Redrock Reve Belgian tripplel Tribute recipe

[enderhay]

Sunday evening i went to one of our local brewery for dinner. They were serving a Belgian tripplel.

I threw down the $15 bucks for the bottle. Wow!

It Poured an attractive golden color with egg shell colored foam. This beer presented some great retention and lacing on the glass.

The aroma was spicy, yeasty, white pepper, banana, and light citrus (mostly lemon). Also notes of Belgian candy sugar and pale malt sweetness.

This beer is now my favorite local brew. The only problem is they only produce around 1500 bottles and you can not buy this in any stores. You can not even buy bottles to take home. (Utah Laws)

Here is a description from the website.

After 4 years of development, Red Rock would like to introduce Rêve, a Belgian-style Trippel!

Rêve is barrel-aged in medium toast French Oak for the duration of a year. This brew is inoculated with Brettanomyces and bottle conditioned. Rêve is comprised of a combination of Pilsner Malts and Pale Malt. Belgian Candy Sugar is a key component giving the Trippel a sweet yet dry finish. This filtered brew is golden in color and 10.3% alcohol by volume.

So Now the quest to replicate this gem or at least a nice tribute.

Here is what im thinking.

Any help would be appreciated.

Grain:
13 lbs Pilsen
1 lbs Munich I
4.0 oz Aromatic Malt
2 lbs Candi Sugar, Clear

Hops:
1.50 oz EKG[5.10 %] (90 min)
0.75 oz Tettnang [4.80 %] 30
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.80 %] 15

I'm thinking WLAB500 yeast

as for the brett? (any suggestions)


French medium toasted oak chips soaked in a Chardonnay in secondary (any suggestions)

 

[Oldsock]

I’ve never had the beer, but it sounds excellent.

I would drop the Munich and aromatic, and add some Belgian pale (which will give you a bit more color and maltiness than the pils alone). I would go with 2/3 pils, 1/3 pale (I did 50/50 for a tripel and it was a bit darker orange than I wanted).

I would sub plain old table sugar for the Belgian candi sugar, it is much cheaper and they are both pure sucrose. I’d also drop everything but the first hop addition (which you can increase slightly to get the same IBUs), after 12 months of aging there won’t be much in the way of hop aromatics left.

Sorry to hear it is filtered or I’d just suggest adding the dregs from a bottle to get their Brett strain. See if the brewer is willing to divulge what strain they use. My first guess would have been Brett B, but your description makes the funk character sound pretty subdued, so I would go with Brett C.

Just 1 oz of oak cubes is all it takes to get a subtle oak character with that amount of aging. You could go higher, but I’d suggest waiting until half way through the aging period, then add more if needed.

Hope that helps.

 

[enderhay]

Thanks for the Reply.
I think i will adjust the grain bill as you suggested.

Would you recommend using a wyeast Belgian lambic blend?
(Detailed Description)

3278 Belgian Lambic Blend. Contains a selection of Saccharomyces add non-Saccharomyces which include Belgian style wheat beer yeast, Sherry yeast, two Brettanomyces strains and Lactic Acid Bacteria. While this mixture does not include all possible cultures found in Belgian Lambics, it is representative of the organisms, which are most important for the desirable flavor components of these beer styles. Individual components available from this blend are numbered below.

I have never used any labics in brewing.

 

[Oldsock]

The lambic blend contains considerably more microbes than the original beer (and the Sacch strain would not be as expressive). In such a strong beer though the lactic acid bacteria will not be able to do much (so the beer will not get sour like a lambic).

Wyeast just released Brett C as part of their second quarter VSS release. I would go with WLP 500 in primary and that in secondary. It is will be fruitier where as the Brett B and L in the lambic blend can be more funky/barnyardy.

Happy brewing. Try to remember to post your results (eventually).