I just brewed my first tripel and wanted to ask about other people's experiences / advice with belgians. I've been reading "Brew Like a Monk" and a number of aspects of the process they describe there were considerable different from what I've read in other places. The first thing that stood out was just how short the primary fermentation period was at most of the abbeys, even when fermenting at relatively low temps. Then it seems like almost all of them do a secondary at lagering temps, which surprised me. Do people generally lager these styles when homebrewing them? If I'm not worried about perfect clarity, would you bother? The other big question I had was about people's experience with kegging these styles. I don't have enough thick bottles collected, and would rather not deal with buying bottles and renting a corker, etc. if it's viable to keg this beer instead. I was thinking that some version of keg conditioning would be the way to go. Either simply racking from primary into a keg, and then letting that condition for another month or two before force carbing it; or the same, but with added sugar (and maybe some fresh yeast). What have people had good experiences with? Thanks! Looking forward to hearing other people's advice.
I've read that too in brew like a monk, I haven't tried it yet,( the low temp part) most of the beers we brew are belgian. We just keep the beer in primary for 4 weeks, test and bottle. I wouldn't worry about having thick bottles, regular ones work fine. My brother in law kegs his belgians. He just adds sugar and waits 3 weeks or so. When we bottle ours we use one cup of sugar and 2 cups of water and get good results. I'm usually hitting them at the 2 week mark, but 4 weeks and beyond is better. cheers
Lots of people keg belgian styles. Regular bottles may be fine, depending on level of carbonation. Some belgian styles, if you carbonate to style, would be potentially too much for typical 12 oz bottles. I have gone as highs as 3.5 volumes. Not sure I'd venture much higher.
I have never kegged belgians due I haven`t got any spare keg, so one of my 5 taps would stay unuseful for a long time.I say for a long time because this style takes benefit from aging for several months(even years).I have always bottled and conditioned it with very good results.
