Oct
20
2008
Tasting #4 — Tripel or Nothing Belgian Style Tripel 
Tripels usually take forever to get to the point where they’re ready to drink. At first, we expected to have to wait as long as two or three months for our Belgian style Tripel to age out to perfection. Imagine how surprised we were when we discovered that, other than the obviously missing carbonation, our Tripel was ready to drink right out of the primary fermenter, a mere two weeks after pitching. Nevertheless, we kept it in secondary for two more weeks to clear it out a bit, and it took a while longer to carbonate than our other beers since Trappist yeast is a little lazy. But still, a month-and-a-half to come up with a finished Tripel is pretty freaking fast.
So, let us dissect. Warning: S-words.
1.086 OG; 1.020 FG; 8.9% ABV; 13 IBU
Appearance: Hazy, honey amber color, with subtle red tones. Big, creamy (for a Belgian style), off-white head takes its time settling down, giving you all the time in the world to enjoy it.
Nose: Sweet, banana esters explode out during the pour. They’re backed by a subtle, alcoholic dryness and a generous but controlled helping of floral hops. A barely detectable hint of spice shows up if someone has already told you to expect it.
Taste: Slightly dry, semi-sweet, with lots of banana esters, balanced by a slight hop bitterness. Lots of orange sweetness completely shrouds any alcohol taste. There is a slight suggestion of coriander.
Mouthfeel: Medium-to-light bodied, and surprisingly crisp and refreshing. Finishes dry, with a subtle hop bitterness that lingers on the middle and back of the tongue and begs you to take another sip.
Overall: When Mel and I do a tasting, we each pour a glass, take an index card, and silently take notes. We do this to keep from influencing each other’s impressions. Keeps things objective. In this case, we each independently wrote the words “holy shit” on our respective cards. Gotta love parity. We both agree that it needs more coriander, and I feel like it’s a bit dark, but apart from that, it’s impossibly refreshing, and the orange, banana, and floral hop flavors completely mask the substantial alcohol, making this an extremely dangerous beer. We might have to warn our friends about it. I’ve gotten buzzy just while writing this post.
One of the things I like to do before creating a recipe is to ck out the BJCP style guidelines… for a tripel they are here: http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style18.php
One thing you will notice is that the FG range is 1.008 – 1.014 for a Tripel and Deep yellow to deep gold in color. From the looks of yours the CaraViene and DME added to the color to put it outside of what you were shooting for.
Now what I believe you have is more of a Belgian Dark Strong Ale (18E) since at FG=1.020 I doubt that you have the dry finish you would taste in a true Tripel.
If you were to brew another Tripel I would suggest upping the sugar to 2lbs, drop the CaraVienne, and use only the lightest DME you can get. LME tends to be a bit on the darker size as it ages (IMHO).
Still, it sounds like you have a beer that you like. Forget about what style and just say “it’s my style”. “: ) *enjoy*