Beer #4, Belgian Tripel

Belgian Tripel (Hybrid, dry malted barley and extract). This beer needs to ferment at room temperature for 1-2 weeks. This is a 3 month beer, 2 weeks of fermentation, 8 weeks of secondary fermentation, and 2 weeks of bottle conditioning. The yeast had nutrition packs in it that I was supposed to break to allow the yeast to activate.. but I didn’t read the instructions. I added the yeast anyhow, and it still seemed to work. My TILT hydrometer was not registering any fermentation. However; upon opening the fermenter, I saw a top layer of foam… which means there is activity. I think this issue was caused by both a non-tight lid on my stainless steel fermenter, and my TILT hydrometer getting blocked by fermentation buildup. In the future I think I may have to take real hydrometer readings the old fashioned way.

This is also my first time experimenting with forced carbonation. I bought a starting Corny Keg kit (10 lb C02, 5 gallon Corny Keg, pressure regulator, hoses, clamps, etc.,.). I had to do a C02 exchange at a local gas supplier (All Weld) as the C02 tank I bought came empty of course. As this was my first time, I made a lot of mistakes and wasted a lot of gas. For instance, I couldn't figure out how to hook up the ball connectors. Stupid I know, but if you've never done it before it can throw you off. I sanitized all the equipment transferred my beer to the corny keg and started forced carbonation at 30 psi, which was a horrible mistake. I don't know why people rush this. Just set your carbonation to 12 psi and have patience. It may take 5-7 days, but that's fine if you plan accordingly. I set mine to 30 psi for a couple days and had to deal with horrible over carbonation.

After all was said and done, I had a beautiful, tasty belgian tripel.. over carbonated at first but quickly adjusted. I loved it, and everyone that tried it really loved it. I hosted a cookout and the beer went very fast. I would make this one again, just need to be cognizant of how long it takes. Also, going forward.. I want to work with forced carbonation more. It is so much less work than bottling.