Yet another Belgian style Abbey Ale? What can I do, Brudi just has a knack for them. Light and Magic is a Tripel which is the youngest of the four Belgian Abbey Ale styles (Enkel, Dubbel, Tripel and Quadrupel). As mentioned for the Dubbel the tradition of beer brewing in belgian monasteries reaches back into medieval times. To this day it produces some of the best traditional dark top-fermented beers in the world. At the beginning of the 20th century however the lighter and paler beers such as the Czech-German Pilsener or the English Pale Ale became increasingly popular in Europe. Even the Belgian abbey breweries with their ancient traditions could not ignore this trend and the Trappist monastery of Westmalle developed the first Tripel in the 1930s as a consequence of it. I can only speculate on the thought process behind this development but I imagine that the monks' idea was something like this: "All right, if the whole world switches to pale light beers, we make one of them too. But since we are in Belgium we'll make it ridiculously strong and we use our very expressive ale yeasts for it!". As a result the Tripel may look like a Pilsener but is the complete opposite of it in every other aspect. Instead of a Pilseners quaffable 4-5% ABV a Tripel has between 8 and 10% ABV. And instead of a Pilsener's delicate hop aroma and flavor a Tripel prominently features spicy phenols and fruity esters. The monks of Westmalle failed in their task of producing a pale and light thirst quencher. Instead they created an interesting variation of their traditional brewing philosophy "a ridiculous amount of malt plus a small amout of noble hops plus sugar plus an expressive, top-fermenting yeast plus a lot of time for maturation". This beer opened a new audience for them that likes pale beers better than dark beers. Even though other monasteries and commercial breweries quickly started to copy the style, Westmalle Tripel is to this day the benchmark for a good Tripel. Brudi may think a lot of his interpretation but he admits this too. Just like for the Dubbel, the sugar is an important ingredient in this beer. It keeps the body as light as it can be for a beer in this ABV range. This impression of lightness is treacherous though. Keep this in mind no matter what Tripel you consume. The alcohol content will catch up with you rather sooner than later.
Just like for every other Belgian style Abbey Ale I recommend a chalice for a Tripel. The Trappist chalices are ideal but a big red wine glass or a Pilsener tulip work well too. The ideal serving temperature is between 12 and 14°C so take the beer out of the fridge between 45 and 60 minutes before opening the bottle. Light and Magic is a golden-colored, hazy beer with a white head. The aroma is dominated by peppery and spicy phenols. Pear, banana and a touch of alcoholic bite is also present. On the palate, Light and Magic is dry and effervescent but it burns a real firework of flavor in your mouth. Spicy and peppery phenols that resemble pepper and exotic spices are present alongside estery flavors of pear, banana and apricot. The slight alcoholic warmth kindly reminds us that this may feel like a 6% ABV beer but you will feel its 9% ABV punch in your head. Esters and alcohol let the beer seem sweet but it is dry and effervescent in its finish. This should not fool you, like the Dubbel it has its Belgian style Abbey Ale punch.
Tripels are remarkably versatile when combined with food and Light and Magic is no exception. Spicy dishes like curry work well with the phenols. BBQ and grilled vegetables also harmonize well with the beer and it is strong enough to stand its ground against the strong roast notes in grilled food. Another interesting recommendation that I have yet to try is Tripel with Belgian waffles.
In my opinion, Tripels are the perfect beer for homebrewers that take their first steps in the field of Belgian style Abbey Ales. The best Tripel recipes are simple to an extend that borders on boring. Westmalle Tripel, the queen-mother of all Tripels is brewed with Pilsener malt and 15% of sugar. You can see that simplicity is one of the keys of making a good Tripel, just like with any other Belgian style Abbey Ale. The others are benedictine patience in combination with an expressive yeast and the readiness to let the Reinheitsgebot be just a century-old piece of paper and add some sugar to the grain bill. It does not matter whether you brew a Dubbel, Tripel or a Quad: Simplicity, patience and sugar make a good beer.
Let's create the ingredient list with simplicity in mind. For about 16 liters of beer we need the following ingredients:
The grain bill stays close to the Westmalle Tripel but I add some Carapils for better head retention. I have seen a lot of recipes from American hombrewers that add more speciality malts like melanoidin malt, rye malt, Munich malt and various caramel malt. You can do that of course but I think those are unnecessary frills if the best Tripel in the world does not need them. The use of light Candi Syrup is similarly superfluous nonsense. Unlike the dark Abbey Ales a Tripel does not get important flavor or aroma components from the sugar. I recommend the use of plain table sugar which is apparently chemically equivalent to light Candy Syrup anyway. For the selection of the hops the variety is not incredibly important as long as it is not too bitter. A small bittering addition provides a little balance to the beer and a small aroma hops addition adds some spicy notes to the flavor and aroma that harmonize well with the phenols of the yeast. I usually use the undefined hop variety that my father-in-law grows in his garden, Tettnanger or Saazer. A small aroma hop addition with fruity IPA-hops might provide an intereting variation if they work well with the esters of the yeast but I did not try that yet. The yeast is the star of this beer anyway. Me using Lallemand Abbayé is an experiment. Usually I would use SafAle BE-256 which is in my experience at the fruity end of the phenolic-estery spectrum. However 2022 is the year I shake up things with my Abbey Ales and therefore I use the Lallemand Abbayé. It makes the beer a little more phenolic which is quite nice. In summary, both yeasts make excellent beer and if you brew this you will get good results with both yeasts.
I brew Light and Magic on a Brew-in-a-bag setup. My brewing kettle comes with a grid-thingy that I put under the bag to keep a distance between the bag and the heating elements. This setup allows me to do step mashes. DON'T DO THIS UNLESS YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING! Technically, the bag is not designed to do this. I heat up 20 liters of filtered water to 52°C and stir in the malt. The mash then has around 50°C where I keep it for 10 minutes for a protein rest. I ramp up the temperature to 65°C and keep it there for an hour. This two-step mash helps with the head retention and mouthfeel. If you don't want to do this, you can do a single step infusion mash at 65°C for 90 minutes and get a similar result. Whatever you do mash for fermentability, this beer has to be dry. For mash-off I raise the temperature to 78°C and pull out the grain bag.
The boil takes 90 minutes because of the high amount of Pilsener malt. As a side effect of this long boil the beer gets some golden color. I add two more liters of water to compensate for the boil-off. After 30 minutes of boiling I add 37g of hops as the bittering addition. The remaining 24g are added as the aroma addition after 85 minutes. With that aroma addition I stir in the sugar. This stirring needs to be quite vigorous in order to avoid caramellization of the sugar.
For such a big Belgian style Abbey Ale the yeast needs every bit of support I can give it. I rehydrate it according to the technical data sheet. The primary fermentation takes two to three weeks at about 18°C. I like to ferment my Belgian style Abbey Ales at the low end of the recommended temperature range. This reduces the level of fusel alcohols in the beer but it takes a little longer. Wait until the fermentation is really complete. The last couple of gravity points may take quite long but they are really important to get that dry and effervescent mouthfeel. Benedictine patience and all. I add 7,4g of priming sugar per liter to the beer. Tripel as a style can even get some more if your bottles can stand it. I let my Tripel mature in bottles for at least three months. Six months are even better. The maturation temperature is between 18 and 20°C. You can drink it before that time but in my opinion the long maturation is essential to make the beer nice and smooth.
