-12oz). The only time I've run into an issue with Belgian bottles is the 750 ml duvel ones, which seem to, in fact, have the wider bottle cap.

Never had any issues with those bottles losing the cap, or otherwise weeping/leaking.

 

[eimar]

I use bottles from : Molson Lowenbrau, Labatt classique ( yes I'm a very old fart ) , Bass Pale Ale, Rochefort, Westvleteren , Westmalle , Orval, Hoegaarden wit . I never have any trouble using a column capper and crown caps from my local hobby store in Montreal. I use the standard caps , not the caps for the twist off bottles.

 

[Dave Sarber]

I use bottles from : Molson Lowenbrau, Labatt classique ( yes I'm a very old fart ) , Bass Pale Ale, Rochefort, Westvleteren , Westmalle , Orval, Hoegaarden wit . I never have any trouble using a column capper and crown caps from my local hobby store in Montreal. I use the standard caps , not the caps for the twist off bottles.

12 oz or 750ml?

 

[eimar]

The bottles I'm talking about are the 330 ml / 12 0z. I don't have any 750 ml bottles with caps, I use 750 ml cork bottles from Unibroue. A 750 ml bottle with metal cap looks cheap Of course tripel is one of my favourite style .It is a simple no frill recipe. I like to add 0.5 kg/ 1 lb of flaked wheat.

 

[MiBrewGirl90]

Hello everyone!

Currently deciding on making the LME or AG version of this beer.

I have read up and down this post and cannot find which version is better! I have both recipes in BS3. It looks like the recipe for LME is hitting all the right numbers but I am worried the taste will be off. Thoughts? My AG is not hitting correctly in BS3.

 

[eimar]

I brewed 4 batches of begian dubble using LME. Using LME for that beer is not a problem because the recipe includes 3 specialty malts and dark candi syrup. On the other hand the tripel doesn't have a lot of specialty malts to hide behind. So far all the tripels I brewed were AG ( because i invlude some flaked wheat in my recipe ) If you go the LME way be sure to buy good and fresh pilsner LME . If you are in north america i highly recommend Briess CBW Pilsen light LME.

 

[Grahame Lingwood]

I purchased my Belgian bottles from Northern Brewer. No idea where they may have originated. They do look like the center bottle in Dave's response. I measured 26.7mm max OD at the cap position. All I know is std caps will leak/seep on these bottles when using a rather nice bench capper.

Sorry for the late response, I use champagne bottles (collect from bottle recyclers/parties etc) and "tirage" caps, you will need a tirage bell which fits the automatica bench capper (may fit others, best to get capper and bell from same supplier just to be sure), just unscrew the existing bell and screw on the new one. Champagne bottles are about as high as you can get for pressure so a reduced risk of bottle bombs when going for high carb levels, also they all seem to be manufactured with a "standard" neck, I have European and Australian and never had a leak. The only downside is their colour, being green (usually) you need to keep them somewhere dark to prevent any chance of "skunking" not really a problem for something that's going to be stored under the house or in a far corner for extended ageing. I also use them for my RIS's, minimum 12 months, and have some 6yrs old with no problems. Stick with the "normal" looking ones as the fancy shaped ones take up too much space, hope this helps. Cheers G

 

[Dave Sarber]

I went in the other direction. Found this floor corker on Amazon for ~$60.

Much cooler than a cap!

More expensive and time consuming than caps, but it's worth it for those special beers.

 

[Grahame Lingwood]

Yep very cool, and was my first choice but stupidly expensive here in Australia, no local supplier of corks, cages or foils (needed to prevent oxygenation over extended ageing apparently) was going to cost well over a dollar a bottle

 

[rkhanso]

Sorry to bring up an old thread - hoping for a second opinion or confirmation of my fermenting plans...
I'm going to brew this beer next. Going to make 10 gallons and ferment under pressure in 2 corny kegs. I plan on buying 2 packs of Wyeast 3787 and make a starter from each (I have two 2-liter Erlenmeyer flasks). One starter for each keg.

I'm using Brewers Friend for calculations. Estimating 1.082 for OG. Using 4.8 gallons of wort in each keg (making calculations separately for each keg, not 9.6 gallons total).

I don't know the date of the yeast, so I'm selecting 9/4/23 as a guess.
Using Pro Brewer 1.25 (Ale, or High Gravity Ale) selection.

Brewers Friend says I'll have 69 billion cells available but need 449 billion cells.
It looks like I need a 2-step 2L starter at 1.040 to get up to 617 billion cells.

Does this look to be correct? Or a good choice?

Thanks.

 

[Oldskewl]

A 2L starter of 3787 should be fine. I’ve done a 2L starter on the WLP500 with this recipe several times and it fermented just fine