Straffe Hendrik Tripel Recipe – First Attempt

This is an attempt to clone a Straffe Hendrik tripel recipe. Straffe Hendrik Tripel is brewed by De Halve Maan brewery in Bruges, Belgium. It is a beer of 9% alcohol, is heavily hopped with notes of stone-fruit, and it is slightly more full bodied than many other tripels.

We know very little as to the ingredients of this beer, as is the case with so many beers, So trying to brew something similar is very challenging. De Halve Maan brewery have made this especially difficult by giving us a little information, but at the same time, hinting that it will be hard to copy.

What Information Do We Know?

What do we know. Well’ we’re told:

• It has a full bodied taste with rich hints of malt, caramel and hops. Straffe Henrik is brewed with a subtle blend of 6 malts. It is hopped extensively with the best quality Saaz and Styrian Golding hops. Refermentation in the bottle creates a living ale that guarantees a longer natural shelf life and an evolution of taste. Brugean Tripels are amber tripels using more roasted malts which makes them distinct from any other tripels. The beer is strong and full-bodied. The tripel has an alcohol percentage of 9% and the refermentation in the bottle generates a long natural shelf life.
• Flavour: Caramel taste flows into bitterness, with the aftertaste comes a subtle hint of banana in combination with citrus fruits.
• Colour: Clear amber blond. 17 EBC
• Scent: Spicy with hints of black pepper, ginger and a tinge of orange.
• 35 EBU

So, whilst this gives a starting point, it’s not useful. I mean cloning a beer with two or three malts is hard to do, but six???? So the only option is to drink many of these beers, and try to identify what I can. It’s all in the name of research for a Straffe Hendrik tripel recipe, but someone needs to do it….

Start Putting the Pieces Together

Firstly, this tripel is bready, that leads me to believe it’s a base of pilsner malt. Not a big guess, most tripels are……

However, this beer has surprising depth for a tripel, so the second malt is going to be some pale malt. This should add a small amount of complexity, but not adding too much in the way of colour.

The next part is to address the maltyness. That fits with Munich malt. Not only will Munich add malt depth, but it will also add some colour as well.

Looking at the colour that Beersmith is predicting, more colour is needed. I’m going to add some colour (and flavour) with a little addition of Special B. It’s a Belgian specialty malt, so that fits, and it gives caramel notes, without being too sweet or cloying like crystal malt.

Moving away from flavour, and more toward the visual aspect, when you pour this beer, it has a large white foamy head, so Cara-Pils can be included here, for a little head retention.

The last malt I’m struggling with, and it is a bit of a shot in the dark. I’m going to add some Caramunich II. This seems out of place in a tripel, but I get notes of caramel, so I’ll see how it sits. This might be a mistake, and could make the beer too sweet. After all, the Special B is providing the caramel already, but I need to start somewhere.

As far as hops go, they have given us that part: Saaz and Styrian Goldings. The only problem I see here is the citrus notes that are evident. Neither of these hops will provide much in the way of citrus. Maybe they will in the large quantities I will need.

The yeast I’m using is the Westmalle strain from White Labs.

So here is how the recipe stacks up:

Straffe Hendrik Tripel Recipe Ingredients

Mash Schedule

The obvious choice is for a step mash. I’m using a Braumeister all-in-one electric system, so that’s pretty simple to achieve.

• Mash in @ 40°c / 104°f
• 30 minutes @ 68°c / 154°f
• 30 minutes @ 71°c / 160°f
• Mash out @ 77°c / 171°f

Fermentation

This will be started at 19°c / 66°f and then let to free rise up to 22°c / 71°f. The fermentation will take between 3 – 5 weeks to fully ferment out, and I will push the temperature a couple of degrees higher by the end, just to get the maximum attenuation I can.

The Result

I missed my original gravity due to using the wrong efficiency settings in my Beersmith profile, so the alcohol has ended at 8.1% alc/vol.

Rather that re-fermenting in the bottle, I have force carbonated this. Unfortunately I have not achieved the high carbonation of the original. Nonetheless, it pours with a nice head, and the beer is quite clear.

The aroma is very similar to the original, a lot of stone fruit and possibly some pear notes. The original smells slightly higher on alcohol, which it is.

The taste? Well, let me start with this. The taste of this Straffe Hendrik tripel recipe is excellent. It’s not quite high enough in alcohol, so the body is a little heavy as a tripel, but the taste is very good.

In comparison, this version is slightly heavier bodied. The original has a little less caramel than mine, but otherwise the taste is quite similar. I’ll drop some of that CaraMunich next try. The hops are spot on, I won’t change that next time.

I will also up the sugar content on the next attempt, to bring the alcohol up, and to thin the body out a little.

Edit update: I’ve just completed and bottled the second attempt, and the results are promising. I’ll post this as soon as I can get a comparison done.