Lagering

Chimay Tripel


I'll be heading back to Mexico at the end of the Month http://www.atencionsanmiguel.org/ and I thought that I would brew a couple beers that I can put in storage for the three months that I will be gone. Additionally, I don't want to waste the grain I have by leaving in storage to get stale. I decided on two high gravity beers that would benefit from several months of winter storage. One, a Chimay Cinq Cent, http://www.chimay.com/en/chimay_triple_219.php Trappist trippel clone and the other, a Duvel, http://www.duvelusa.com/beer.php Belgian Golden Ale clone. Both are in the area of 8% abv. I would normally use Pilsner malt for both of these beers but the grain I want to use up is American 2-row, so I will substitute and accept that the beer will not be as light in color as I would prefer.
Both beers are simply Pilsner malt (in this case 2-row) and light Candi sugar (in this case beet sugar). The Chimay will be fermented with a Trappist ale yeast WhiteLabs WLP500 and the Duvel Whitelabs WLP 570 Belgian Golden ale yeast. I've got the Chimay clone in the fermenter now and the original gravity was 1.076 which is a tad lower than my target gravity but if it ferments down to the final gravity that I want, it will be at the alcohol percentage that I want. The aroma coming from Trappist ale yeast wafting from the fermenter is wonderful and spicy and is giving me ideas about using it in a wheat beer, maybe a Dunkelweizen in the spring when I return. Both recipes include noble hops with the IBU's in the 30's.
In the mean time I will be placing an order from More Beer http://www.morebeer.com/ for some dry malt extract to take with me to Mexico. I will be taking enough to make three 5 gal. batches of ale. Two will be pale ales supplemented with some local agave and/or honey and one 5 gal. batch of hefeweizen. Once in Mexico I will keep you posted regarding my ongoing efforts to procure brewing ingredients locally.