Achel Bruin recipe

[GuldTuborg]

I had a rather wonderful glass of Achel brown ale last evening, and had forgotten how much I enjoy it. It's got to be one of my favorite dubbels. While idly looking through my copy of "Brew Like a Monk," I was astounded to find that the only malts included in this complex brew are pilsner and chocolate. Nothing else.

Has anyone tried a dubbel with such a simple grainbill? I'm amazed such complexity can come from so few malts - most dubbel recipes I see around here consist of a fair number of different grains. This must be a case of keeping the malts simple and letting the yeast do its thing. Still, has anyone had experience putting together an ale with this style of grainbill?

Edit: If you were to put together such a recipe, what ratio of pilsner:chocolate do you think would work best? Enough to get the right color, and consider that good enough, or would you consider other factors?

 

[Grizzlybrew]

I don't have the book in front of me right now, but just finished reading it last week. I'm not sure about this particular recipe, but at one point he talks about Belgian brewers relying on heavily caramelized sugars for both color and complex flavors whereas Americans use Special B and other specialty malts.

If I were attempting, it might be something like:
87-88% Pilsner
10% Caramelized Sucrose
2-3% Chocolate

 

[Grizzlybrew]

I'll be brewing the following Friday or Sunday this week:

6 Gal
OG 1.064
IBU's 22
SRM ~19

10 lbs. German Pilsner (on sale)
2 lbs. Amber Caramel Syrup (made with turbinado w-squeeze of lemon)
3 oz. Chocolate (British 385°L)

Mash at 147° for 75 min

1 oz Hallertau (4.0% aa) @ 60
1 oz Saaz (3.8% aa) @ 30

Wyeast 3787 pitched @ 65° and allowed to rise naturually to around 74°

I'll let you know how it turns out...

 

[GuldTuborg]

That sounds pretty good. There was a big (20 page?) thread going a short while back about making candi syrup on the stovetop. Did you follow that procedure, or did you do something else?

Interestingly, I just ordered some ingredients a few days ago to try out the recipe. I made a few adjustments to use what I already have on hand, hoping it won't change the final outcome too much. Here's what I decided on:

This is for a 4 gallon batch, which is about the biggest I can boil on my stovetop.

OG=1.066
IBU=27-31 (depending upon choices below)
SRM=21.5

8.5 lb Pilsner (85%)
1/2lb Chocolate (350L) (5%)
1/2lb table sugar (5%)
1/2lb turbinado (5%)

1.5 oz Crystal @ 90min
.5-1oz Crystal @ 20min (can't decide how much late hops I want)

3787 for yeast, naturally. I just plan to stick it in my basement at around 65F ambient temps and let the yeast do their thing (hopefully it won't get too hot!). This seems to be a popular way to go amongst some brewers, and it's so damned easy, I'll try it this time.

I had initially planned on using all turbinado, but read that the Achel brewery uses only common table sugar in their "8 Bruin." I can't help but think a little will aid in some good flavor development, so I'm splitting it 50/50. I'm hoping it will add a light rum/molasses undertone to the flavor, and not just cover up the yeast. We'll see how it goes. I'm not sure about mash temps; I'll probably do something in the 148-150 range, 90 min minimum, but that's yet to be decided. It's a little lighter in color than the Achel, but I really hesitate to use more than 8oz of chocolate malt in this. It already seems a bit high at 5%. In any case, this will be a learning experience. I just hope it turns out to be a fairly tasty one.

Good luck! Keep me posted on how this one turns out for you, and I'll do the same, if you're interested. I don't know if you'd be up for a swap when the final products are finished, but it could be fun to compare recipes.

 

[Grizzlybrew]

Sounds good to me man. I chose the turbinado for the same reason. And, in fact, if you want to go authentic, you would need to use beet sugar, not even cane sugar. Like you said, I'm hoping for a little additional complexity from the sugar.

As far as the syrup, I took the 2 lbs. turbinado and added 3 C of water and the juice from half a lemon. I heated on high until it was somewhere in between soft and hard crack stage. At that point, I dumped in 1/4 - 1/3 C water to bring it back to somewhere between soft and hard ball stage. I repeated this process 4 times with the burner on high the entire time - about 1 hr 45 min.

I can't wait - I decided to brew it tomorrow. I'm doing an American Brown on Sunday. I wanted to do it in reverse order and use some of the wort from the brown to make a starter, but oh well... I can't wait!

Good Luck to you sir. Cheers!

 

[GuldTuborg]

I repeated this process 4 times with the burner on high the entire time - about 1 hr 45 min.

Wow. That's dedication. I can count the number of times I've made hard and soft candy in this manner on one hand, and I know the kind of attention it takes. Have you tasted the syrup yet? How did it turn out? I'd be curious to see how it compares, exactly, to the standard turbinado.

I already have a starter going for a triple this weekend (different yeast), so this recipe will have to wait, but I should definitely get around to it within the next 2 weeks. I currently have a distressing shortage of empty carboys. It's kind of a blessing and a curse, that.

 

[GuldTuborg]

Brewed the Achel inspired dubbel today. I based it on the above recipe, but tweaked it a bit. Unfortunately, if was a pretty tough day, and I'm getting fairly sick, so not everything went as planned. It was also incredibly hot and humid today, which make cooling very difficult. I ended up pitching my yeast somewhere around 73-75F, which is a full 8-10 degrees higher than I really wanted. Oh well. I'll post the results if anyone is interested.

 

[beerandcoding]

Any update on how this turned out?

Cheers!
Kevin

 

[GuldTuborg]

I actually just bottled this a couple days ago. It reached 1.012, for around 82-83% AA, which isn't too bad. I'll post back in a couple weeks once it's carbed properly.

 

[Grizzlybrew]

Have you tasted the syrup yet? How did it turn out? I'd be curious to see how it compares, exactly, to the standard turbinado.

My syrup ended up smelling extremely sweet, almost like cotton candy. I was hoping for a rich, burnt caramel, but decided to press on anyway.

Any update on how this turned out?

Cheers!
Kevin

Well, I've been drinking mine for a week or two and it's alright. The yeast profile is dead on, but the dark fruit/chewiness I was expecting is missing. And, I believe that cotton candy flavor definitely translated in a weird way. Although it finished at 1.010 (22 IBU's), a couple of people said they thought it was too sweet. I think it just has that "sweet" taste, if you know what i mean (kind of like honey and brown sugar even after they've fully fermented out).

Overall, it's pretty good, but I understand the reason for the specialty malts now. It's hard to do what those monks do. Next time, I'll probably add 1/2 lbs of special B and maybe 2-3 oz. biscuit/victory to flesh out the beer more. I mashed at 149° last time and may drop even lower and possibly add 1/2 cara-pils dextrin. who knows?...

 

[GuldTuborg]

Update here. Mine's been bottle conditioning for a couple months, and it's coming along very nicely. It might not be a perfect clone, but it's certainly in the ball park. The color is a bit light, as is the mouthfeel, but otherwise it's very similar and VERY good. It might be a little more complex in its yeast profile (I fermented a few degrees higher than Achel, mostly because I couldn't keep it much lower without difficulty), but is missing some "oomph" the real beer has. Next time, I may try mashing thicker (around 1qt/lb) and use real dark candi sugar rather than the turbinado/table sugar mix.

Otherwise, this beer is damned tasty, and very satisfying. It finished out at 1.011 (from 1.065); dry and easy to drink with just a subtle hint of sweetness. Inappropriate roastiness is not an issue, despite my earlier concerns. I'll try to get some pictures up soon. If I can get another successful iteration or two of this done, I'll be putting it in the recipes section. Woot!

 

[Houblon]

While idly looking through my copy of "Brew Like a Monk," I was astounded to find that the only malts included in this complex brew are pilsner and chocolate. Nothing else.

Has anyone tried a dubbel with such a simple grainbill? I'm amazed such complexity can come from so few malts - most dubbel recipes I see around here consist of a fair number of different grains. This must be a case of keeping the malts simple and letting the yeast do its thing. Still, has anyone had experience putting together an ale with this style of grainbill?

Many of the Belgian brewers use only pale or Pilsner malt and sugar(s).


As for making your own syrup, well you'll make sryup but will never get the same as D1 - D2.
This comes up all the time and nobody has done the same ->sample link


BELGOSUC SUGAR SPECIALITIES
http://www.belgosuc.be/EN/productgamma.asp

 

[GuldTuborg]

Damn, this beer just keeps getting better all the time. I almost regret giving away 3 6-packs for Christmas now. Damn. I'm going to have to brew this again, soon.:rockin:

I also might "infect" a small portion with some Jolly Pumpkin bugs next time to see what happens. It might be a new taste sensation.

 

[steinsato]

Subscribed, achel bruin is by far the best dubbel ive ever had. By the way, I was looking for this recipe on brew like a monk and could only find the bruin extra recipe on pg. 43. Is this what you were looking at as well? Possibly just scaling it down a bit?

 

[teucer]

I brew my version as a three gallon batch, as follows:

8lb pilsner malt
.5lb chocolate malt
2lb white sugar

1oz Saaz 60'
1oz Saaz 15'
(I don't think the above hop bill is quite right, but I like how it comes out anyhow)

Wyeast 3787 (Trappist High Gravity)

This gets me the correct color, OG, and IBUs, using only ingredients known to be in the original (except the chocolate malt, which is subbing in for the broadly similar Dingemans Roost 900 that I can't get here in the US). Unlike most Belgian brewers, Achel uses a color malt instead of caramelized sugar syrup (although Achel Extra uses some of both). The yeast is authentic, as Achel gets theirs from Westmalle.

My fermentation schedule is a week at warm ale temperature (I brew this in the summertime only) and then put it into a very cold mini-fridge for two weeks at freezing before I bottle it. (The mini-fridge fits a three-gallon fermenter but not a five-gallon, which is why the small batch size.) This very nearly matches the authentic Achel schedule. The results have drawn almost hyperbolic comments from fellow Trappist beer afficionadoes.

 

[GuldTuborg]

The results have drawn almost hyperbolic comments from fellow Trappist beer afficionadoes.

Awesome. That's very similar to the recipe I've been using. One of my LHBSs stocks a stupidly small variety of malt, but oddly can get pretty much anything by Dingemans. Would you consider swapping a bottle or two of your clone for a pound or two of Roost 900?