Belgian Dubbel Suggestions

I plan on doing the NB dubbel recipe however i cant justify spending that much on dark belgian candy, can i replace that with regular cane sugar?

the recipe i will do looks liek this:
1/4 CaraMunich
1/4 Special B
6.6 lbs Light LME
1 lbs Light DME
1 oz Tradition 60 minutes
1 oz Halletauer 15 minutes
1 lb Cane sugar (instead of dark candy sugar)
Wyeast 1214 or WLP 500

I have done the NB #8 dubbel. I also wanted to do it on the cheap, so I swapped dextrose (which ferments easier than cane) for the dark candi sugar, and used beer smith to bring up the SRM using special B. I did try it young and it was promising. Hope that helps.

If it is an issue of price for the candi syrup, make some of your own! The 290* recipe is what I have made and seems to be the most popular.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/20-lb-sugar-jar-yeast-nutrient-114837/

It's very easy and delicious. Ive made it before to put on ice cream

im looking foward to this one, thanks all

so i brewed this up on sunday and decided to go with the dark candi sugar after all, it was only a couple bucks. i pitched the yeast late sunday afternoon, and by 10 pm there was bubbles coming off the blow off tube, by monday morning lots of foam up top and fermented hard all day monday until wednesday morning.

Did you use the WLP500? i did a Dubbel this past sunday with WLP500 and ive yet to see any fermentation. I questioned this in a recent thread, apparently its a very slow to get going and of course benefits from a starter. Im guessing you used Wyeast?

Chromebrew said:

Did you use the WLP500? i did a Dubbel this past sunday with WLP500 and ive yet to see any fermentation. I questioned this in a recent thread, apparently its a very slow to get going and of course benefits from a starter. Im guessing you used Wyeast?

Click to expand...

You may have an issue if you aren't seeing activity today.

i used Wyeast 1214 the Chimay strain, i was debating between that and WLP 500, it basically came down to the guy at the homebrew shop saying they are teh same but the wlp vial is easier to spill when opening, rare but does happen, and i felt it was easier to creat the sttarter using the foil smack pack versus a vial. this was also the first time i made a starter, i created it friday afternoon, and pitched it on late sunday afternoon.

Hey jdgapc. I mentioned before that I try to control color and taste profile using malt rather than the traditional Candi sugar, while others are getting good results making their own Candi sugar. I wanted to add that new world Belgian producers (like ommegang for example) primary use dextrose for fermentable adjuncts. And if dextrose is good enough for ommegang....

bknifefight said:

You may have an issue if you aren't seeing activity today.

Click to expand...

I did find the airlock rumbling when i got home yesterday, i just ordered an Erlenmeyer flask so i can do some starters going forward. That was too stressful waiting on that cold yeast to start up.

Get the D45 or D90 -it's $6 and it will make all the difference with color - I've tried brewing with specialty grains to get color but there's a reason that Belgian brewers use these sugars - it just works and doesn't add body.

I wouldn't bother with any other sugars like rock candy they sell unless you are just looking to thin out the body or boost fermentables

david00001 said:

Hey jdgapc. I mentioned before that I try to control color and taste profile using malt rather than the traditional Candi sugar, while others are getting good results making their own Candi sugar. I wanted to add that new world Belgian producers (like ommegang for example) primary use dextrose for fermentable adjuncts. And if dextrose is good enough for ommegang....

Click to expand...

well if its good enogh for ommegang then its good enough for my basement brewery...next batch is going to be a hennepin clone now, thanks for the tip on the dextrose!

well i check on my brew and am concerned, the blowoff tube goes into an empty jug filled halfway with water and the jug is giving off this odor of bananas and permanent marker (like the sharpie kind) some say thi sis the phonlic smell, some say contamination, any advice on what this could be caused from?

jdgapc said:

well i check on my brew and am concerned, the blowoff tube goes into an empty jug filled halfway with water and the jug is giving off this odor of bananas and permanent marker (like the sharpie kind) some say thi sis the phonlic smell, some say contamination, any advice on what this could be caused from?

Click to expand...

i take it back, the blow off smells like bananas and marker, the beer in the carboy smells like belgian delight

just sampled my first bottle, pretty decent stuff, has some alcohol heat to it but nothing a few months of aging won't take care of!