cold/bottle Tripel conditioning...a few questions

[docubus]

Hello everyone,

I hope to brew my first Tripel in a week or so, but before I purchase the ingredients, I had a few questions related to conditioning:

Most of the recipes I have seen so far call for a four-to-five-week cold conditioning period in the secondary fermentor. The problem is, I live in a one bedroom apartment and have no way to condition at this temperature. Is this really necessary?

Also, I was wondering whether or not I should add a couple of drops of rehydrated US-05 to each bottle to ensure a good carbonation. What do you think?

If it helps, here is my recipe:


Fermentables
1# Crystal Malt - 10L
8# Extra Light DME
1# Candi Sugar, Clear

Hops
1.5oz Hallertau Mittelfruh (3.9 AAU) @ 60min
2.5oz Saaz (3.4 AAU) @ 60min
1.0oz Hallertau Mittelfruh (3.9 AAU) @ 30min
2.0oz Saaz (3.4 AAU) @ 30min

Yeast
WYEAST 3787 - Trappist High Gravity (w/ 2L starter)

Misc.
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 15min

Primary: 10 days
Secondary: 30 days
Bottle Conditioning: 3 months
OG: 1.081
FG: 1.020 (I would like this to be lower...around 1.012. Any suggestions?)
SRM: 5
IBU: 36.4

Thank you for all of your help!

 

[JJL]

I wouldn't necessarily sweat the cold conditioning. The main thing is probably just going to be letting it age a bit before you start drinking it, whether that's in a secondary of in the bottle. If you do decide to cold condition, you might consider adding more yeast. But do this a few days before you bottle, and add the yeast to the fermenter, not directly into the bottles.