Tripelceratops

This is a fierce tripel.  Probably too fierce.

Fermentables:

• 15 lb Dingemans Pilsner malt.
• 1 lb 4 oz Dingemans Caramel malt 20L.
• 5 oz Dingemans Aromatic malt.
• 1 lb Briess flaked oats.
• 2 lbs Belgian candi sugar.

Hops:

• 1 oz Brewer's Gold (boiled 60 min)
• 1 oz Styrian Golding (boiled 30 min)

Yeast. 2.4 liter starter:

• 2.4 L water, boiled
• 8.7 oz DME, added to the boiled water
• 1 pkg Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity, added to the cooled-down DME+boiled water.

Right, so this was the second attempt at this beer. The first attempt was sadly stopped short by electrical issues.  I wanted a big-ish tripel and I really meant for 1.5 lbs of candi sugar but somehow the stress of the moment led me to not measure that out (they're in 1 lb packages).

Fermentation went ok but I was a bit worried about the final gravity on my hydrometer leveling out around 1.002, whereas I expected the final gravity around 1.012.  I might need to calibrate that thing somehow because I'm not sure it's true.  But if it is, an OG of 1.088 and a FG of 1.002 means about 11.29% ABV, which is more than expected (I expected 10.0%).

I have some extra equipment now to control temperature of the fermentation and also to handle pressure in the fermenter in order to do stuff like force-carbonate directly in the fermenter. And we took advantage of that for this beer. We fermented at 68º for 14 days then dumped some yeast, and after 4 more days dumped some more yeast. At that point we dropped the temperature to 38º and cold-crashed it for two days.  Then we dropped the temperature to 35º and carbonated with the carbonation stone under 14 psi of pressure.  After that, we did a closed transfer to a keg and put that into the basement (which is like 45-50º) for 12 days.

This beer is unmistakably a tripel. It's definitely got that distinctive edge or flavor tripels are known for. But it's a very very strong tripel. I don't think it'll win any awards, but I'm pretty happy with it!