Belgian Trippel (Keg vs Bottle)

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tlewisii

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I am brewing a Belgian Trippel and will need to decide in a few weeks if I should bottle or Keg. What does everybody think? Pro's/Con's? I would rather keg, but have heard from a few people that the bottle conditioning will be better for the beer type. I will be using a mini fridge to condition either one I choose inside the house with a temperature control unit, so that would be constant between both options.

Thanks for everybody's help!
 
Tripels can have some residual sugars in them if you don't ferment them all the way out. The Belgians are notorious for feeding them candi sugar additions in the secondary and using pasteur champagne yeast to dry them out and carbonate them. If you look at imported tripels from Europe, most use very thick bottles and a lot of them are even corked and caged like champagne. This is to prevent bottle bombs while the bottles condition. Gushing is sometimes a problem as well with all of the sugar additions.

Either method (keg or bottle) would be fine. I might suggest that you do both and see which you prefer. You might try some larger 350ml. bottles and bottle up about a case (12 bottles) and keg the rest. If you do bottle them, after you prime them, let them sit in a warm dark place for a minimum of about three weeks. If you pop one open after a week, expect it to come gushing out and any remaining beer to be completely flat. It takes time for the beer to absorb all of that CO2, so let them rest in the dark for three weeks and then put a test bottle in the fridge for a full day to cool down and absorb the CO2. Then crack it open.

If this is intended for competitions though, bottle them in strong looking longneck bottles, 12 oz..
 
Some other posts that I've read suggest that because of the long bottle (or keg) conditioning times, it may be best to bottle - that is unless you have an ample supply of kegs and don't mind tying one up for an extended period.

Cheers :mug:
 
Not a Trippel, but I bottled a Belgian Trappist Dubbel... Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
 
You can prime and condition in a keg if you have extra. I do it all the time. I aged a Wee Heavy in keg for 8 months, and a Foreign Extra Stout for six months.
 
Thanks everbody. I think I'm going to bottle a few and keg the rest. I'm going to leave it in the primary for 2 weeks and transfer over to a secondary for about 6 weeks I think before I bottle/keg them. Thanks again!
 
I have a keg of Belgian dubbel conditioning on CO2 in the fridge now. I'm thinking let it sit for two weeks then bottle from the keg. Any thoughts? I force carbed for about twenty minutes then knocked it down to 10psi. Abv is 8.55%


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I understand the argument to bottle condition dubbels but I love the convenience of kegging. Would I be missing out on anything if I naturally carbonate in the keg and bottled off of that?
 
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