Hive Door Ale

I had an extra vial of the Trappist yeast, b/c only knowing so much, I thought I may have to reyeast the Trap Door, but then when it went fine, knowing I wouldnt age it THAT long, I worked up another recipe on Brew Wizard. This one, in my own early style, was trying to do a Tripel, but what I now realize, is that many times, your recipe, or style, may change due to what the brewing shop actually has, as far as grains etc. You can follow the recipe, but you may be subbing a few things... That's the fun part...

I had some clear Belgian Candi Sugar left, so I had worked up a Tripel recipe, deciding to add in some clover honey (Tripels tend to offer up a lot of simple sugars for their high alcohol content). I had to pasteurize it first; poured it into the wort around 15 minutes left of the boil.

With 5 minutes left, along with some last minute Saaz pellets (used Hallertauer bittering and Kent Golding aroma), I tossed in some white & black pepper, some coriander, some vanilla.

Cooled and strained...

Cannot be totally sure why, but my Original Gravity (1.067) was significantly lower than the expected OG my recipe had worked up (1.081). Most likely due to a sub on the grains, as well as low extraction of my steeped grains ("How the Brew" states that CaraPils extracts low through steeping). But no worries; it's just going in its own direction...

After a day and night in the fermenter, it cooled down to 68. Yeast was fairly dormant, but once I shook it, wham, off to Pac Man Land. Airlock bubbling like crazy. Steady gurgling for almost 24 hours now. This is probably the most healthy fermentation I've seen. Due to equipment, and plans, I think I'm gonna leave this one it in primary for some time.

Brewed on Tue, Sept 16

Racked on Sun, Oct 12

Bottled on Tue, Oct 28