And now, we wait. The Brewferm Triple, a beer apparently similar to Leffe Trippel, is settling in for the long haul, spread between 8 one litre bottles, and a 500ml Diet Coke bottle. A modest amount of beer, but I’m not disappointed, I just put on another. It’ll be ready a lot quicker than the 10 or so weeks that the Triple will take.
The Triple was easy enough to make. It was a 9 litre kit, so there was only a fraction of the mess in the kitchen afterwards, though I still had to wear my waterproof boots. As usual, in went the tin, some expensive sugar (called Crystal something), hot and cold water, and then yeast. I made this at about midnight, before I was due to go away on a little marine adventure, so I put it to bed in a blanket and checked up on it at 7 the next morning. When I said goodnight, the brew hardly filled the 25 litre bin. Yet, the following morning, the froth coming off the brew was touching the lid! That’s – does sums – 16 litres of froth! Anyway, after seeing that vigorous yeast activity I went off feeling the brew could probably look after itself for a couple of days.
I bottled it when I got back, ten days later, having first siphoned it off into another bucket. I did this hoping some of the yeast would sink, and there wouldn’t be so much in the bottle, but it didn’t really work. I also tried it because apparently the beer tastes better if left a day or two extra in the bucket. Again, having only tried this on one or two brews, and not in a proper side – by – side test, it’ll be hard to know. But the overspill tasted excellent: very sweet, and darned strong. I was right in thinking it could take care of itself.
I ordered the latest set of tins from www.thehomebrewcompany.ie, which showed up quickly. I wasted no time in brewing, as I want plenty of beer to be ready for my own little Oktoberfest in, uh, October. Watch this space…
Since Then:
So, the triple turned out to be quite strong, in both alcohol and malt flavour. It isn't one for the faint hearted... maybe start out with the single or dubbel first if you're not sure. Definately don't go straight in for the Abbots. The candi sugar was an interesting addition. It will have contributed some not-so-subtle caramelly flavours, which can be quite harsh. Basically, what I'm saying is, it didn't go down well with everybody.
