Rye Whiskey BA Belgian Tripel

For our barrel-aged version of Belgian Tripel, we selected a rye whiskey barrel (Bulleit Rye). We chose rye whiskey barrel for the typical spice character that comes with that style of spirit. The initial barrel time will be set for approximately 3 months, upon which time beer will be tasted and decision made to end or continue time in the barrel.
Our yeast strain was changed from a lower flucculating belgian tripel strain to a belgian ale strain that has a higher level of flocculation that will make it better upon transfer to barrel. The ale strain chosen still exhibits fruit character and rustic phenols desired in our tripel. Alcohol tolerance is also within our goal for the finished product.
We removed belgian candi sugar and added carapils to leave a higher finishing gravity to balance out the drying characteristics that will take place when in the barrel.
Our whirlpool hop addition was completely removed to rid liklihood of stale hop characteristics during aging from oxidation. Increased the bittering hop addition in the boil to counter the bittering loss during aging.

Note: cold crash beer after fermentation is completed before transferring to barrel to allow as much yeast as possible to flocculate out.