Brew Day: Dry Hopped Tripel

It has been quite a busy time for me till now. In fact it has been so busy that I haven’t even brewed for a while. On a recent trip with friends, I carried a case of 4 of my beers along with other notable tipples. The objective of carrying my own beer was to give my friends a taste of craft beer and not depend entirely on the mass produced horse piss which at a resort can cost quite a lot.

The responses and reviews to the beers were generally positive and favorable. I carried a Stout, a session IPA, a Simcoe IPA and a Hoppy Dubbel, of which the Hoppy Dubbel received the most praise. Brewing the Dubbel was simple and most of the prep was done beforehand which led to a smooth brew day which made me decide to take things to the next level and attempt to brew a Tripel.

Now, the Dubbel didn’t have the strong hot alcohol stab that big beers have and this can be attributed to some extent to the finishing hops. Since the Tripel is a bigger beer than a Dubbel and not having any Belgian yeast to brew a true blue Tripel, I suspected that the beer would have a strong alcohol note that may overwhelm the palate. To keep that alcohol aroma at a minimum, I decided to mask it with a dry hop regimen after 3 to 4 weeks of fermentation. I was also inspired by this post by Malcolm Frazer of Brulosophy.com to carry out a staggered addition of the sugars to the beer during fermentation and not add any of it to the boil.

This 5 litre batch is smaller than my regular 8 litre batches because I didnt want a large batch of a big beer and more so because this is an experimental batch of the Tripel. I used a mix of Pilsner and the remaining amount of Munich and kept the IBUs close to the same level as the Dubbel. I'm not sure where but I missed out on one gravity point according to the refractometer as against the recipe I formulated in brewersfriend.com. My biggest concern was the lack of a Belgian yeast (I'm using the oft used S-04 here and I am expecting brickbats) which would lend the fruity aroma that Tripels are known for, but I think I can try the next Tripel when I get hold of a Belgian yeast.

Right now, its been about 4 weeks of fermentation and the beer is undergoing its dry hop regimen. It does have the expected nostril-irritating alcohol aroma and I’m hoping that the dry hops will reduce this characteristic when I pour it for a tasting.

Dry Hopped Tripel

Specifics

Batch size (litres): 5 litres
Type: All Grain

IBU: 27

SRM: 14

OG: 1.084

Grains and Sugars

1 kg Pilsner
750 grams Munich 20

100 grams sugar added after 2 weeks in the fermenter

Hops

3 grams Horizon @ 60
4 grams Simcoe dry hopped for 5 days
4 grams Cascadedry hopped for 5 days

Yeast

Fermentis S-04 Ale Yeast. I made a yeast starter two weeks ago, cold crashed it and pitched it.

Schedules

Mash at 63°C for 60 minutes.

Batch sparged at 80°C.

Boiled for 60 minutes.