10.29.2011

Finally brewed a Belgian Tripel / Double IPA! Houblon Chouffe Clone



I've been closely watching my Cream Ale Split batch to see how the different yeasts performed (American Ale 1 vs. Belgian Ardennes).   To be honest, I thought that the Belgian batch may have been infected because it was giving off some odors that made me wonder.   I decided to chill out, not jump to conclusions, shake up the carboy a bit and get the yeast back into suspension and let them clean up whatever funkyness was going on.   My first thought was, shit, brett, pedio, lacto, or all three were still hanging out in the carboy from either my saison bretts or my flanders beers..   Luckily all it needed was a bit of time like I suspected.   The main reason I was worried about infection was because I had been planning on using the yeast cake for a big Hoppy Tripel!

Finally I brewed a Belgian Tripel / Double IPA!  A year and a half ago when my wife and I found out we were pregnant I celebrated with a fantastic beer, Houblon Choufe's: Dobbelen IPA Tripel.   If you haven't tried this beer, you really should.  It's essentially a Belgian Tripel with American hops.   When I first tasted this beer I immediately declared it my favorite beer of all time!  I love american hops.  I love belgian yeast (unless it has banana flavor going on, for some reason I don't dig on banana in my beer.)  I guess I could swoon about Houblon Chouffe all damn night and how it's the perfect beer for me....maybe not for you who even knows.   It really is a great beer...for me.  If you don't like it that's your own damn problem.

Here's what I ended up doing for my attempt to create something similar to Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel.  It should be a little more assertive on the hops then Houblon Chouffe but very similar concept and recipe basics. Mash at 144 degrees for 30 min. Step up to 154 for 30 minutes. Batch sparge and collect 8 gallons for 90 minute boil rigorous boil.

Rock Stead Easy - Dobbelen IPA / Tripel

malt & fermentables

%
LB
OZ
Malt or Fermentable
ppg
°L
68%
13
0
Belgian Pilsner Malt
34
2
21%
4
0
American Two-row Pale
37
1
11%
2
0
Belgian Candy Sugar Light
36
0

19
0



Original Gravity - 1.088
Final Gravity -1.011

ABV:  10.1%

Color  5° SRM
Mash Efficiency
70% 
hops
use
time
oz
variety
form
aa
first wort
90+ mins
1.0
Columbus
pellet
15.4
boil
30 mins
0.25
Saaz
pellet
3.5
boil
30 mins
0.25
Sorachi Ace
pellet
13.7
boil
7 mins
1.0
US Fuggles
pellet
4.5
boil
5 mins
0.75
Saaaz
pellet
3.5
boil
5 mins
0.75
Sorachi Ace
pellet
13.7
boil
1 min
1.0
Amarillo
leaf
7.0
boil
1 min
1.0
Glacier
pellet
5.6
dry hop
10 days
3.0
Amarillo
leaf
7.0

11.20.11 - Transferred to secondary and took a sample.  Lots of orange citrus. Tasted a little bit hot, maybe a little fusel but other then that it tasted really good.  Put it on 3 oz. of Amarillo hops.  Gravity reading is 1.020.
12.4.11 - Gravity reading is 1.011 after shaking up the fermenter and raising temp from 68 to 77 over 10 days.  Terminal Gravity is 1.011 which is a little higher then I was hoping for, but the fusels are completely gone now and this seems to be ready to drink!   I'll crash cool, and then keg in the next couple of days!
12.15.11 - First tasting- Yum!
Appearance:  Golden crystal clear.  nice head and decent retention
Aroma: Yeast is not present.  I'll stress the yeast next time instead of overpitch like I did on this batch. bready initally which surprises me. sweetness in the nose.  I'm not getting the Amarillo dry hops and I'm not getting the Amarillo, Glacier in the nose.  Maybe I have a cold.  All I smell is bread.
Flavor: starts of with sweet lemons, and mixes with maltyness in the middle.  Finish's citrusy sweet on the finish.  Really smooth and extremely drinkable.  No alcohol present what so ever.
Mouthfeel: smooth creamy mouthfeel.  light bodied.

7 comments:

  1. This sounds like an amazing beer. I agree with your love of Houblon Chouffe, a bar in town just got it on tap and it is awesome. Not sure if you read my blending post but I blended an IPA with a Belgian Tripel recently, cant wait for it to carbonate. Any interest in swapping bottles? Not sure about the ease of shipping over the border, but I say what the hell. Have a good one.
    BB

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah man, I did read your post over the weekend. I'd love to do a swap. mine is currently vigorously fermenting and in "blow off" mode, I'll probably transfer it to secondary in two weeks, dry hop it and have it bottled and ready to ship by mid-December!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ya that sounds good, some time in the bottle to develop some character is probably good, if we're going to trade brews maybe we may as well send a few? Even a write up of the beers on the blogs might be cool? Whadya reckon?
    BB

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is an interesting recipe. I'm about to do a hoppy Tripel and almost talked myself out of it because most people stick to the Saaz and Styrian hops, but I'm thinking of incorporating a bit of Galaxy and Topaz (both tasty Australian hops). Still can't believe you used Sorachi Ace! Outrageous!

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Lifestyle Ninja - I was trying to go with a nice complex hop flavor in this. I was really trying to get the Orange Citrus Aroma from the glacier and Amarillo, and the Lemon Citrus in the flavor from the Sorachi and Saaz. I think I was successful in the flavor but not as much in the aroma as I couldn't detect anything other then the belgian phenolics. It was a pretty fantastic beer...but I wished it would have finished a little more dry.

    I say go for it. Galaxy tastes like Pears to me, and Topaz (passionfruit?) Mix in a hop variety that's a little earthy and ferment high and dry!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm about to brew a Junga/Saaz/Cascade BIPA using 3711 and was wondering what sort of IBU you got in this recipe? The recipe I've got going at the moment has 65IBU but I'm thinking maybe I should drop it a little?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sorry I'm just getting to this message now and you probably brewed it already. 3711 will give you an extremely dry beer. When I use 3711, if the recipe says it's 60 IBU's, it will taste like it's 70Ibu's. I always add on 10 IBU's when I make a really dry beer because the bitterness is accentuated by the dryness of the beer and the perceived bitterness is higher.

    I'd say if you are aiming for 65 IBU's then make your recipe to 55 IBU's if you are using 3711.

    OR

    Mash really high like 158 degrees.

    ReplyDelete

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