Westmalle Triple Beer, 6x330ml

Product Information

For practical purposes, we prefer a single infusion rest between 146°F and 147°F to produce high fermentability. To make up for the deeper color normally resulting from the decoction, use a bit of Light Munich malt, up to 10%. Hops Tripel is a unique genre in that it’s not bitter or overly hoppy, but still very pale in color. Most of the flavor comes from the fermentation. Yeast selection and fermentation temperature play vital roles to create tasty esters and phenols. It’s a strong beer that leaves almost no room for error in masking fermentation derived off-flavors. Hot alcohols, fusels, diacetyl, or solvent-like flavors have no place in well-brewed Tripels. A bit of history: The brewery’s history begins in 1914, when Benedictine of St. Peter began brewing beer for their personal use in Steenbruge, a suburb of Brugge. Their mugs went dry in 1943, though, when Germany requisitioned their kettles to melt down for copper. Now owned by Palm Brewery, production moved to Steenhuffel in 2004. Still, this was a refreshing tasting, despite the ABV. After all of those stouts, we needed a real palate cleanser in terms of flavor profiles, and the effervescence and Belgian yeast-driven flavors of these tripels really hit the spot nicely. Even tasters who didn’t previously count tripels among their favorite beer styles came away with a new appreciation for them. The Westmalle Tripel is a clear, golden yellow Trappist beer at 9.5 °. The slow brewing process and the secondary fermentation in the bottle yield a complex beer, with a fruity aroma of ripe banana and a nice, nuanced hop nose. The soft and creamy taste, with a bitter touch carried by the fruit aroma, has a lot of finesse and elegance. Also enjoy the wonderfully long and dry aftertaste.

Things changed when the Vandervelde Act was introduced in 1919, stipulating that no strong liquor should be sold in bars. This was enacted to prevent alcohol abuse among workers, who at that time, all drank a lot of gin. Suddenly a gap in the market emerged, that beer brewers were more than happy to fill. Under the guidance of brewer Jan Adriaensens, thebrewery is continually improving and making new investments to maintain its reputation for high quality brewing. They’ve introduced new fermentation tanks, a new filling line and hot rooms that lie underground so as not to disturb the courtyard. Highly carbonated, Tripels are dangerously drinkable and refreshing despite their elevated alcohol content. A light and very smooth body carries notes of fresh bread and sweet malts. Spice from specially selected yeast blends delicately with pleasant European hoppiness. The best yeast strains to produce an ester character powerful enough to balance the dark malts in a dubbel are the Chimay strains: Wyeast 1214 and White Labs WLP500. The complex esters complement the rich caramel malts (especially from special B) to develop a plum and currant-like character without citrus or banana esters. After two months in a row of nearly overwhelming blind tastings— 102 non-barrel-aged imperial stouts, followed by a whopping 144 barrel-aged stouts safe to say that the Paste beer tasters were hanging on by a thread. We needed a style that would draw significantly fewer entries, for the sake of our livers if nothing else. Thankfully, Belgian tripel was there for us.A bit of history: While the brewery’s history is rooted in the Trappist Monastic tradition, St. Bernardus is actually brewed outside the walls of St. Sixtus, where the monks only brew for themselves and a few local taverns. The verdict: The Bruges herbal mixture called gluut gives a pleasant spiciness to the mild hops and malt. De Dolle’s take on Tripel is definitely in line with their irreverent, laissez-faire brewing style. Chilled in a coolship before pitching their house yeast, a magic mix of airborne yeast and bacteria is allowed to mix into their cooling wort. Despite this element of unpredictability, De Dolle’s beers are consistently delicious. A traditional decoction mash is used to produce a highly fermentable wort with a beautiful, deep golden color. For homebrewers using well-modified malts, this isn’t necessary.

To start, the phrase “Belgian style” is somewhat of an oxymoron since most Belgians do not brew beers to “fit” any particular style; the Belgian brewers mainly focus on brewing what they like and usually it is up to marketing or the consumer to determine what the “style” should be. But, for simplicity of discussion, we must use “styles.” Common style categorizations similar to that of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP, www.bjcp.org) will be used. Tripels are normally made from a base of 100% Belgian or German Pilsner malt. Sugar – either clear Candi sugar or regular table sugar – is often added at the end of the boil to boost the gravity but ensure a dry finish. Use about 1 to 2 pounds of sugar per 5 gallon batch. Dulle Teve pours on the darker end of the Tripel color spectrum, especially if aged. The slightly orange body is opaque, but allows light to easily pass. Billowing foam, typical of the brewery, soars above the rim of the glass. On the nose, there’s spicy yeast, assertive European hops, and light citrus funk. The flavor is deep, rich, and refreshing. A fun, slightly funky, and very unique interpretation on a Tripel that only De Dolle could produce. St. Bernardus Tripel, St. Bernardus Brouwerij The primary yeast strains for fermenting a strong golden are Wyeast 1388 (Belgian Strong Ale) and White Labs WLP570 (Belgian Golden Ale) with a probable origin of Duvel Moortgat. These strains produce a strong peppery phenolic with a balanced orange and lemon-like ester. This strain attenuates well but has been known to be slow to ferment and flocculate. At temperatures in the high end of its suggested range, the yeast character can become very estery with a banana character.

When brewing Belgian-style beer, it’s always fun and challenging to respect tradition while adding your own personal touch. Belgian Tripel – that strong, pale, and luxurious ale – is an elegant style to brew to showcase your homebrewing prowess. When it comes to making quality homebrew, many factors are important, including sanitation, quality ingredients, proper equipment and techniques. Whatever styles of beer you brew, yeast selection and fermentation management are critical. However, when brewing strong Belgian style ales, yeast selection and fermentation management are paramount since the signature flavors of all Belgian styles are derived from the yeast. To make matters even more complex, there are a large number of yeast strains available to the homebrewer (Wyeast and White Labs offer over a combined 20 Belgian strains), where each one is quite different from the next. But, with a little guidance and a little experimentation, the satisfying quality and complexity of an excellent homebrewed Belgian style strong ale can be enjoyed by each and every homebrewer. The Belgian Yeast Character In addition to the main article, I wrote a second blog post at All About Beer with material that didn’t make it into the main article for reasons of space and so on. Here it is. As I mentioned in the article, taking eight years to conduct an experiment is, for Trappist monks, not an especially long trial. I love going to the Cathedral in Brussels, because the long-sighted vision of the church is evident in the architecture. Built over 300 years, the building reflects different architectural trends over the period as you walk around it. Compared to this length of time, eight years is nothing—especially when the thing you’re working on may be around tens or hundreds of years more.

This was true of most of the barley beers, which in the 19th century were regularly boiled for eight or 10 hours to develop color (wheat beers were different; they could be made pale or “white”). Drinkers and brewers both believed a long boil was critical in developing flavor, and deeper color was its proof. Golden hues in a barley beer would have seemed pale to them in all the wrong ways—pale flavor, pale strength, pale quality. Indeed, blond ales were such a rarity that, when the monks at Westmalle released a coruscating, golden beer called Tripel in the 1930s, it counted as a radical move.Tripels are mainly brewed with European hops such as Styrian Golding, Tettnang, or Saaz. American substitutes are also great choices like Sterling, Mt. Hood, or Willamette. Yeast character is pronounced in great Tripels. It leans towards fruity esters, like banana, pear, or bubblegum, blended with light spicy phenolics.

Belgian Tripels can approach an alcohol content as high as 12% ABV. The best examples hide this through careful fermentation control. Most famous for their genre-defining Saison, Brasserie Dupont’s best beer is Avec Les Bons Voeux. Blurring the line between Saison and Tripel, this 9.5% ABV golden amber beer is both thirst quenching and layered with complexity. Spicy and fruity on the nose, a fine carbonation allows a bright white head to float on the sparkling body. Belgians, in the realm of beer at least, are slow to give up their traditions. As late as the 1960s, they were still resisting the charms of industrial lager, and when you pore through the gem case that contains Belgian ale styles, you still find many ancient treasures. And until fairly late in the 20th century, Belgians hankered mainly for dark ales.

Tripel 

For almost each origin of yeast, one of each strain from the two main homebrew yeast suppliers (Wyeast and White Labs) is listed. Although the reputed origins of a strain from each supplier may be the same, the exact results from each supplier may vary. Each supplier most likely received the strain at different times leading to slight differences between the yeasts. Regardless, based on my experience, the strains for similar origins are much closer to each other than to many of the other strains from each company. Unholy is one of the best American-brewed Tripels. Distinctive Belgian yeast character meshes perfectly with a heavy hand of pungent American hops. They manage to push the classic style toward IPA level hoppiness without hindering the Belgian yeast complexity. The delicate nature of the Tripel style is preserved and the balance is refreshing and unique. Dulle Teve, De Dolle Brouwers