Hello, I am planning a Belgian Tripel. After consulting this forum and doing some research I have decided to keep it simple. Going all grain I was just going to do 80% Pilsner and 20% sugar. And then shooting for an OG of 1.090. However I have been busy and was thinking about doing this as an extract brew. I have never actually done extract brewing. This recipe seems like an extremely easy brew to make as an extract. Just replace the pilsner malt with light DME and then keep the sugar. Since I am short on time these days this idea seems attractive because with this particular recipe since I would not even have to use specialty grains at all and thus I would have nothing to steep. But since I have no experience with extract brewing what did people think of this? So for a recipe I would be looking at something to the effect of: 9# Light DME 2# Corn Sugar OG=1.091 And then a still to be decided hop bill. Realistically I do not have time in the next 2 months to do a 6 hour brew.
You could always mini-mash/BIAB with a couple #s of pils malt and then make up the rest with pils extract and the sugar. I could be wrong, but that pil malt character is really key to a good tripel and I can't see one made with all light DME coming out too great, that sounds more like a BSPA.
Jus an observation... those two bills have very different percentages of their gravities contributed by the sugar. Let's assume a mash efficiency of 75% for the mash version... Bill 1 (mash): 80% Pilsner X 37 PPG X 75% Mash Efficiency = 22.2 'relative gravity contribution' 20% Corn Sugar X 45 PPG = 9 'relative gravity contribution' So... Pilsner Gravity Contribution % = 22.2 / (22.2 + 9) = 71% Corn Sugar Gravity Contribution = 9 / (22.2 +9) = 29% Bill 2 (DME): 9# DME X 45 PPG = 405 points 2# Corn Sugar X 45 PPG = 90 points So... DME Gravity Contribution = 405 / (405 + 90) = 82% Corn Sugar Gravity Contribution = 90 / (405 + 90) = 18% edit: I invented the unit 'relative gravity contribution,' because I didn't have actual weights for the bill and was too lazy to compute what they would have been for 75% mash efficiency and 1.090 gravity. But the answer would have been the same if I had.
Your list of fermentables looks fine. Permit me to suggest Briess Pilsen DME for your malt extract. I would also recommend Wyeast 3787 as your yeast. Hopping for a Tripel is pretty straightforward. I would recommend a German Noble Hop for bittering; shoot for something like 9-10 AAUs. You could add some flavors hops at 15-10 minutes before end of boil. Maybe ½ oz. of Czech Saaz would suit you for hop flavor. Brewing a Tripel with extract is just fine. Since this will be a higher gravity beer I will caution you to diligently monitor your fermentation temperatures so that you stay within the recommended fermentation temperature range for the yeast strain utilized. Cheers!
Thanks @VikeMan for the mathematical/qualitative conversion. My main concern at this point is whether or not I will be able to produce a beer with comparable qualitative traits with DME and sugar as I would with a all grain 80/20 malt and sugar. I get it now about gravity contributions, but I am concerned that this "substitution" will produce significantly different qualities. I obviously anticipate some differences since I am going to back to extract brewing, but was wondering if they would be drastically different, or if because i am now extract brewing that possibly the recipe needs to/should have additional ingredients.
So...if you want an extract version similar to the grain version, I'd recommend... - Bump up the sugar portion, both to bring its gravity contribution into line with the original, and to offset the likely lower fermentability of the DME wort. - Use a pilsner based DME rather than a standard 'light' DME.
2 lbs. of sugar will be just fine. The rationale of using simple sugars in beers like a Triple is that it will result in a ‘dry beer’ (i.e., a low final gravity). Briess Pilsen DME is highly fermentable. Table Sugar is extremely fermentable. There is absolutely no need to use more than 2 lbs. of table sugar if you use a highly fermentable malt extract like Briess Pilsen DME. Cheers!
Many award winning Tripels get more than 18% of their gravity points from sugar. Jamil's standard Tripel recipe, for example, is over 23%. Absolutely.
