"For a healthy fermentation, aerate very well before pitching yeast. This is a high gravity beer and the yeast needs extra oxygen to get a good start."
Seven Bridges Organic
Homebrewing Supply
Santa Cruz, California
A big Belgian tripel from a California brewpub originally brewed for Y2K.
Hennepin is a beer with a high original gravity and a low ending gravity — with a resulting 8% alcohol! Ommegang achieves this by using approximately 20% cane sugar in this beer, but they suggest that homebrewers try using Belgian candi sugar. For yeast, Randy suggested that you use a Belgian strain with a high attenuation and a mild ester and phenolic flavor.
A Belgian Strong Ale with smoke. From the "Homebrewer at the South Pole" article, BYO 1996.
This was the beer that was given to each of the attendees of this year’s Houston Foam Ranger’s Dixie Cup Homebrew Competition. The theme was Fredopoly, based on the board game Monopoly and in honor of our annual speaker and homebrew pioneer, Fred Eckhardt.
This is a Belgian Dubbel, indicating a higher alcohol content.
Corsendonk is an Abbey beer, not a Trappist beer. This designation means the beer is brewed not at an abbey, but under license from — or at least in the style of — a Trappist monastery. In the case of Corsendonk, the name is taken from an Augustine priory that produced beer from the 1600s until the 1780s. Whether the Augustine brothers brewed anything remotely resembling modern Corsendonk is debatable, but they have licensed their name to the beer since 1982.
- Brouwerij Bios, Ertvelde
The quintessential Trappist tripel, Westmalle is very pale, very strong and wonderfully smooth. One of the brewhouse techniques that makes the Westmalle beers unique is the use of direct gas flames on the copper kettles. This creates hot spots that may caramelize the wort slightly, giving a faint burnt-sugar taste to the beers. The beers are also brewed with very hard water, which certainly contributes to the character of the tripel.
Brouwerij Moortgat, Breendonk
“Devil” is the archetypal Belgian Strong Golden ale. In fact, most of Duvel’s imitators make some reference to the devil in their name or label. Strong, pale amber in color, Duvel’s flavor is a unique balance of alcohol, hops and sweet malt.
Light colors and dry finishes don’t go along with most big beers, but that’s exactly what makes a Belgian tripel great. The road to homebrew heaven is littered with failed tripel attempts, but here’s your path to salvation — use only light base malts and about 25% clear adjunct (sugar); pitch a big yeast starter and add some yeast nutrients in the boil to supply nitrogen to the yeast.
This beer has overtones of both caramel and nuttiness, with hints of roastiness in the background, augmented by the lushness of two different kinds of Belgian candi sugar. Hops are very much in the background. Splitting the batch and employing two different yeast strains provides an interesting variation, with 1388 being notably the "cleaner" of the two and 3787 providing a richer complexity.
