Dolle Tripel Heart
By Jacques Marais
Recipe is part of Recipe Index
BJCP 2021 Style 26C Belgian Tripel
This beer started when Guy gave me a sample of De Dolle yeast directly from the brewery after his visit. So Thank you! Effectively a clone of their De Dolle Tripel (called Mad Bitch).
This was the third beer on the cake so I already knew it attenuates like crazy and struggles to flocc. So reduced the OG a bit. I’d usually go for 10-15% sugar for a Tripel, but not needed here. Interestingly it attenuates more than the WY3942 strain which is supposedly from De Dolle.
A big factor is the Dingemans pale ale malt which has a big bready/nutty flavour and slightly darker - different to the usual honey one gets from pils malt.
I also know that De Dolle uses EKG and Celeia hops so used both as bittering and flavour respectively.
I mixed 50/50 RO and Tap water to keep some hardness as a buffer and added salts accordingly.
The trick to make a good Tripel, in my opinion, is to do a ferulic acid step mash at 42-45C which adds the precursors for the phenolics for POF+ yeast strains. Then ferment as cold as your dare and even over pitching is fine.
Despite those efforts there was still a lot of hot alcohol. Judges mentioned the heat, but I guess it had reduced quite a bit by then with some warm conditioning. Bottling was difficult as the yeast struggled to flocc out despite adding finings and a cold crash. It cleared in the bottle, but there are lots of dregs.
Awards
LAB Open 2026 (Queens Arms, London)
2nd - European Ale
Beer Statistics
- OG = 1.070
- FG = 1.006
- EBC = 14
- IBU = 43
Ingredients
Water
- Water: 50/50 Tap water (hard) / RO and adjust to get to:
- Target ppm: Ca 100, Mg 2, Na 20, SO4 120, Cl 90, HCO3 120
Malt
- Dingemans Pale malt: 65%
- Dingemans Pilsen malt: 16%
- Munich malt: 12%
- Flaked Barley: 2%
- Dextrose: 5%
Hops
- EKG: 3.2g/l at 60 min
- Celeia: 2g/l at 10 min
- Celeia: 1g/l whirlpool stand at 80C for 10min
Yeast
- De Dolle yeast directly from the Brewery (Else use substitute WY3942)
Process
Mash
- 44C for 25 min
- 50C for 25 min
- 65C for 75 min
- 72C for 30 min
Fermentation
- Pitch and ferment at 18C for 6 days.
- Raise to 20C for two weeks
- Add 3g of gelatin and cold crash to 8C for a week before bottling.
Serving
- Bottled target 3.3 vol CO2, but surprisingly this could be even higher.
- Warm conditioned in the bottle for 6 weeks in warm part of the house to help reduce hot alcohol. It still needs more time though.