Belgian possible without yeast?

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geom44

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Brewing soon but I need help. Is it hopeless to brew a Belgian dubbel with USO 5 yeast? This is the current recipe, can it work with the yeast?

% or IBU
12.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 75.00 %
2.00 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 12.50 %
0.50 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 3.125 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt Grain 3.125 %
1.00 oz Czech Saaz (60 min) Hops 3.125 %
1/5 oz Orange peel (10min)
1/5 tsp Peppercorn (5-1min) Spice ?
0.50 oz Chinook (5 min) Hops ?
1.50 lb Candi Sugar, Light/Gold (0.5 SRM) Sugar 6.25 %
1 Pkgs USO 5 Yeast Yeast-Ale
 
You can brew it but it won't be recognizable as a Belgian beer, as they are all about the yeast. I suppose someone will chime in and say you can ferment at really high temps and try to get some off flavors that will mimic a Belgian. I'd just get an appropriate yeast.
 
Agreed. You should still end up with a solid beer, it just won't have all those fun Belgian yeast flavors and aromas.
 
Belgian is all about the yeast. Peppercorns and orange peel will help to add a little something, but it's not any substitute.

I know you didn't really ask for general recipe advice, but I would reduce the specialty malts a bunch, go with a dark candi syrup, and ditch the spices completely. For a good dubbel, I like pils malt, 1/2# caramunich or special B, 1 pound dark candi sugar, noble hops for everything w/ small or no late additions, and a proper belgian strain (WLP530/Wy3787 is my favorite). A beer like that, properly fermented, is elegant, like the real thing; bunches of other flavorings tend to produce muddled, aggressive, weird tasting beer that only reminds a novice of something belgian.
 
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