Westmalle Tripel - Recipe and Process Best Practices

[joecool]

I'm hopefully going to start this in a week. I just had a couple of questions regarding yeast and fermentation.

I haven't got much experience with brewing but so far have been extremely happy with what we've made. My current procedure is pump out of the brewzilla from a height into the fermenter bucket to help with oxygenation, leave for 2 weeks, batch prime with sugar and bottle. Then about 2-5 weeks in bottles at room temperature.

1) @Holden Caulfield I see you did a vitality starter. I'm wondering about not doing that, my logic being that a) White Labs are claiming high viability and vitality for their PurePitch line, b) I read that having used a vitality starter you don't want a well oxygenated wort? I think it's easier for me to introduce oxygen than not but I wondered if you think this is the wrong approach and I should definitely do the vitality starter?

2) Temperature - piecing together all the above, pitch at 64F (18.8C) and raise to 70F (21.1) after 4 days? Then keep at that until bottling?

3) How long should it be left in the fermenter? 14 days ok?

4) Should I use a bottling yeast (CBC-1)? I've seen seen arguments for and against. And how much carbonation should I be aiming for? Wondering how much priming sugar to use.

Thanks, and sorry for all the questions.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Joecool, answers below...

1) @Holden Caulfield I see you did a vitality starter. I'm wondering about not doing that, my logic being that a) White Labs are claiming high viability and vitality for their PurePitch line, b) I read that having used a vitality starter you don't want a well oxygenated wort? I think it's easier for me to introduce oxygen than not but I wondered if you think this is the wrong approach and I should definitely do the vitality starter?

I did not do a vitality starter. Instead, my goal was to pitch at the same rate as Westmalle, which required based on my calculations, 61B cells for 3.4 gallons of wort. So I made a 1L starter a few days before with a 100B cell yeast pack, calculated how many cells were available at completion, and when completed shook up the starter to evenly suspend the yeast then decanted some of the starter to end up with my the number of cells I targeted. Then, crashed the starter and poured off most of the liquid before mixing and pitching the starter. Did this give me more yeast expression - no idea, but everything came out excellent in the end. Also, I did oxygenate the wort prior to pitching.

2) Temperature - piecing together all the above, pitch at 64F (18.8C) and raise to 70F (21.1) after 4 days? Then keep at that until bottling?

WLP530 / Wy3787 is a beast. It will crawl out of anything and completes most fermentation very quickly - so ramping it to terminal temperature in 4 days is reasonable. That said, it is a slooooow finisher. The last 5 to 10 gravity points will take quite a while, so leave it at terminal temp for at least 3 weeks. Do not drop the temperature at any time, as this yeast is prone to just quit.

3) How long should it be left in the fermenter? 14 days ok?

See 2 above.

4) Should I use a bottling yeast (CBC-1)? I've seen seen arguments for and against. And how much carbonation should I be aiming for? Wondering how much priming sugar to use.

I have never tried to bottle condition the Westmalle strain straight from the fermenter so cannot comment on how important it is to use fresh yeast. I believe Westmalle does, and from what I read the belief is that due to this strain and the high gravity nature of the beer, the yeast will be burnt out - is this true, no idea. That said, bottle conditioning with CBC-1 may be prudent. As far a how much, these beers are quite fizzy (you need very sturdy bottles). Just look up how many volumes of CO2 you want to achieve and use an online calculator for the amount of corn sugar (dextrose) or table sugar (sucrose) you should use. Note, sucrose is a double saccharide so it provides a lot more carbonation, so be careful when calculating the amount and use weight not volume when measuring quantity. Finally, add the sugar to about a cup of water and boil it to pre-dissolve and sanitize it. Then pour it into your bottling bucket prior to adding the beer. This will help evenly mix the sugar and beer and minimize the amount of stirring.

Good luck.

 

[joecool]

Awesome, thanks. I'm ordering the stuff tonight and I'll report back with progress

 

[joecool]

@Holden Caulfield I had success! The fermentation was a little crazy. Either I didn't put the lid on my bucket properly or pressure built up enough to open it up. Either way, the yeast tried to make a bid for freedom but I managed to clean up and carry on. Following that I've started using a bigger tube for the blow off. The temperature ramped up more than you recommended (I've lost the data so can't say exactly what it was). As the UK is going in to summer I've put together a temporary cooler coil fed by an ice bucket, controlled by the Inkbird. It actually works quite well so next batch I'll use that, until I get a proper chiller.

The result? Fantastic. It is a little undercarbed but I've been getting inconsistent bottle priming carbonation which I think is due to some batches getting too cold. I'll work better on that next time. I used the bottling yeast.

I did a blind taste test against a bottle of Westmalle last week and I failed! So great result. The Westmalle has clearly better carbonation but drinking with my eyes closed I didn't really clock the difference. Carbonation is ok, just not what it should be. I got my dad to try a blind taste test as well, since he introduced me to Wesmalle. He managed to tell the difference but it was close.

Fantastic recipe, thanks for all your hard work. Will do another batch soon, learn for the mistakes and hopefully leave for a bit longer. It has improved over time but was really good after about 6 weeks.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Congrats on making one of the best beers in the world. Not surprised by the blowoff and runaway temps - WLP530 / WY3787 is a beast. Despite its Kraken behavior, it is also very forgiving at higher temperatures. In fact, Westvleteren lets it run away into the low 80s.

Good luck with your next batch. No doubt it will be even better.

KB