first recipe - beligan dubbel

Hi.

Using beer smith and brew like a monk I have tried to create a belgian dubbel/stong ale.

Being my first recipe any opinions on it would be appreciated. Cheers, Andrew.

Recipe Specifications

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Batch Size: 3.25 gal

Boil Size: 4.00 gal

Estimated OG: 1.086 SG

Estimated Color: 52.4 SRM

Estimated IBU: 26.5 IBU

Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %

Boil Time: 60 Minutes



Ingredients:

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Amount Item Type % or IBU

3000.00 gm Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 65.65 %

350.00 gm Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 7.66 %

350.00 gm Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 7.66 %

300.00 gm Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 6.57 %

70.00 gm Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 1.53 %

11.00 gm Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 23.0 IBU

11.00 gm Hallertauer Hersbrucker [4.00 %] (15 min)Hops 3.3 IBU

5.00 gm Hallertauer Hersbrucker [4.00 %] (2 min) Hops 0.3 IBU

0.09 tsp Seeds of Paradise (Boil 5.0 min) Misc

0.65 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc

500.00 gm Candi Sugar, Dark (275.0 SRM) Sugar 10.94 %

5.40 gal London, England Water

1 Pkgs Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500) [StarterYeast-Ale

On the whole, I think it looks great, if a little big for a dubbel - be sure to mash really low to get it dry enough. Personally, I'd dump the chocolate, IMO it will do nothing for the beer, the roast flavour is not part of the style. If you want to get the colour a little darker, you could use some carafa II, but personally I wouldn't bother. You should also really boil for 90minutes to reduce the DMS produced from all that pilsener malt.

Also, you might find that a few percent wheat malt will do wonders for your head retention, and if you keep it low enough it won't make the beer hazy.

As for hops, traditionally these beers have almost zero hop aroma, so you could just go with one hop addition at 90 minutes - I'd use all hallertau or tettnang, although magnum is probably just fine too. 26 IBUs does seem a little bit low for such a big beer though, I usually shoot for a BU:GU around .375

What candi sugar are you using? Don't use the rocks, even the dark ones will not give you what you're looking for, you really need syrup. Worse, in my experience, making your own will not yield the best results, contrary to what some people may tell you. You really need the real stuff from Belgium. You can get it from Brouwland, they will ship to the UK and it's not too expensive iirc. For such a big beer you could add it to the fermenter as primary fermentation slows down, this will ensure you get maximum attenuation as the yeast will concentrate on the malt sugars first rather than the simple sugars in the candi syrup, which could possibly result in some residual fermentables left in the beer.

I think that WLP500 is the chimay strain, you'll probably want to ferment fairly cool, at least at first anyway. That strain makes major banana esters when fermented warm. This beer would probably benefit from a month or so of lagering if you have that capability.

Thanks for the advice. I never thought of adding the candi sugar during fermentation. I have always added it to the boil. I will be ordering candi syrup this time, previously I have used the dark rocks and didn't know of the website you mentioned.

I added the chocolate because I thought it helps with aging stability, though I am not 100% sure about that.

I'll consider upping the hops. I read through brew like a monk and it says the style usually has between 14 and 30 IBU's. How is the BU:GU ratio calculated?

Well, this is a pretty massive beer. For this beer not to be cloyingly sweet, you'll probably want around 85% attenuation (you may want to up the sugar a bit to get there, just some normal table sugar will do, and mash as low as possible). That means a FG of 1.012, and an alcohol content of 9.7%, well out of Dubbel territory, this is a Strong Dark.

As your OG goes up, so must your bitterness to maintain the same balance. Ray Daniels coined the BU:GU system in his book Designing Great Beers, and it is referred to in many places in B.L.A.M.

To work out your ratio, simply divide your bittering units by your gravity units, eg 1.086 and 26.5 would be a BU:GU of 26.5/86 or 0.308. To get .375, you'd need a bitterness of around 32IBU. I'd be tempted to make it 35, remember this beer will age for a long time before you'll drink it, and bitterness fades with age.

It is a little strong for a dubbel, though I personally see little difference in flavour profile between dubbel and dark strong. My main worry was that my percentage of speciality grains was too high. I want i lovely raisin and caramel flavour, I know that'll come from the candi syrup too. I don't want to create a sugary soup though!