Building Water Profile Question (Dubbel)

The next beer that I'm going to brew is the "New Belgium Dubbel" clone, based on the recipe that USMCYoder provided from his copy of BYO December 2010 vol.16, num. 8. I have a friend who loves this beer, and he and his fiance wanted me to clone it and serve it at their wedding. I wanted to get this thing as close as possible to New Belgium's. The recipe is....

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5.00 gal

Ingredients

7.00 lb Pale Malt
1.50 lb Munich Malt
2.0 lb Cane Sugar (15 Mins)
.25 lb CaraPils Malt
.5 lb crystal malt (80L)

5.0AAU Target Hops (60 Mins) - .45 oz @ 11% AA
1.3AAu Willamette Hops (10 Mins) - .25 oz @ 5% AA
1.1 AAu Libery Hops (5 Mins) - .25 oz @ 4.5% AA

Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale or White Labs WLP500 Trappist Ale

Mash @ 150F. Boil for 90 minutes. Ferment @ 70F



I use RO water and build a mineral profile. After taking a look at EZ Water 3.0.2, I was planning on adding 2 grams of gypsum and 1.7 grams of calcium chloride to my water. This gives me a profile of Ca 84 Mg 0 Na 0 Cl 75 Sulfate 102. Apparently, New Belgium gets their brewing water from the Poudre River, but can't find anything about what the water is like. What do you guys think about the mineral profile I listed? Fire away with your input please.....thanks!

I would drop the gypsum altogether. Their water may or may not have much sulfate in it, but you'll make a better Dubbel without it.

Thank you!

+1 on emjay's comments. That level of sulfate is unnecessary in a Dubbel. I wouldn't go over 50 ppm SO4 and that is just to help with drying perceptions in the finish.

thanks guys! I started brewing less than a year ago, so I'll take all the knowledge I can get!

emjay said:

I would drop the gypsum altogether. Their water may or may not have much sulfate in it, but you'll make a better Dubbel without it.

Click to expand...

i found this interesting ...may i ask a question....

i'm new to A.G. and have broke the barrier with BIAB....

my water is 7.2 ph out of the tap, spring water from the ground. ( have a pump system).

i have always followed the idea that any mash with little to no dark malts needs to be about 5.2-5.5. usually i use gypsum to get this reading.

can you please enlighten about not using the gyspum, belgian beers are most of what I brew.

thanx
GD