Burninator (American Tripel) - Recipe & Brew Day

During last Wednesday's brewing session, Joe, Miller and I polished off the last bottle of my Honey Tripel, a brew I had concocted back in March of 2009. I had been routing through a few old cases of beer, trying to weed out out the drinkables from the liquid lawn fertilizers, when I happened upon two bottles of it. Thinking back on my first experience, the beer was a bit too sweet for my liking, but I figured I'd give it another try and put the bottles in the fridge. Well, it was a good thing I did, because the beer had definitely aged well over the past fifteen months, mellowing out in flavor and drying-out a bit. Not wanting to be greedy, I pulled the second bottle out during brew day and the three of us finished it off, praying there were more bottles hidden somewhere in the basement, but unfortunately the answer was no....

I don't think there is a better way to motivate you to brew than drinking a beer from one of your past brew days that actually turned out amazing, especially after 15 months of cellaring. And, with all the recent talk of Belgian IPA's and American Tripels, I figured why not "drink the Kool Aid", and brew one. I might even have to save a two or three gallons to oak with some Shiraz infused oak cubes...

The base beer is your standard Tripel grain bill, Pilsner Malt and Cane Sugar, with a few minor additions of Wheat Malt and Aromatic Malt. I didn't want to go too crazy on the malt bill, and I figured the Aromatic Malt would help to carry the malt aroma, maybe even add a bit of complexity. Then for the hop bill, I went with Columbus, Cascade and the new hop variety (well new for me) Citra. I've never used Citra, but they're described as having tropical fruit tones of citrus, peaches, passion fruit, mango, papaya, lychee fruit, melon, grapefruit, lime and gooseberry. Should be interesting!

Burninator (American Tripel) – Recipe & Brew Day Stats

Brewed: Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Racked: just primary fermentation (minus the 3 gallons sitting on Syrah soaked oak cubes)

Bottled/Kegged: Thursday, June 24, 2010

Batch Size (Gal): 6.00

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Original Gravity: 1.083

Final Gravity: 1.011

SRM: 3.9

IBU: 60

ABV: 9.2%

Grains/Sugars (Total Grain Bill (Lbs.): 18.00)

15.00 lbs. Pilsner Malt (2~Row)

2.50 lbs. Cane Sugar

0.25 lb. Wheat Malt

0.25 lb. Aromatic Malt

Hops

1.00 oz. Columbus, 14.20%, pellet, 60min

.50 oz. Cascade, 7.40%, pellet, 15min

.50 oz. Citra, 12.30%, pellet, 15min

.50 oz. Cascade, 7.40%, pellet, Flame out

.50 oz. Citra, 12.30%, pellet, Flame out

Yeast

WLP530: Abbey Ale Yeast 2000ml. starter

Additives

1 tsp. Irish Moss, 15min

Mash/Boil/Fermentation

H2O/Grain Ratio: 1.51 qt/lb

Sacch. Rest Temp/Time: 149*F/75min

Mash Out Temp/Time: 165*F/10min

Sparge Temp/Time: 170*F/30min

Pre-Boil Vol: 8

Post-Boil Vol: 6

Evaporation Rate(per hour): 10%

Ferment Temp: 75°F

Primary Fermentation (Days): 14

Secondary Fermentation (Days): (3 gallons will be stored on Hungarian oak cubes soaked in Syrah for a few months. Should be interesting!)