Once a year around the end of February/early march, I like to observe a little holiday I like to call my “Brewiversary.” It’s not so much a specific day, as a general time in the year that I like to always brew a beer to commemorate when I first started brewing. (As I write this I realize that I actually missed brewing a Brewiversary batch for this year. Damn.) For the most part, I love brewing boozy beers. And a little alliteration. The main style of beer that I felt I had some success with in my first year of brewing was Belgian Trippels. Following up the mysterious and complex Westy 12 clone, I wanted to do a lighter (at least in color, and I guess technically in alcohol too) beer and a Trippel fit the bill. I think this is actually the first beer that I completely created the whole recipe for. Spoiler alert: I think it turned out meh.
Grains
16oz Belgian Aromatic
16oz Pale Malt
16oz Munich
Hops
1oz Saaz (8.1%AA) @ 60min
1oz Saaz (8.1%AA) @30min
1oz Willamette (5.7%AA) @10min
Malt
8lbs Light LME
1lb Maltodextrin @10min
1lb Rock Sugar @5min
Yeast
Wyeast Belgian Ardennes (3522)
Adjuncts
1tsp Irish Moss @15min
3.2oz Priming Sugar
SG: 1.075
1wk: 1.019
FG(2wk): 1.018
This is one of the first beers where I really start forgetting how the beer turned out. Maybe because it was less than amazing. Possibly because I was drinking a lot of the beer I had been making. Probably because a combo of the two. Of all the trippels I have now birthed, this would be the one I would expose. Not that this is a bad beer. It echoes the flavors of a trippel, just in a hazy, reminiscent way, like seeing something through frosted glass. Definitely able to identify the beer, just too tame and restrained to truly be represented by the style.