De Ranke Guldenberg Tripel

When the De Ranke brewery opened in 1994, as part of a new wave of Belgian microbreweries, its first beer was a beer inspired by Westmalle Tripel, Orval, and brewer Nino Bacelle’s love of hops. Like all De Ranke beers, Guldenberg gets generous portions of whole-leaf hops—in this case, a locally grown version of the German variety Hallertauer Mittelfrüh. It also gets a long dry hopping while conditioning in the lagering tank. The recipe that follows is not a precise clone, but rather a homebrew-scale version adapted from information that Bacelle provided.

ALL-GRAIN

Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)

Brewhouse efficiency: 72% OG: 1.068

FG: 1.006

IBUS: 41

ABV: 8.2%

MALT/GRAIN BILL

10.5 lb (4.8 kg) Belgian pilsner

HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE

3.4 oz (96 g) whole-leaf Hallertauer Mittelfrüh [4% AA] at

90 minutes

1.4 lb (635 g) clear Belgian candi syrup at 10 minutes 1 oz (28 g) whole-leaf Hallertauer Mittelfrüh [4% AA] at

flameout

1 oz (28 g) whole-leaf Hallertauer Mittelfrüh at dry hop

(secondary)

YEAST

50/50 blend of Fermentis Safale T-58 and S-33, or your favorite Belgian ale strain

DIRECTIONS

Mill the grains, mash in at 129°F (54°C), and rest 20 minutes; raise the temperature to 145°F (63°C) and rest 50 minutes; then raise the temp to 163°F (73°C) and rest 20 minutes. Mash out, then sparge with approximately 180°F (82°C) water to obtain about 6.5 gallons (25 l) of wort. Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops and candi syrup according to the schedule—and when adding the syrup, remove from the heat and stir in until completely dissolved. Chill the wort to about 68°F (20°C), aerate well, and pitch the yeast. Ferment, allowing the temperature to free rise as high as 86°F (30°C). After about 2 weeks, chill to 59°F (15°C), add the dry hops, and condition for 4 weeks. Package and carbonate to about 3 volumes of CO2. sweeter now. And my inspiration always has been hops. I like hops and was inspired by hops, and we live so close to the hop region…. We could see the hops growing [from] our backyards, as you say. And the smell of hops is so nice—i need that in a beer. So, Orval inspired me in that way.”

De Ranke brews about 15 different beers these days, including seasonals such as Père Noël. The best seller is XX Bitter—the quenching, rustic, herbal-bitter pale ale. However, Guldenberg remains popular, often found on the beer lists of Belgium’s hundreds of specialty beer cafés. It accounts for about 40 percent of the brewery’s sales. De Ranke’s approach to hops is so pure that it might be considered eccentric these days.

First of all, since 1996, all the hops have come from one farm. It’s located fewer than 20 miles west of the brewery, along the French border north of Lille. Thus, the Hallertauer, Brewer’s Gold, Styrian Golding, and other varieties that De Ranke uses are all Belgian-grown.

Second, De Ranke uses 100 percent whole cones—no pellets. In 2002, De Ranke installed a large freezer that can hold a year’s worth of hops, which arrive at the end of harvest time. Bacelle simply prefers the smoother, finer hop flavor that he says he gets from whole flowers—and to him, it’s worth the 5 to 7 percent loss in wort that the kettle hops absorb.

That locally grown Hallertauer Mittelfrüh—bacelle says he prefers it to Saaz because he finds it “more refined”—is the only variety in Guldenberg. “In fact, it’s a single-hop beer. Also, a single-malt beer,” referring to the pilsner base. The fermentables also get a boost from sugar—typical in stronger Belgian ales—to add strength while drying the finish and lightening the body.

The mash is also typical for Belgium: three temperature steps using moderately modified Belgian pilsner malt, aiming for fermentability and world-class foam stability. The house yeast is a 50/50 blend of two fairly common Belgian strains—one offers fruitier esters but flocculates poorly; the other leans spicier but contributes better sedimentation. Together, they offer complexity to complement the hops while flocculating reasonably well. Primary fermentation lasts a week or more, before a long dry-hopping period (four weeks) at cooler temperatures. They fill the tanks completely, so that the dry hops are totally submerged and not floating on the surface. The tanks also have strainers at the bottom, so the hops can go in loose instead of in a bag. “We found out that if you put them in a bag like at Orval, it’s difficult to get the flowers open and in contact [with the beer]. Or it becomes almost impossible to get the bags out after because they’re so heavy. So, the way we do it is quite practical. Of course, we have to go in after to clean the tank. But that’s a habit. It’s quite easy to do that.”

Like most Belgian ales, the Guldenberg is bottle-conditioned (or keg-conditioned) with a relatively high level of carbonation that supports the foam and aroma. These days, it can be found on draft as well as in 33 ml (11.2 oz) bottles. But its classic format is in 75 ml tissue-wrapped bottles, meant for sharing over meals, snacks, stories, or in pockets of geeky conversation. The bitterness and herbal-floral hop character are ample but integrated and smooth, balancing the modest alcohol sweetness, and it drinks too easily for 8 percent strength. A second bottle is virtually inevitable.