Help with Belgium style tripel

[stephenday1987]

Hi all,

I've brewed a fair few kit style extract brews and have moved on to brewing extract recipes but with some partial type mashing of some grain also. I decided to have a go at an extract delirium tremens style copy. I wasn't expecting anything identical at all but wanted something that was on par for colour and a similar flavour at least, however my recipe seems to have come out waaaay darker and much sweeter than I was looking for, lots more caramel and thick dark belgian ale style flavours. Still a nice beer but not what I was after. The original recipe was:

Breiss Golden LME- 2 tubs
500g extra light DME
Munich malt (can't remember the amounts for these exactly as my recipe is written down at home)
Biscuit malt
Aromatic malt
Styrian goldings hops
Saaz hops
1 tub golden syrup
500g clear candi sugar
Coriander seed
seeds of paradise
fresh root ginger
Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong

Something along those lines, but as I said, came out way to dark and not at all what I was expecting. Could you advise a few things? Firstly, could the chosen grains which were steeped for 30 mins have had anything to do with the colour? As far as sweetness goes, did I add too little sugar and so it was unable to dry out enough (I did start off with an OG of about 1.080 and finish at 1.016 so thought it had fermented enough to take away alot of the sweetness.

I've amended the recipe to the below to see if I can get it a bit close. What do you think?

Briess Pilsner LME x2
500g extra light DME
1kg clear candi sugar
1tub golden syrup
Styrian goldings hops
Saaz hops
Coriander seed
seeds of paradise
fresh root ginger
Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong

Thanks, Steve

 

[m00ps]

That first recipe is definitely not a tripel. Not by a longshot. Maybe just a belgian strong ale. actually, thats what delerium tremens is, right?

anyway, your new one looks better. They traditionally dont have spices though and let the yeast do the talking. The key to getting an authentic tasting tripel is to keep the yeast happy. Be sure to pitch enough yeast (starter or pitch 2 packs) and let it free rise. Insulate it with a winter coat or blanket if you want to help it warm up. This will get you a more expensive yeast character and ensure attenuation gets as high as possible. Too many homebrewed tripels dont have the clean finish that commercial ones do and I think its likely due to mishandling of the yeast

the best tripel I made to date used some saison yeast blended with my tripel yeast at a 2:1 ratio. This enabled it to get down to 1.006

 

[stephenday1987]

Perhaps I don't understand my Belgian styles too well. I always thought delirium tremens was more of a triple but hey! Basically I'm just aiming for a fairly light dry strong type. I personally quite like a little hint of spice so I'll stick with the small amounts I used last time regardless of authenticity. I guess it's just case of trial and error and learn as I go.

Temp wise I have one of those belts which I find pretty decent. On the current batch I started it around 21 and gradually heated it up to about 25 over a period of 5 to 7 days or so. I think it did accidentally go to about 26 or 27 one day by mistake which I've read can lead to more fusel type alcohols? I corrected this quickly though and was definitely after the initially primary fermentation period so hopefully didn't have too much of an impact.

With regard to when to boil the lme... would adding this at a too high of a temp cause it to darken? Am I best say adding 1 can below boiling, raise to a boil and then put the final one in toward the end of the boil? The sugar I am going to dissolve before adding this time too. Last time I chucked it straight in to the boil and wonder if this had a darkening effect also.

 

[kh54s10]

As to being dark: Ditch the golden syrup and use something similar that is light. Munich malts come in a lot of different levels of color. If you use it make sure it is a very light one.

If you are comparing color to a commercial or all grain brew the extract version is always going to be darker. If you really want it light, you will need to progress to all grain.

 

[Calder]

Briess Pilsner LME x2
500g extra light DME
1kg clear candi sugar
1tub golden syrup
Styrian goldings hops
Saaz hops
Coriander seed
seeds of paradise
fresh root ginger
Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong

Clear candi sugar is just a waste off money (dark contributes fflavor), but the light is just sugar. Replace with plain table sugar and save some money.

I'd replace the Golden Syrup with plain sugar too. It will not add much flavor, and I'm not sure it belongs in a tripel.

Maybe steep a half lb of Aromatic for a little malt flavor.

Although spices are sometimes used, they are not normal. Yeast usually provides the flavors in a Belgian. When used, spices should be in the background, and complement the yeast. If you can tell what spices have been used, then you have used too much. I usually don't use any, but if I do, it is mostly Grains of Paradise and Orange zest.

1388 is the Duvel yeast, a fruity yeast. I think your spices will compete with it rather than complement it.

It is a little difficult to fully critique the recipe without quantities for the LME and the Syrup, but with about 25 to 30% simple sugars, you should be able to get FG down to single digits, and have a dry beer.

Remember, the yeast is the star. Keep it simple and let the yeast shine and not have to compete with other flavors.

 

[stephenday1987]

Thanks for the help all.

The candi sugar i have been getting is actually no more expensive in my local brew shop than a standard bag of sugar. Have been paying under £1 for it. I'm at home now so have checked my ingredients for amounts. Recipe with amounts is as follows.

6.6lb pilsner lme
1.1lb extra light dme
1.1lb candi sugar
1 can lyles golden syrup (1lb)
2oz styria goldings (2.5 aac)
0.5oz saaz (4.5 aac)
Wyeast 1388 Belgian strong

With regards to the goldings, they seem quite low in alpha acid content, is it worth using more as I understand the flavour will be lost in the boil anyway?

I believed that beers like this often called for invert sugar which is why I have been using the golden syrup, I don't know of any other easily obtainable invert sugar myself although I'm sure a quick Google search will find me something.

I'll also try steeping about half a pound of aromatic too as advised.

 

[brewcat]

I like Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes.