It has been a while since I posted.
A very busy summer and severe disappointment with my Tripel. Way to sweet and about 90% of the bottles were very flat. I’m not sure if I didn’t clean adequately or if there was something in the secondary that contaminated the beer. I’ve had to pour several bottles down the drain, which kills me. The alcohol level wasn’t lacking at all though. Very strong and a pint was all I cared to drink on a conservative evening.
The Biere de Garde and Chocolate Stouts turned out well and friends/family have enjoyed thoughout the summer. I’ll definitely make the stout again. Now for something new.
I’ll be moving forward this fall with an IPA extract kit from Northern Brewer. I’ve really enjoyed IPAs this summer so I thought one should be in order. I’ll be using a yeast starter. More to come soon.
I wanted to post earlier but haven’t gotten to it. I bottled my Chocolate Stout on April 15th. It still had a FG of 1.020.
Update on the stout. I tried one about 3 days ago in a test bottle. Still pretty flat but a really nice burnt coffee taste with a lot of chocolate taste. It was the amount of chocolate that I expected, but I’m sure it would be too much for connoisseurs of chocolate stouts.
Update on my Tripel. I took a hydrometer reading and it was at 1.017. That is down from an OG of 1.089. If it is the same in a couple days I will rack to secondary. I took a taste and it was about 5 oz of heaven. I am really excited to try it. It was strong (about 9.6%abv) and you could taste it AND feel it 
Maybe I’m a lightweight but I’ll have to be careful with this one.
Tripel
Modified extract kit from Northern Homebrewer, St. Paul, MN
Malt 1: 9.5 lbs. Gold LME
Malt 1: 1 lb. extra light DME
Grain 1: .5 lb Dingemans Caramel Pils
Hop 1: .5 oz Summit (60 min)
Hop 1: 1 oz Saaz (1 min)
Yeast: 3787 Trappist High Gravity w/ decanted starter (64-78)
Adjunct 1: 2 lbs Belgian candy sugar
Boiling Schedule:
Steep grains at 155°F for 30 minutes. Bring to a boil. Remove water from heat and mix candy sugar, LME and DME until dissolved @ 90 minutes. Bring water back to a boil and add Hop 1 @ 90 minutes. With 1 minutes left add Hop 2.
Notes:
Suggested 300 billion cells. Transfer to secondary fermenter after 7-14 days or begin taking daily hydrometer readings – when hydrometer readings are the same on consecutive days, primary fermentation is complete. Proceed to secondary fermentation for 3 weeks. Bottle with .75 cups of corn sugar. Bottle condition for up to 2 months.
Based on Kel and my recent enjoyment of Belgian Tripels, I decided to make a Tripel style the next brew that I try. I purchased this kit from Northern Brewer and decided to add an extra pound of DME and an extra pound of Belgian candy sugar to add a higher alcohol level. The NB noted OG was 1.073 and I was able to get an OG of 1.089 with my additions. I knew I was going to need to have more yeast on this beer, even without bumping it above the normal recipe’s sugar amount. I was excited to try a yeast starter to super charge my yease count.
With a target OG of 1.090 and pitching one smackpack of 3787 Trappist high gravity, Mr. Malty says that I’ll need about 305 billion cells. After making my starter, using 1300 ml of water and 1.5 cups of DME, I checked my starter wort’s OG and it was 1.055. I’ve read that is pretty high and should be aroun 1.040. As a backup, I went a picked up another smackpack, without doing a starter on that pack because of time. I’m thinking that I maybe got around 220-250 billion. I decanted my starter after 16 hours and pitched the slurry with my other smackpack.
