12.06.2012

Trepidation - Belgian Tripel DIPA with Brett Drie and Wyeast French Saison



I wanted to brew something big for a yeast cake I had of a Session Saison Brett.  Because I  loved my first version of a Belgian Tripel/DIPA that I brewed a year ago that was inspired by Houblon Chouffe.   In addition to that, I also loved the Anchorage Brewing Bitter Monk when I had it in La Crosse at The Bodega a year ago.   I decided that I'd try my shot at something similar.   Anchorage Brewing Bitter Monk is a Belgian-Style DIPA aged in Chardonnay barrels with Brett.   It had a whole lot going on and the Chardonnay character was maybe a little too much, but the idea of it was amazing, and the execution was phenomenal and so I decided I must try and create something like this.   I paid $18 for a 750 ml of this beer and if I can create 5 gallons of something similar... I'll be living like a king!  

I took a pretty traditional Belgian Tripel grain bill, and then hopped it up with a mix of hops to reach a balance of earthyness in the flavor and then the piney, fruity aspects in the aroma.   The brett drie and Saison yeast should give a fruity flavor to the beer as well as spicyness on the nose. 

My brett of choice for this beer is brett drie for hoppy beers where you want more fruit and less funk.   Brett drie is an amazing bretta strain in that it has little "tradional" brett characteristics like barnyard, horse hay, cat piss, and more of the spicy fruity ones, like POG or tropical fruit.   In fact it's very similar to Wyeast French Saison in my opinion.   That all being said, I thought it would be a great complement to this beer. 

Both Wyeast French Saison and Brett Drie will help to attenuate this beer to an extremely high level.  For that reason, I mashed really high at 157 degrees as to not dry this out too far! Since Wyeast French Saison is similar to Wyeast Belgian Ardennes, I thought it could be a good idea for this beer!   I've always wonder how dry Wyeast French Saison would get when mashed high and now we'll find out! 

I'll sample it in a couple weeks a see where it's headed, and may add a tiny bit of oak chips that have been soaked in chardonnay.  That is completely up in the air right now.



Batch Size: 5.75 gallons
Specific Gravity: 1.073 OG
Color: 7° SRM Gold to Copper
Mash Efficiency: 65 %
Bitterness: 56 IBU
Alcohol: 8.7% ABV
Calories: 236 per 12 oz.
Mash Temp: 157-158 degrees
Fermentation Temp: 72 degrees

Malt & Fermentables


%
LB
OZ


°L
PPG

91%
17
~
Rahr Pilsner Malt

Mash
34

5%
1
~
Belgian Candi Sugar - Clear

Boil
32

2%
~
6
Belgian Biscuit Malt

Mash
24°
35

2%
~
6
Belgian Aromatic

Mash
23°
34


19
12




Hops


Usage
Time
OZ


AA » IBU

boil
60 min
0.6
Columbus
13.5 » 21.8

boil
10 min
1
Columbus
13.5 » 13.2

boil
10 min
1
Sterling
6.3   » 6.2

boil
10 min
2
Styrian Goldings
3.6   » 7.0

boil
1 min
1 ½
Amarillo
7.0   » 1.2

boil
1 min
0.3
Apollo
19.7 » 0.7

boil
1 min
1
Columbus
13.5 » 1.6

boil
1 min
1
Simcoe
11.0 » 1.3

boil
1 min
0.3
Summit
18.0 » 0.6

dry hop
10 days
2
Amarillo
7.0   » 0.0

dry hop
10 days
0.5
Simcoe
19.7 » 0.0

dry hop
10 days
1
Sterling
6.3   » 0.0

Yeast

French Saison (3711)
WLP644 Brettanomyces bruxellensis Trois

  1. My only worry is that this beer will dry out too much.  
  2. My related worry is that the beer will be too bitter.
  3. My only other worry is that the hops I used won't mesh with the Saison and Brett.
  4. My only other worry is that I'll add oak and chardonnay to a perfectly good beer and make it too complex and muttled.
  5. My only other worry is that, I need to Stop Making Sense!
***Name inspired by Russian River, beer inspired by Houblon Chouffe and Bitter Monk, recipe created by me.   

4 comments:

  1. I'm more interested in how the hops you used will play with each other than they will with the yeast. I did a beer somewhat like this (saison yeast, Brett trois, west coast hop schedule and grain bill) and just kegged it. I'm going to let it condition for a month or two to get more of the tropical brett character. I did something similar before with 1056 instead of saison yeast, and it turned out wonderfully.

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  2. Because the Brett will eat thru most if not all the sugars left by the high mash temp, have you considered using oats or spelt to gain more body. Or maybe cold crashing and filtering when the body/gravity is to your liking?

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  3. Absolutely Tim. This is kind of an initial experiment to see just how far a Tripel grain bill will go (when mashed high) with this yeast and brett. French Saison yeast definitely adds some body to very dry beers, how much, we will find out in a few months. Things that I'll try depending on how we feel this one tastes.

    1. Not adding sugar at all.
    2. Adding a portion of oats.
    3. Mashing even higher.
    4. Lowering the IBU's.
    5. Using a different Sacc yeast (that isn't so highly attenuative on it's own)

    I'll take a gravity reading tonight and see where it's at, but last time I checked it was at 1.010 and activity seemed to have stopped, although it will surely come down more over time. I was surprised so I bought a new hydrometer but haven't taken another reading. My first taste of it was similar to what I was going for, but maybe too bitter.

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  4. Cold crashing and filtering is an interesting idea and I've only used it once on my Ithaca Brute clone. That beer is about to go in bottles so I'll take a gravity reading, and we'll taste that in the next few months. It may be a good weapon to have in my arsenal for other styles of beer like this, although I tend to lean away from that technique.

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