my 1st true Belgian ale, critiques welcome

[natural320]

my wife wants me to try to make a La Fin du Monde-esque tripel, so I am going to do a small batch ale to build up the yeast (much tastier than a starter!)

so after LOTS of searching and reading, I decided that Wyeast 3787 was going to be the best option for me since the Unibroue yeast currently isn't available (at least anywhere near me)

that being said, here's my initial thought on a Belgian wheat ale with some wit spicing:
(for 3.25 gallons post boil)

-2 1/2 lbs pale malt
-2 1/2 lbs pale wheat malt
-1/4 lb light munich malt
single infusion mash at 150° for an hour, then mash out at 168° for 15 minutes

-hallertau pellets (since I have it) @ 60 minutes for about 14-15 IBU

-a little crushed coriander and bitter orange peel (since I was gonna buy them for the tripel anyway since LFdM uses both) put in with a few minutes left in the boil.

-wyeast 3787 trappist high gravity (start the ferment around 68° and let it free rise into the mid 70s over the course of a few days)

shooting for an OG of 1.046, and this yeast strain should work it down to around 1.010 without issue for about 4.8% ABV, and leave me a nice (quick too!) and refreshing late summer quaffer.

since it is my first foray into Belgians...any criticisms would be appreciated

 

[kingwood-kid]

Looks good to me. I'm not sure if 4oz Munich will be noticeable. You could up it a little at the expense of some wheat, but that's your call. Unibroue uses the same yeast strain for all their beers. You can culture some up from a few bottles, the fresher and weaker the better. 3787 should work fine as well.

 

[natural320]

brewed this past Saturday, and I ended up bumping the Munich to a half pound (I'm working through a sack of it, so if I just get gravity points from it that's no biggie.), and omitted the spicing just to see what exactly the yeast flavor profile is like. the more I thought about it, the better a "plain" batch would be for this little experiment.

had the fermenter around 72°, but that thing shot up to 75° while I was out of the house Sunday. TONS of krausen, so I am glad I remembered Fermcap! otherwise I'd have had a mess on my hands. it dropped back to 71-72° this morning, so I moved it to a warmer location.

per other member's advice, I will try to keep it warm(er) the rest of the way, and I will DEFINITELY check the gravity before bottling. had 1 bottle bomb in my life ~knocks on wood~ and I never want to deal with that again...

it's a shame I am "saving" my spare corny for the tripel, but I do want to brew in succession so I'll just suck it up and bottle this small batch