Belgian Dubbel Award Winning Dubbel XL (40th batch)

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Brand new to Belgian Beers. How do you think WLP500 would be in this beer? It's the only Belgian yeast I have access to at the moment.

The Dubbel I just made is similar to this recipe and WLP500 was recommended. We were just out so we used WLP530 instead.

I'd say your idea would turn out nice.
 
Just brewed this for the first time.

I buy my Base grains (2-Row and Maris Otter) in bulk so I substituted 2.5 lbs of each for 5 lbs of Pilsner malt.

I also got much better efficiency (81.2% by BeerSmith) and my OG came in at 1.076. I am hoping my starter was enough to get this to take off. I was using WLP-530 that was washed from an old dubbel (about 10 months ago) and has been happy in my fridge since. I didn't expect such a high OG, so I only did 1L. I guess time will tell.
 
What do you think about using 2-row or MO instead of the belgian pils? Will it be detrimental?
 
What do you think about using 2-row or MO instead of the belgian pils? Will it be detrimental?

It will change the flavor a bit. MO will make it more "bready" and straight 2-row will probably result in a bit less "malty" characteristic.

As you can see from above, I didn't have any Pilsner so I split it 50/50 with 2-row and MO. Also my LHBS didn't have Carafa I so I had to use Carafa II, which is a bit darker. Lastly, I ended up with a stuck ferm so I pitched a smack-pack of Wyeast 1762 - Abbey II to get it to go.

Lastly, because I got such good chocolate notes while tasting my gravity reading samples I decided to age this one on some oak chips that I had soaking on a local Cabernet that has great dark cherry and currant flavors. (Yes, I have multiple jars of oak chips soaking in various alcohols ;) ) It sat on the chips for a month. I then put it in a keg and let it age for ~3 months.

I just finished my first glass of the beer and I must say it is outstanding. A solid head that lingers and lacing that stays in the glass until the end. Solid mouthfeel. The chocolate notes combine perfectly with the flavors from the red wine. The vanilla flavor from the oak underlines the whole thing and then the tiny alcohol burn that is typical of a strong Belgian finishes the whole experience.

I am probably going to bottle a few of these out of the keg and enter them into some local HB comps to see what others think.
 
I just kegged it. Going to carb it w sugar vs co2. Hope it works well. Interested to see how it comes out.
 
Just brewed up a batch of this, and it's been an utterly straightforward brew day so far. Thanks for sharing the recipe! Only changes I made was to up the first hop to a whole ounce, and I used D90 Candi syrup. WLP530 is raring to go :)

I was thinking of following the Westlerven12 fermentation schedule.. Would that work for a dubbel?
 
I brewed up a six gallon batch of this yesterday, but I made a few adjustments. The Styrian Golding crop this year was apparently awful, so the ounce that I bought had an AA of 1.4 % o_o

I swapped the Goldings for Vanguard, WLP530 for WLP500, and I used D90 candi sugar.

I pitched at 65*F and will be ramping up to 72*F by day four and will ferment there for 6 weeks.

The color and taste of the hydrometer sample was stellar. Thanks for the recipe, I can't wait to see how it turns out!
 
Been saving this one and finally brewed it tonight - dumped it on the yeast cake for a Leffe clone - sweet malty goodness pre fermentation, look forward to seeing how this turns out!
 
Just wondering if anybody has anymore feedback on taste for this? Don't typically find chocolate flavors in a funnel so it might be interesting. Are the chocolate notes prevalent or are the smoky flavors that someone mentioned stronger?
 
I just ordered the ingredients to give this one a try. Looking forward to it!
 
I brewed this up this weekend. I had to sub Special B for Weyerman's Special W. The grain supplier didn't have special B.

I had been reading Brew Like a Monk, and about Belgian styles in general, there's a lot of recommendation to do step mashes to get a more highly fermentable wort out of the grain. So my mash went like this:

Mash in and hold at 55c (131f) - 10 Minutes
Beta Rest at 65c (149f) - 30 Minutes
Alpha Rest at 72c (161f) - 30 Minutes
Mash Out at 77c (170f) - 10 Minutes
Hopefully, this wasn't a mistake.

Secondly, reading CSI's recipes for Rochefort 8 and Westveleteren 8, they suggest a primary fermentation going from 18c (65f) to 25c (65f) over the course of 7 days. Then dropping to 50f once it reaches 1.010.

I'm following that process myself, but interestingly, I brewed this Sunday night, and now, Wednesday it's gone from an OG of 1.065 to 1.016 already.

Screenshot 2020-06-03 at 15.26.54.png


It seems a little bit fast to me, but we'll see.

It smells amazing in the fermentor, really looking forward to tasting this one.

Do you recommend pitching fresh yeast to bottle if you have it in the fermentor for 4 weeks?
 
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I brewed this up this weekend. I had to sub Special B for Weyerman's Special W. The grain supplier didn't have special B.

I had been reading Brew Like a Monk, and about Belgian styles in general, there's a lot of recommendation to do step mashes to get a more highly fermentable wort out of the grain. So my mash went like this:

Mash in and hold at 55c (131f) - 10 Minutes
Beta Rest at 65c (149f) - 30 Minutes
Alpha Rest at 72c (161f) - 30 Minutes
Mash Out at 77c (170f) - 10 Minutes
Hopefully, this wasn't a mistake.

Secondly, reading CSI's recipes for Rochefort 8 and Westveleteren 8, they suggest a primary fermentation going from 18c (65f) to 25c (65f) over the course of 7 days. Then dropping to 50f once it reaches 1.010.

I'm following that process myself, but interestingly, I brewed this Sunday night, and now, Wednesday it's gone from an OG of 1.065 to 1.016 already.

View attachment 683364

It seems a little bit fast to me, but we'll see.

It smells amazing in the fermentor, really looking forward to tasting this one.

Do you recommend pitching fresh yeat to bottle if you have it in the fermentor for 4 weeks?

At only 4 weeks in the fermentor there will be more than enough yeast to bottle condition.
 
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