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trappist ale yeast

arctic78

Grandmaster Brewer
Joined
Apr 15, 2015
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Location
Tasmania, Australia
Just curious to know if anyone has used wlp500 for an RIS ??  I am looking at using this and am curious to know if others have ( most likely yes ) and how it worked for this type of beer.
Have been having trouble choosing a yeast . So much to choose from  :)
 
I haven't used WLP500, but I did pitch Wyeast 3522 (Belgian Ardennes) for an imperial espresso stout.

It turned out really nice with some fruity notes that complimented the espresso really well.

I imagine WLP500 or Wyeast 3787 would do well in an RIS.
 
I was looking at adding some coffee in the recipe also During the secondary. Have been having trouble on deciding how much to use though for a 5 gallon batch. was thinking of around 2oz of beans slightly cracked  in cloth added for 1 week?
This type of recipe is a first for me.  I am aiming for  10.5%  Alcohol and managed to squeeze that in to my mush tun  with .43 gallons to spare ( using a 8G pot.) my grain to water ratio is 2.6 litre to 1kg fingers crossed this all works.
 
My coffee addition was a little different. I actually cold brewed the espresso overnight and added it at bottling/kegging time. I took my batch volume and determined what 3% of that was, which determined the amount of cold brewed coffee that I was adding. It achieved great aroma and a prominent coffee taste, which was what I was looking for.

I have heard of people steeping their beans in the beer. A local brewery suggested that I steep the beans in the batch at lager temperatures for a week, which is what they do. But I've seen others just plain steep at fermentation temps. Before I decided on what I wanted to do, I did a test in water with the beans. I took a mason jar and cold steeped some beans in water for a week to see what happens (scaled down for the amount of water in the jar). The aroma was good but the taste was a bit subdued for what I was looking for. I guess it depends on what you want to achieve.

I think the most important thing with coffee additions in a RIS, is that the beer is finished. I don't just mean fermentation, but rather it's aged enough before adding the coffee. I went two and a half months before adding the espresso.
 
For what it's worth, I have introduced coffee into many Porter and Brown ale recipes with outstanding results. I simply put a quarter cup of whole beans in a muslin bag and throw the bag in the last 10-15 minutes of the boil. It imparts no color at all, but offers a wonderful coffee flavor and very slight coffee nose.
 
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