Imperial Tripel (Recipe Stage)

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What this tripel might look like, if all goes well.

This is a beer I plan to brew for the first time in 2014. I plan to brew it, taste the beer, tweak it and rebrew — and of course document this process on Beer and Wine Journal. The idea behind this beer is to take a Belgian-style Tripel, and crank it up a notch or two. I want to brew a pale beer, with a final gravity low enough not to be too sweet or be overly full-bodied. I plan to use reiterated mashing to generate the wort, because this will minimize the color. I also plan to hop it at a higher rate than a tripel, to compensate for the added strength. I’ll brew the beer in a couple weeks, but for now, here’s the recipe.

By the way, the name is just a Star Wars reference. (They can’t all be winners.)

 

Palpatine’s Tripel

(imperial tripel)

by Chris Colby

 

DESCRIPTION

A higher-gravity version of a Belgian tripel or Belgian golden ale, with added hop flavor and aroma. This beer is designed to be as light in color as possible (around 6 SRM), while still being 13% ABV. As with regular tripels, the beer has a low final gravity, given its alcoholic strength.

INGREDIENTS (for 5 gallons)

 

Water

water suitable for a very pale beer

Malt and Sugar (for OG 1.123 at 70% extract efficiency and 6 SRM)

18 lbs. US 2-row pale malt

4.0 lbs. sucrose (cane or beet sugar), boiled for 15 minutes

Hops (for 38 IBUs total)

German Magnum hops (35 IBUs)

1.0 oz. (of 12% alpha acids), boiled for 60 minutes

Tettnang hops (3 IBUs)

0.50 oz.  (of 4% alpha acids), boiled for 15 minutes

Tettnang hops (0 IBUs)

0.75 oz. (of 4% alpha acids), boiled for 0 minutes

Saaz hops (0 IBUs)

1.0 oz., dry hops

Yeast (for an FG of 21 and 13% ABV)

Wyeast 3787 (Trappist High Gravity) yeast

(8.1-qt. yeast starter)

Other

1 tsp. Irish moss, boiled for 15 minutes

0.5 tsp. yeast nutrients, boiled for 15 minutes

 

PROCEDURE

Perform a reiterated mash to generate the wort. If you can’t heat your mash tun directly, perform the first mash in your kettle. To do the reiterated mash, mash in 9.0 lbs. of grain with 12.5 qts. of brewing liquor at 151 °F for an initial mash temperature of 140 °F. Hold at 140 °F for 30 minutes, then heat mash to 152 °F. Hold mash at 152 °F for 30 minutes, then heat it to 170 °F. Transfer to lauter tun (and rinse kettle), if needed, and run off first wort, then sparge grain bed with 170 °F water to collect 12.5 qts. of wort total. Clean mash tun and heat wort to 159 °F. Mash in second mash with remaining grain (9 lbs.) and wort from kettle. Mash temperature should be 148 °F. Hold mash for 60 minutes, then stir, wait 5 minutes, and take a specific gravity reading. Repeat every 5 minutes until the rise in specific gravity slows greatly. (If you can heat your mash tun, hold temperature at 148 °F.) Hopefully, the specific gravity will creep up around 1.160 or above after 2 hours. When you decide to cutoff the second mash, heat roughly 4 gallons of water to 190 °F. Collect the wort then sparge with 190 °F water to collect 6–6.5 gallons of wort. Don’t let grain bed temperature climb above 170 °F. Boil wort for 60 minutes, adding hops, sugar, Irish moss and yeast nutrients at times indicated. Chill wort and transfer to fermenter. Aerate thoroughly and pitch yeast sediment. Ferment at 68 °F. Hit the wort with  a second shot of oxygen roughly 8 hours after pitching yeast (before high kräusen). When fermentation slows, let temperature rise to 72 °F. When fermentation slows again, swirl fermenter to rouse yeast. When fermentation ceases, let beer sit on yeast for one week, then keg beer (or bottle condition). Let beer condition for 2 months before starting to sample it.

 

 

Palpatine’s Tripel

(imperial tripel)

by Chris Colby

 

INGREDIENTS (for 19 L)

 

Water

water suitable for a very pale beer

Malt and Sugar (for OG 1.123 at 70% extract efficiency and 6 SRM)

8.2 kg US 2-row pale malt

1.8 kg sucrose (cane or beet sugar), boiled for 15 minutes

Hops (for 38 IBUs total)

German Magnum hops (35 IBUs)

28 g (of 12% alpha acids), boiled for 60 minutes

Tettnang hops (3 IBUs)

14 g (of 4% alpha acids), boiled for 15 minutes

Tettnang hops (0 IBUs)

21 g (of 4% alpha acids), boiled for 0 minutes

Saaz hops (0 IBUs)

28 g, dry hops

Yeast (for an FG of 21 and 13% ABV)

Wyeast 3787 (Trappist High Gravity) yeast

(7.7-L yeast starter)

Other

1 tsp. Irish moss, boiled for 15 minutes

0.5 tsp. yeast nutrients, boiled for 15 minutes

 

PROCEDURE

Perform a reiterated mash to generate the wort. If you can’t heat your mash tun directly, perform the first mash in your kettle. To do the reiterated mash, mash in 4.1 kg of grain with 12 L of brewing liquor at 66 °C for an initial mash temperature of 60 °C. Hold at 60 °C for 30 minutes, then heat mash to 67 °C. Hold mash at 67 °C for 30 minutes, then heat it to 77 °C. Transfer to lauter tun (and rinse kettle), if needed, and run off first wort, then sparge grain bed with 77 °C water to collect 12 L of wort total. Clean mash tun and heat wort to 71 °C. Mash in second mash with remaining grain (4.1 kg) and wort from kettle. Mash temperature should be 64 °C. Hold mash for 60 minutes, then stir, wait 5 minutes, and take a specific gravity reading. Repeat every 5 minutes until the rise in specific gravity slows greatly. (If you can heat your mash tun, hold temperature at 64 °C.) Hopefully, the specific gravity will creep up around 1.160 or above after 2 hours. When you decide to cutoff the second mash, heat roughly 8 L of water to 88 °C. Collect the wort then sparge with 88 °C water to collect 23–25 L of wort. Don’t let grain bed temperature climb above 77 °C. Boil wort for 60 minutes, adding hops, sugar, Irish moss and yeast nutrients at times indicated. Chill wort and transfer to fermenter. Aerate thoroughly and pitch yeast sediment. Ferment at 20 °C. Hit the wort with a second shot of oxygen roughly 8 hours after pitching yeast (before high kräusen). When fermentation slows, let temperature rise to 22 °C. When fermentation slows again, swirl fermenter to rouse yeast. When fermentation ceases, let beer sit on yeast for one week, then keg beer (or bottle condition). Let beer condition for 2 months before starting to sample it.

Comments

  1. Great looking recipe Chris! Tripel is my favorite style and I’ve even won a couple awards for mine. As far as starters go, are you going to use the same rules laid out in the Barleywine article? Basically 3qts + 1qt for every ten OG points above 1.080, so a 7qt starter?
    Thanks as always!

    • Chris Colby says

      I usually go to Mr. Malty and use the yeast starter calculator there, and it meshes pretty closely with the rule of thumb I gave in the barleywine story, so yes. I might even overpitch slightly because I don’t want a lot of esters or the “Belgian-y” character of the yeast to be too pronounced. It should be developed enough simply from the high starting gravity.
      I might also even try a split batch with another yeast strain.

  2. Looking good. Love the reiterated mash technique to get the gravity high. On the hopping schedule, have you dry hopped a triple before? If so what does that aroma do to the traditional Belgian flavor?

    • Chris Colby says

      I’ve never dry hopped a tripel before. In this beer (imperial tripel), I expect the increase in hop aroma will balance the increase in esters from the high-gravity fermentation. I’ll let you know when the beer is finished.

      • Let us know. My only experience in dry hopping with noble hops made my beer too spicy for the style, which was an ESB. I like the idea, though. Hops good.

  3. This is interesting mash method. I know I have not read every post on the site but I do follow basic brewing closely. I have never beard of the technique. I intend to follow this closely and see bow it turns out. I thank you and James for the brewing education.

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