Sunday, November 13, 2011

Belgian Dubbel

As mentioned in my previous post a Dubbel is a extra strength Enkle with the the addition of amber candi sugars and malts. The next step if this recipe doesn't turn out will be to make a Dubbel using my Enkle recipe and just candi sugars. I am going to reserve judgement on this one for now, not to get ahead of myself. My thoughts headed into this are to take my Enkle recipe and step it up to a Dubbel by adding some of the brown malts and a modest amount of candi sugar.

Brown malts:
Aromatic 19L - imparts a distinct, exaggerated malt aroma, and deep color in high amounts.
Biscuit 25L - adds a warm biscuit aroma, with bready flavors, and a garnet-brown color.
Cara-Vienna 21L - imparts a golden to light copper color with sweet caramel flavors
Cara-Munich 45L - adds a deep golden to copper color with sweet toasted caramel flavors.
Special B 145L - imparts a sharp, caramel, toffee, raisin-like flavor and deep color.
Debittered Black 500L-600L - adds deep color without increased astringency.

Dark Sugars:
Amber Candi Sugar 45L-80L - imparts flavors of toffee, vanilla, and toast
Dark Candi Sugar 165L-180L - imparts flavors of fresh ground coffee, dark fruit(raisins, dates, prunes, ect.), and toast.

(read more after the break)

I formulated this recipe around my Belgian Single:

Recipe(Single):

1 lbs 3.3 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)  98.7 %
0.2 oz Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) 1.3 %
0.10 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min 9.2 IBUs
0.20 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 12.0 min 7.7 IBUs

I wanted the malt to be more forward uninterrupted by the flavor of hops while maintaining balance and not being cloyingly sweet. To achieve that I moved the hops back to the bittering addition and increased the IBUs up to around the max for the style. I wanted the beer to be a bit more substantial so I increased the base malt and the Aromatic malt. To begin to build the flavor I layered in Munich, Cara-Munich, and Special B malts. Those should add flavors from slightly to really nutty and dark fruits. The candi sugar should add some caramel flavors as well as helping to boost the alcohol.

Recipe:
1 lbs 10.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) 68.9 %
3.3 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) 8.7 %
1.4 oz Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) 3.8 %
1.4 oz Cara-Munich Malt (56.0 SRM) 3.8 %
1.4 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) 3.8 %
2.1 oz Candi Sugar, Amber (75.0 SRM) 5.7 %
2.0 oz Candi Sugar, Clear (0.5 SRM) 5.3 %
0.40 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min 28.9 IBUs
0.2 pkg Belgian Ardennes Yeast

Specs:
OG: 1.064 SG
FG: 1.012 SG
Color: 18.3 SRM
IBU: 28.9 IBUs
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Mash: 
Sacc Add 6.17 qt of water at 159.9 for 153.0 for 75 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 7 min 168.0 for 10 min

Brew day:
This brew went smoothly until I burned my hand. The first blast of hot steamy water burned my hand pretty badly. The beer turned out a touch lighter then I think it should have been. Vigorous fermentation after 24 hours. Looks good and the airlock smells good.

2 comments:

  1. How did this one turn out? I've had an idea to brew something similar, with dark candi syrup, willamette hops, and WLP500 yeast (or a similar Belgian yeast).

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    1. It turned out pretty well, I never got around to reviewing it but it had some belgian dubbel qualities. I think where it lacked was that I used home made candi sugar, at the time I was "doing it wrong" the candi sugar made from ryan's method @ ryan's brews was better.

      http://ryanbrews.blogspot.com/2012/02/candy-syrup-right-way-hint-weve-been.html

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