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
ABV: 10.1%
Color 5° SRM
Final Gravity -1.011
ABV: 10.1%
Color 5° SRM
Mash Efficiency
70%
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.
