Should I add maltodextrin to my Belgian Tripel?

[jeffandmaggielou]

I brewed a tripel 3 weeks ago and apparently made the world's most fermentable wort. OG was 1.070 (ended up lower than I was hoping for). Fermented at 68-72 with WLP530, and just finished after 21 days of steady bubbling at .996! I'm giving it another week to settle out and clean up and in the meantime wondering if I should be trying to "fix" the body with some maltodextrin given how bone dry it is likely to be. This is the first tripel I've made and by far the lowest FG I've ever had. Should I just keg as is or thicken it up?

 

[mac_1103]

100% AA with WLP530 seems unlikely. How do you measure gravity? And have you tasted it? If I was going to add anything it would be based on what the beer is, not what it is likely to be.

 

[hotbeer]

Might have gotten a infection that took the SG going that low. Any sour taste to it?

I wouldn't know where to begin suggesting how much maltodextrin to add. Depends entirely how well you do or don't like the mouthfeel of that beer.

Whatever the recommendation is, I'd do half, then see if that's enough for me. I can always add more later.

For certain I'd bottle or keg some of it now to see what it's like when carbonated and then go from there. The rest can sit in the FV for as long as it takes to determine what the samples are like.

Just make sure to keep everything around you and especially what you use sanitary.

 

[MaxStout]

I can't think of a reason that beer would finish <1.000, unless there was a huge amount of added sugar in the fermentables, your hydrometer is way off, or some diastaticus yeast found its way in.

Taste a sample. Does it have good mouthfeel/body for the style? If so, adding maltodextrin wouldn't be necessary.

 

[marc1]

If you have contamination with diastaticus yeast driving the gravity that low then it will probably also eat the maltodextrin.

How sure are you of the gravity reading?

 

[jeffandmaggielou]

Thanks for the responses.

Ok, so to answer some questions/provide more information. The hydrometer reading seems real. My Tilt said .996. I pulled a sample and tested with the old fashioned hydrometer and it said .997. I tried the hydrometer in water and it read an even 1.000. The hydrometer was also agreeing with my refractometer when I pulled samples pre-fermentation, although obviously refractometer won't tell me anything now. Also, I made a witbier since then that gave perfectly normal hydrometer readings. So fairly certain on the gravity? Give or take a couple of gravity points.

No off smells that I can detect. It's pretty damn boozy, but I would expect that with that kind of gravity reading. It's pretty thin, which again I would expect. I have no idea how that evolves over time since I haven't made this style before. Could easily just be green but with a FG that low I'm in totally uncharted waters for me.

Brewday was definitely a little weird. Recipe called for a protein rest at 127F, so I did that. Sacc rest was supposed to be 152 but I missed it by several degrees (forgot to pre-heat tun, oops), so it started at around 147. I pulled a couple of quarts of mash and got it up to around 180 and re-added it, which got my mash temp to 149, which I called good enough and mashed normally. Then when I went to boil, the regulator on my burner broke and would only operate at about 10% power, so it took almost 2 hours to get to a boil. Boiling had to be done under cover because of the low heat, so I was concerned about DMS, but just didn't really have much of a choice. Finished boil, went to aerate and was out of O2 so probably did a poor job of aerating. Then the yeast took a solid day to get going and just would not stop chugging for 3 full weeks. I kept thinking it was going to stop, first at 1.014 (the expected FG), then at 1.008, then at around 1.003, but it just kept going.

So that's the saga. It seems fine but hot and thin. Further thoughts?

 

[marc1]

WLP530 shouldn't have attenuation that high, so with confirmed gravity readings, my suspicion is that there's something else growing in there that can also eat the complex sugars.

If you think it tastes OK, give it a bit longer to make sure it's done then package.

 

[bwible]

Might have gotten a infection that took the SG going that low.

It’s Belgian - who’s going to know?

 

[jeffandmaggielou]

Ok, so again, thanks for the responses. I do appreciate the feedback and it makes sense to me. Let me ask another question along the same lines: the beer, as is, is boozy and thin. Will that improve with age? If I keg it as is but decide I want to try to amend the mouthfeel down the road, can I add maltodextrin or lactose or whatever to a carbonated beer? I do understand the argument that if there's something other than WLP530 in there that has superattenuated the beer that it's likely able to consume otherwise unfermentable sugars, but the beer will be in a keezer at 38ish degrees, so it will probably ferment those sugars slowly enough to not matter much if that does happen.

 

[RM-MN]

the beer, as is, is boozy and thin. Will that improve with age?

I think so. I might keg it and leave it at room temp for a couple weeks or more before chilling it. That time also should promote better head retention.

 

[jeffandmaggielou]

In case anyone was curious about the followup: I finally transferred to keg today and the FG landed at .992 somehow. Both the tilt and hydrometer agree -- it really is that low. Smells great, tastes better than I expected but very thin and still a little boozy. Gonna carb it up and see how it is in a month or so then maybe add a tiny bit of maltodextrin if it seems like it needs it.

 

[mac_1103]

I finally transferred to keg today and the FG landed at .992 somehow.

So just to reiterate, there is basically no way that WLP530 did that on its own. Something else got into your brew and fermented all the complex sugars. If it tastes good then it tastes good, but you're going to want to do some very serious cleaning and disinfecting of anything that this beer touched or you'll be brewing 0.992 FG beers from now on.

 

[hotbeer]

My serious sanitation for things that were used making a infected beer is to include a good soak in a strong bleach solution for up to two hours. I don't worry about things used in the boil kettle or prior, but anything during and after the wort was cooled gets that.

As well, it never hurts to look at the environment you are brewing in. Commercial breweries brew in very clean rooms. We should too. Though I admit, I'm lax on that. But currently am not having any infections issues.