Swimming into deep water; brewing a Belgian Trappist Triple Ale

After having brewed a couple of batches (a German hefeweizen and an American pale ale), I was wondering what would be my next one. I was thinking of this and that, though Angela (my beloved wife) came up with an idea of brewing a strong Belgian ale, "something like the Chimay we used to drink back in our med school time" was the exact word I think.

My initial feeling was that of utter intimidation, given that we are talking about a beer with high ABV (approx 9%) and great complexity in terms of flavour and aroma. How could I do it right? Not to forget to mention that this is a beer that requires carbonation in high volumes (easier said than done, especially if you know that a simple mistake can lead to what it is called "the bottle-bombs"). Also it needs to be conditioned for at least 6-8 weeks as it is known that it gets better with ageing (the other thing that it is known is that I lack patience).

I did a bit of research only to find out that mashing and boiling are quite demanding in terms of technique, you have to be very accurate with temperatures, times, hops, acidity of the water, fermentation temperature etc. I felt that I had to climb a mountain, however I pulled up my socks and said to myself "what the hell man, you're the bloody Baldy Brewer, let's go for it".

Meanwhile, I had discussed over a viber call with my father-in-law about my intention to brew a Belgian monastic beer and the next morning I received a funny photo of myself into my email.

Lampros was proven to be an excellent photoshop user and except from putting a smile into my face he also gave me a good idea about the label of my beer. Everything was set to go.

This time around I tried to avoid mistakes I'd done before, so I was very well prepared; water temperature and acidity were on the money, my malt percentage was according to the recipe and my yeast had been activated from the previous day and by the time I started brewing the yeast sachet was swollen like a foot ball and the fungi inside were angry and ready to start consuming gluttonously the sugars of the wort in order to produce alcohol. I asked my daughter Mary a.k.a. the strawberry girl to video shoot the whole process and here we are...

Recipe and procedure

Expectations:

• Color: Pale to pale gold

• Clarity: Chill haze is acceptable at low temperatures. Traditional Tripels are bottle conditioned and may exhibit slight yeast haze. However, yeast should not be intentionally roused.

• Perceived Malt Aroma & Flavour: Low sweetness from very pale malts should be present. There should be no roasted or dark malt character.

• Perceived Hop Aroma & Flavour: Low, if present

• Perceived Bitterness: Medium to medium-high

• Fermentation Characteristics: A complex, sometimes mildly spicy, aroma and flavour characterize this style. Clove-like phenolic aroma and flavour may be very low. Fruity esters, including banana, are also common, but not required. Traditional Tripels are often well attenuated. Alcohol strength and flavour should be present.

• Body: Medium

• Additional notes: Head should be dense and mousse-like. Brewing sugar may be used to lighten the body. Hop/malt character should be balanced. The overall beer flavour may finish sweet, though any sweet finish should be light.

Original Gravity (°Plato) 1.070-1.092 (17.1-22 °Plato)

Apparent Extract/Final Gravity (°Plato) 1.008-1.014 (2.1-3.5 °Plato)

Alcohol by Weight (Volume) 5.6%-8.0% (7.1%-10.1%)

Bitterness (IBU) 20-45 Color SRM (EBC) 4-7(8-14 EBC)

What really happened

Date of brewing: 1/11/2020 Date of bottling: 14/11/2020

Opening of bottle after conditioning: TBC

Volume of batch: 20 litres

OG:1.076 FG: 1008 ABV: 9% IBU: 40

Recipe:

Dingemans Pilsen Malt 7,000 gr

Dingemans CaraVienna 850 gr

Belgian Candi Sugar Syrup Clear (75%) 1,000 ml (15 mins to go in the boil)

Northern Brewer T90 Pellets 56 gr (at the beginning of the boil)

Saaz T90 Pellets 30 gr (15 mins to go in the boil)

Saaz T90 Pellets 30 gr (5 mins to go in the boil)

Wyeast 1388 BELGIAN STRONG ALE

2 Protafloc Tablets

Procedure:

Temperature in the HLT: 76 ºC

Temperature in the mash tun: 67 ºC

Mashing: 60 minutes at 67 ºC, batch sparging x2 for 20 minutes

The boil: boiling for 80 minutes, immersion cooling and transfer into fermenter. OG 1.076

Fermentation lasted for 9 days, when gravity came down to 1.012 temperature was raised up to 23 Celsius for Diacetyl rest to take place.

The beer was primed with brewing sugar (estimated 3.0 volumes of CO2) and bottled

Conditioning for 6-8 weeks

Tasting

I have to admit that this time I was patient with conditioning. I let the beer to rest and did not rush to open a single bottle before 6 weeks from bottling had gone past. The fact that I had some beers left to drink from previews brews proved to be quite helpful.

As one can see, in terms of appearance the result was spot on. The beer has a copper-gold colour, is a bit hazy and with the help of high carbonation (3 volumes of CO2) it retains a nice mousse-like head.

Approaching the nose to the glass, you can feel the warm presence of alcohol (it is a large 9% ABV beer anyway without excessive or overwhelming booziness. I would say that this intense presence of alcohol combines nicely with the light malty aroma and in the end gives a very warm and pleasant feeling.

Taking the first big sip you immediately get the message that things are really serious. This beer is strong with a warming, well carbonated mouthfeel and a satiating body. The flavour is quite complex and from some research I did, I found out that it evolves with ageing. Some maltiness is there along with light banana and clove flavours, coming from the esters that the Belgian strong ale yeast has produced. Bitterness is medium to medium-high (40 IBUs) and hoppiness is completely absent, exactly as planned. The fact that I left fermentation to go on for almost 3 weeks made the beer quite dry (my final gravity was 1,008), therefore sweetness was not there although I had used 1kg of Belgian candi sugar (obviously it was all eaten by the yeast).

Overall, I think that this brew was a success!! The outcome is a strong and delicious beer, perfectly appropriate to be drunk at Christmas season. I will hide away some bottles for ageing and try them after 6-8 months. Last but not least, it is very important that I kept Angela happy as brewing a Belgian triple was her idea. She tasted it and really loved it. I reckon that I can take full credit for this, can't I?