Belgian Tripel with Fermenter sugar addition

[burbankbrewer]

I've heard of people going a month with barleywines and won awards with it.

[DBear]

Congats Otter!

My tripel with 575 went about 3 weeks and the FG was 1.009. I use a lot of diffent belgian yeast and give all at least two weeks even if they are "done" in a week just to give a yeast time to clean up. Three week for a belgian do not bother me. Anyway at 3 weeks bottle carbing sweetish up front, dry at the end with smooth alcohol in the taste but for a ~9.5 ABV its well hidden and you could end up without your
The yeast at this point is tart(?) with fruit/citrus background. I'm looking forward to this aging for a while.

[psuweatherman]

Hi All, I've been following this thread for a few weeks since I just brewed Jamil's tripel on the 17th April. I added all the sugar during the boil. I then let the temp come up gradually and finished with a therm wrap around 70, but I had to un-hooked it since I was going to be out of town and wasn't home to monitor it. When I came home I still saw activity in the airlock and it was bubbling away, but the temp dropped into the mid 60s and has been there for about a week. Over the last 24 hours activity seems no existent so I took a reading today. Gravity is 1021 or ~11 plato.


So, my question is, I want to squeak out a few more points.

Should I pitch yeast (which would require a 50 min drive to get it)?
Pitch more sugar and stir up the yeast?
Hook the therm wrap back up to ~70 and see what happens? Would I get off flavors from bringing up the temp again?

After listening to Jamil's podcast I don't want this tripel too sweet
Thanks
Matt

[burbankbrewer]

I believe at this stage the yeast needs to be restarted in a new normal healthy growth cycle. If you have some extract handy, rack off if possible to another sanitized carboy leaving room for a new starter, do not use a bucket. Then make a new starter with some of the yeast or even dry yeast ( I always keep a little on hand for emergencies) with extract, aerating well and pitch back into the carboy at least 70-75' temp. Be prepared to wait another 2-3 weeks.

[brewinhard]

Weatherman,

I think those yeasts have a tough time eating all those maltose sugars instead of easily chowing on the sucrose in primary that you added during the boil. When I make my tripels, I will add 1# of sugar to the boil, and add the rest about day 4-5 into primary fermentation to be sure the beer will dry out enough. I have added all sugar into boil and the fermentation stalled right at 1021 two times in a row making this one until I switched my methods and learned from my mistakes. I will never add more than 1-1.5 # sugar into boil ever again because of that reason.

[SacoDeToro]

FWIW, Westmalle adds their sugar at the end of the boil. I'm not sure what their yeast pitching rate is, but I'm fairly certain they top crop, which helps ensure the healthiest yeast at work. Their sugar addition is also known to be in excess of 15% of the fermentables.

I recently brewed a tripel with WLP530 (3rd gen repitch). My OG 1.081 with nearly 18% of the fermentables coming from cane sugar. I held it at 67 for the first week of primary, then let it rise to the low 70s beginning on the second week. It finished out at 1.009 in about 2 weeks.