Westmalle Tripel

[Fore]

By far my best AG so far. Best beer in 22 years when you throw in kits. Westmalle Tripel is my current favorite beer, so I am biased.

I followed a partial extract recipe, but adapted it for all grain. I also played with 2 of the hops to match my own stock, and substituted candi for dextrose. It didn't really have much negative impact as it turned out very very close to the real thing.

This was the adapted 23l original:
Target 8.5% ABV with 85% Pils malt, 15% light caramel malt, plus 700g dextrose.
Target 35 IBU with...
27% Styrian Goldings (3% AA) @ 1.5h
27% Tettnang (4% AA) @ 1h
27% Fuggle (6% AA) @ 30m
18% Saaz (4% AA) @ 5m

This was my 23l actual:
6.7kg Pils
460g carahell
788g dextrose
15g Magnum (11.6% AA) @ 75m
45g Styrian Golding (3% AA) @ 75m
21g Styrian Golding (3% AA) @ 25m
16g Saaz (3.9% AA) @ 5m
I aimed for a low pH but probably undershot to about pH5.0 or 5.1. I aimed low on the mash temp (64C) and again overshot a bit to about 62C (1.5h). Dextrose was added with 10 minutes of the boil to go. Yeast used was two packs of M31.

I suffered a really bad efficiency due to a poor crush, at 64.4%. But the yeast pulled down the FG much further than I was expecting, to 1.004, so I won back some of the lost ABV, resulting in 8.3%.

It's really only possible to tell any difference with the real thing on a side by side, but I can say mine is just a bit more bitter, slightly less zesty, and with less aroma. So I haven't beaten Westmalle, one of the best beers in the world, but I have come mighty close. Whatever, this is a stonking beer. Next time I'll be trying it with the original recipe hops.

 

[Martybhoy]

Well done mate. Westmalle Tripel is a cracking beer. It's a great feeling when a brew really hits the spot.

Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk

 

[Fore]

Well, reactions have been pretty spectacular. For example, on the back of trying this, a work colleague and his beer loving wife have decided to start home brewing. She came to the office and came to tell me that it's probably the best beer she's ever tasted. She's familiar with Westmalle Tripel and said mine is better! I was pretty blown away really.

I'm quite critical about my brews, as you need to be to keep things improving, but as I covered in my OP, I knew this one was a cracker, and it seems others agree. You tell people you home brew and all they can think of is a witches potion, so it's good to help change mindsets. Not so much of a joke hobby anymore.

I have my first AG stout in the fermenter; not only hit all targets, but first sample of that one was pretty spectacular too. Just tasted really "fresh", with a rich malt flavour, and didn't seem very bitter considering it's the highest IBU I've done so far. Have high hopes for that one too, but not many people who want to try my beer like stout. See if I can change that too.