First Tripel, have a few questions!!

[vulcan7864]

Hey, alright so I took a swing at my first tripel this weekend, and it smells great in the primary. But i have a few questions that I would like to know the answers to just for future reference, and to possibly fix this tripel as well.

1) I went onto http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe and plugged in all of my recipe, because i was curious what my target OG should have been, and it is telling me that I should have been at 1.092, but my actual OG was 1.102 at about 60ºF. Why would my OG have been so much higher, and how do i fix that for next time?

2) I pitched my WLP510 at 64ºF and kept the temp there for 2 days, and then on day 3 I brought my temp up to 72º then up to 76º on day 4. And it was bubbling like crazy until today when now I am getting minimal bubbling from the airlock (maybe 1 bubble every minute or 2) do i need to pitch more yeast, or maybe add sugar to wake up the lazy yeast?

Here is my recipe:


1 lb Weyermann Abbey
9 lbs light DME
1 lb light amber candi sugar
8 oz maltodextrin
1.5 oz styrian bobek
1 oz German hallertau
1 tsp Irish moss
Liquid Belgian bastogne yeast
5 gallons water

Directions:
• Boil abbey for 1hr at 155º in 1.5 gallons
• Remove and drain grains, bring water to 3 gallons and boil
• At 60 min add 1 oz Bobek, 9 lbs DME, and 8 oz maltodextrin
• At 30 min add .5 oz Bobek
• At 15 min add 1 tsp irish moss
• At 10 min add .5 oz Hallertau
• At 5 min add .5 oz Hallertau, and 1 lb candi sugar
• After boil cool to 60 in ice bath


Any help you guys can give me would be much appreciated!! I love this hobby, and I am still pretty new to it. This is my 4th beer that I am making as well as my favorite style, so I would love to have a successful batch.

Thanks so much

 

[bigbeergeek]

1) Are you sure you thoroughly stirred the wort before taking a gravity sample? Did you properly enter all the volumes of all the various ingredients into your software? Are you sure that your final volume was exactly 5 gallons? If you came in at 4.5 gallons instead of 5 gallons, for example, that would account for the extra 10 points.

2) Don't pitch any more yeast, don't worry about your beer. Leave it alone for a month before you do anything with it. You have a potent yeast strain fermenting at warm temperatures -- it's not surprising that it tore through the majority of the fermentables in a short span of time. Don't rely on the airlock to tell you anything. It's only a vent after all. Good luck and happy brewing.

 

[vulcan7864]

I did stir it, and i entered everything correctly. ...But you were right, i just looked at my fermentor, and i am just above the 4.5 gallon line. and your right i should just leave it and stop worrying, i was just worried that i killed my yeast bringing my temperatures up. I wanted to have it ferment warmer so i could get some nice spicy/fruity esters from my yeast, and really let that flavor shine through, after all... it is a tripel.

 

[bigbeergeek]

I did stir it, and i entered everything correctly. ...But you were right, i just looked at my fermentor, and i am just above the 4.5 gallon line. and your right i should just leave it and stop worrying, i was just worried that i killed my yeast bringing my temperatures up. I wanted to have it ferment warmer so i could get some nice spicy/fruity esters from my yeast, and really let that flavor shine through, after all... it is a tripel.

Your yeast would probably be happiest somewhere around 100F (as far as metabolism/growth are concerned -- the flavors they spit out at those temperatures might be less than optimum. Good luck and report back with some tasting notes in a couple of months!

 

[vulcan7864]

Wait... the flavors would be off at the temperatures im at now? and you think bring it up higher

 

[bigbeergeek]

Not what I'm saying. In a molecular biology lab yeast is grown close to 100F because they do their metabolic "thing" very fast/efficiently at high temps. Beer produced at that temp would taste pretty awful (think jet fuel) but the temp you're it is perfect for a Belgian tripel. You're good buddy

 

[vulcan7864]

Alright, i got scared for a minute. all i was thinking was damn, i really thought it smelled incredible. So far i think the only thing i want to do different next time is use wlp500, and really get a nice flavor profile from the yeast. But... now i just need to be patient, and i will post back in a while with tasting notes and all that fun stuff. how many volumes of co2 do you think i should shoot for when bottling? i am going to bottle condition, and i dont have belgian bottles, at least not yet.