Book Suggestions

Looking for good reading material for brewing belgians, dubbels and bigger beers. I've read "Brew like a Monk" and while it was good general/historical reading, I was hoping for more.

Any suggestions?

thanks in advance,
dave

Designing Great Beers - Ray Daniels

z987k said:

Designing Great Beers - Ray Daniels

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Have it...he doesn't cover belgians

I've never found anything better than BLAM. What kind of info are you looking for?

Denny said:

I've never found anything better than BLAM. What kind of info are you looking for?

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I second this.

Check out Michael Jackson's Beer Companion. (Yeah, the other MJ.) An underrated book and a terrific one for understanding beer styles.

Denny said:

I've never found anything better than BLAM. What kind of info are you looking for?

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I'm trying to get a handle on the brewing process as it pertains to belgian dubbels. I get the lower mash temps, big starters, longer primary, long conditioning part of the process. I'm a little fuzzy on the bottle conditioning with additional yeast and sugar.

mac1jw said:

I'm trying to get a handle on the brewing process as it pertains to belgian dubbels. I get the lower mash temps, big starters, longer primary, long conditioning part of the process. I'm a little fuzzy on the bottle conditioning with additional yeast and sugar.

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That's simple. Belgians have a higher volume of co2 in solution, so naturally you would need a bit more sugar to achieve this.

I would recommend reading How to Brew - By John Palmer - Priming Solutions

A dubbel usually has 2.3-2.9 Lco2/L beer.

Additional yeast usually is not necessary, depending on the amount of time it's been since fermentation has finished.

Jamil's "Brewing Classic Styles" has recipes for all the Belgian styles, including comments on how to get them right.