Duvel Clone

Just brewed a Duvel clone. It kind of came out looking like dirty water. It tastes like sugar with hops so I am hoping it will do something. Just wondered if anyone else had ever brewed it. Oh well we will see if it tastes good might just have to drink it out of a red solo cup.

Before you ask. All grain followed the directions very closely.

Please post the recipe and instructions you followed as well as your process (batch sparge?) etc.

I did an AG batch of Duvel clone a little more than 4 months ago, I'm going to taste it for the 1st time this week end. I have been letting it age since then. I'm hoping for a kick ass batch.
It was hard to let it sit there, but the results MUST be worth it. As I kegged it, to me, it tasted pretty close to the taste of Duvel!

Esmitee said:

I did an AG batch of Duvel clone a little more than 4 months ago, I'm going to taste it for the 1st time this week end. I have been letting it age since then. I'm hoping for a kick ass batch.
It was hard to let it sit there, but the results MUST be worth it. As I kegged it, to me, it tasted pretty close to the taste of Duvel!

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Just for future reference golden strongs/tripels don't benefit a whole lot from aging. In fact at a certain point they taste worse because IBUs fade.

Duvel got IBUs?

rexbanner said:

Just for future reference golden strongs/tripels don't benefit a whole lot from aging. In fact at a certain point they taste worse because IBUs fade.

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Well the time I stated was really, from the time I dumped it in the carboy to ferment till now, Soo The info I got from the recipe said to let it age for awhile... So , I did LOL I will find out how good, or bad it tastes. I'll give a review after tasting.

BTW There are not very many hops in the recipe?

Esmitee said:

Well the time I stated was really, from the time I dumped it in the carboy to ferment till now, Soo The info I got from the recipe said to let it age for awhile... So , I did LOL I will find out how good, or bad it tastes. I'll give a review after tasting.

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Many high alcohol beers can benefit from aging. Don't know about Duvel though. It's like beer that tastes like champagne. Sounds like the guy was referring to something where IBU is important, like an american beer.

iambeer said:

Many high alcohol beers can benefit from aging. Don't know about Duvel though. It's like beer that tastes like champagne. Sounds like the guy was referring to something where IBU is important, like an american beer.

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Tripels/golden strongs are high gravity but have little to no specialty malts. The flavor profile doesn't really change over time or benefit the way a barleywine would, which has a great deal of specialty malts. The only major change is that the IBUs go down, which may lead to the beer becoming unbalanced. At least that is what I have noticed drinking my tripels over a long period of time.

I'm guessing the recipe is basically pilsner malt and a ton of sugar. I brewed something like this a little while back. It tastes like grainy sugar water when it goes into the fermenter. It smells terrible while its fermenting. If you do it right, it tastes dry and fruity when it comes out.

Well I tapped my keg of Duvel (clone) with my son inlaw a few nights ago. WOW. It's awesome, Tastes pretty much like the real Duvel Very bubbly, a hint of fruityness, and very dry. Very fine carbonation with a nice head. We are going to do a blind taste test this weekend . I picked up a 32 oz bottle to compare it to.

Oh the recipe calls for only 3 oz of hops,
with a Bitterness Ratio of 0.403 IBU/SG as reported from Beersmith.
My brew came in at 9.2% ABV

Tastes great, I will make it again and age it for the same time.

Oh, the picture was taken about 10 minutes after pouring. The head was going down.

If anyone wants the recipe I have, just ask me ,

Esmitee - I'd be interested to see the recipe you went with. Assuming you used wlp570 or Wyeast 1388? Did you have to cold crash to get the yeast to drop out?

Here is the recipe I used , Duvel (clone)

Duvel
The Devil made me do it
Duvel is the classic Belgian Golden Strong ale. It is light in color, high in alcohol, and suprisingly easy to drink.

The Beer
A pretty straight forward malt bill - be sure to use good quality Pilsner malt (ideally Belgian, but whatever will work). A little light Crystal and Aromatic malt is added in for interest. Carapils is included to aid in head retention.
Using a light candi sugar or table sugar will add almost fully-fermentable sugars and prevent this high-alcoholic beer from being way too sweet.

Noble hops balance sweetness with a smooth but subtle bitterness.



All Grain Recipe - Duvel ::: 1.078/1.017 (6 Gal)
Grain Bill (70% Efficiency assumed)

14 lb.- Belgian Pilsner Malt
1 lb. - Carapils Malt
1/8 lb. - Aromatic Malt
1.5 lb. - Clear Belgian Candi Syrup (flameout)

Hop Schedule (26 IBU)

1.5 oz - Styrian Goldings (75 min.)
1 oz - Saaz (15 min.)
1/2 oz - Saaz (1 min.)
Yeast

White Labs Belgian Golden Ale Yeast (WLP570) - 1800 ml starter
Or Wyeast Belgian Strong Ale (1388) - 1800 ml starter

Mash/Sparge/Boil

Single infusion Mash at 154° for 75 min.
For more malt depth, step mash at 125/136/144/154
Sparge as usual
Cool and ferment at 66° to 70°

Notes

Make sure to have a Big, Healthy yeast starter for this one.
Save some yeast, and bottle condition this one with corn sugar and a bit of yeast.

Allow this one to age a bit.


I did a 26 day fermentation, after 14 days I then added the candi syrup. At 24 days I cold crashed for the last 2 days and then racked it to a keg.

I used WLP 570 yeast, I cold crash all of my brews. It does clear them up nicely.

I did a 90 minute boil and had a 7.5 gal pre boil vol with a PB SG of 1.054, Post Boil OG of 1.074. FG of 1.008, 9 % ABV

Brew to Glass = 3.5 months

If you try it, I hope it turns out as well as mine did.

Looks like a pretty good clone if you ask me. I dont think I would have added the candi sugar in the secondary like the recipe says but hey everybody does it their own way.

Nice! I will have to try that one out hopefully soon, I've got an about to expire vial of 570 I don't want to let die...

DOA. Did the 2nd fermentation was really skeptical at that point. Went to keg yesterday just tastes and smells awful. I got a 2nd freezer and going to turn it into a fermentation chamber should help i hope. Looking back on what might have gone wrong. Could have been alot of things. Not quite sure the recipe was right from the LHBS they were busy and I left and came back, I have caught them a couple times not paying attention when I was there. The real reason I think it turned out bad is when we were running the wort chiller I had the hot water going into some mulch and a snake came out. Well don't really hate them don't really like them, he just ended up on the wrong end of a shovel. I will try again.

ben the brewman said:

Looks like a pretty good clone if you ask me. I dont think I would have added the candi sugar in the secondary like the recipe says but hey everybody does it their own way.

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Duvel is just pils malt and dextrose...no specialties. OG 1.069, FG around 1.004 for 93% AA. Styrian Golding and Saaz in pellet form for 30 IBU. WY1388 is Duvel yeast. Pitch at 61F and let rise to about 80F, cold condition below 32F for 3 weeks. See BLAM for reference.

Looks very good..I always go with just pils/dextrose..You nailed the color pretty good though good job

duvel clone... 90 min mash/boil
11lbs castle pilsner
2lbs dextrose
1.5oz styrian goldings(60 mins)
1oz saaz(5 mins)
1oz saaz(1 min)
WY1388 3L starter
148F 90 min mash
no mash out convert all the way to denature
boil 90 mins add 1 lb dextrose 5 mins to flameout
pitch at 62* raise up to 78* over a week add 1lb dextrose at high krausen
cold crash for 3 weeks @33-35*F
bottle with fresh yeast and dextrose carb at 85*F 2-3 weeks
condition at 40-50*F for 6 weeks

I learned to never let the temp drop after pitching with this yeast or it will crash.but after primary it is needed to cold crash to get this yeast to floc

anyway im going on and on..im a BGSA freak
cheers

ahhjdd said:

DOA. Did the 2nd fermentation was really skeptical at that point. Went to keg yesterday just tastes and smells awful. I got a 2nd freezer and going to turn it into a fermentation chamber should help i hope. Looking back on what might have gone wrong. Could have been alot of things. Not quite sure the recipe was right from the LHBS they were busy and I left and came back, I have caught them a couple times not paying attention when I was there. The real reason I think it turned out bad is when we were running the wort chiller I had the hot water going into some mulch and a snake came out. Well don't really hate them don't really like them, he just ended up on the wrong end of a shovel. I will try again.

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