A few weeks back I brewed a Tripel, well this recipe to be exact http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/25488/belgian-tripel and I did everything exactly by the recipe, no variables I can think of, and I've checked the gravity a few times in the last few days, and it's staying pretty consistent at 1.004, so I'm sure that's where it's staying now. The OG was dead on with the recipe, which means this beer should be right around 11.2% ABV rather than the intended 9.6%. My questions would be, how could this have happened, will it produce any off flavors besides booziness, and should I let it sit in the fermenter longer or perhaps just let it bottle condition for a very long time?
2 oz of warrior at 60 only gave you 22.81 IBUs? I guess I had some misconceptions about warrior hops. I thought they were the new magnum. Either way, it sounds like that one will need some time to condition, perhaps quite a long time. I wouldn't take it out of the fermenter till at least three weeks tho. Why rush to bottling if you haven't let the yeast finish up whatever cleanup job they're gonna do? You won't be drinking it any time soon anyway. What was your FG supposed to be?
What temp did you ferment at? Cooler temps tend to produce "smoother" alcohols. Too warm and you get the hot fusolly alcohols. Hot alcohols really don't get much smoother with aging. Many beer styles, including yours will benefit from some cold aging if it just has more alcohol then intended. Bottle, carb, then cold condition a month and test one. 95% apperant attenuation...dumb question, are you sure your hydrometer is accurate? Or maybe your yeast was just beast.
Below is a review of WLP545 from the White Labs website. It appears that this yeast strain is highly attenuating. “It has great flavor ...” By: Joshua Mann | Date: Nov., 26th 2012 | Beer(s) Brewed: Single (specialty), Belgian Blond, Belgian Dubbel, Belgian Trippel I really like this strain. By top cropping the strain from a Belgian single it's now on generation #6. I start fermentation low at 62F and let it naturally rise. The last 25% of fermentation I supply extra heat to maintain 72F. It has a great flavor, more phenolic in flavor with some fruit, but a very even fruit to phenolic aroma that is great for any Belgian style ale. This is a high attenuating strain as well. For example, with a low initial mash temp of 148 for 45 minutes, 10 minutes at 155, and a mash out at 165: Single: OG 1.041, FG 1.007 Dubbel: OG 1.065, FG 1.010 Tripel: OG 1.077, FG 1.008 Each has a wonderful pilsner malt sweetness, and a dry finish. I wish this was available year round. I prefer it over 500, 530, and 550. I'd buy a vial every other month.” Cheers!
The recipe has the warrior @ 3.5AA. I've only seen them at 13+. Between what the bitterness actually is, the ABV, and how dry it must be, I'm guessing this beer is gonna need a ton of time conditioning.
FWIW, I find Brewer's Friend software always overstates the estimated FG . . . more so when sugar is added. I've used them for three brews with added sugar and ended up way lower than expected. You would think the math would be simple, but that has been my experience. IMO, conditioning will do little to solve the booziness. If you are desperate, you can try "dry spicing" with things like corriander or orange peel to try and hide the thinness of the beer.
“will it produce any off flavors besides booziness?” From my perspective there are two ‘classes’ of booziness: · Booziness from ethyl alcohol · Booziness from fusel alcohols I am not aware that conditioning (whether bulk or bottle conditioning) will do anything wrt ethyl alcohol. Fusel alcohols are often described as providing harshness. Also some people will get bad hangovers from drinking beers with high levels of fusel alcohols. If there are high levels of fusel alcohols present they can be metabolized by the yeast over time. Below is from the book Homebrewing by Al Korzonas: “During aging, these higher alcohols will esterify in the presence of yeast and acids and create mostly fruity flavors. The solution therefore, is further conditioning on the yeast. Some esterification may occur without the presence of yeast, but a small fraction of that done by yeast.” If you suspect that you have a high level of fusel alcohols in your Tripel you may want to condition it for a period of time; maybe bulk conditioning would be ‘better’? Cheers!
13.5%AA is more what I expect from warrior (from online shopping only, although I've never used them myself). Hopefully OP didn't put two ounces of 13.5% warrior in there for an hour. BTW I believe I still have one of your bottles of homebrew, the RIS. Perhaps it's conditioned by now? Do you have any of those left? It's been kept in a good spot, not too hot, not too cold, dark, so hopefully it's reaching perfection even as we speak...
Yeah, it should be pretty good by now. Haven't had it in over a month, but it was definitely showing promise then. I need to send you a bottle of the portion that got aged with bourbon soaked oak cubes.
