Does anyone else absolutely love Unibroue's Don de Dieu?

Unibroue was one of the first breweries I fell in love with. I know La Fin du Monde and Trois Pistoles seem to get most of the attention, but my favorite from them has been Don de Dieu (aka "Gift of God"). There are no clone recipes anywhere for it. I've scoured google for hours with no luck. I've tried to make it before with mixed results, but I think I finally hit the mark

Anyways, its described as a "triple wheat beer," which I take with a grain of salt since Unibroue claims their beers are "triple fermented" (which actually means they do a primary, short secondary to condition, then prime in the bottle. Cmon, thats a single fermentation you Canadian bastards). The beer has a lot in common with Belgian Tripels, but also has more honey and clove character going on than most.

So my idea was to try making a tripel with an inordinate amount of wheat and try a ferulic acid rest to hopefully get that clove flavor out. I wasn't sure if this step even does anything for non wheat beer yeasts, but whatever.

Unlike my other attempts, all the samples I took tasted remarkably similar to the real thing. I just bottled it and I hope to god it doesn't somehow decline after carbing up. If anyones interested in the recipe, I'll post it once I'm sure I've got a winner on my hands

Prime in the bottle would lead to a secondary fermentation.

Yeah I know you can call adding a pinch of sugar to a bottle a whole additional fermentation if you want, but to me I feel like it has to actually change the beer. I'd only call something double fermented if it took off again from added another yeast strain or an appreciable amount of sugar

I'm a fan, but personally Maudite is my fave

yeah, I found a number of good looking recipes for Maudite. What's weird is that all the officially published ones seemed to be terribly off (at least according to people that actually toured the Unibroue brewery and took detailed notes on what spices and malts go in what)

I cant wait for Wyeast 3864 to come out, hopefully later this month. Once I taste how this turned out, I will have to try it with that

I would love to see any and all Unibroue clones. Maudite, La Fin du Monde, Trois Pistoles, Blanche de Chambly. And to the OP, yes, I love Don de Dieu. I like a lot of their seasonal releases, as well. Like Terrible, La Resolution, and Grand Reserve 17. Everything but Ephemere. I can't drink that stuff.

Did you add different yeast for bottle conditioning?

No, I just used a single strain. I know they filter their yeast out and use a champaign yeast for bottling. Found that out the hard way when I tried my very first attempt at an Unibroue, not pretty.

Definitely interested in your recipe if this turns out well. Please don't leave the thread hanging!

Bit late, but the recipe turned out really well. Much better than my previous attempts to make something similar to Unibroue. I ended up using their yeast (WY3864) as well as a saison yeast (WLP566). The saison yeast helped with attenuation and also added a bit of bubblegum I think

7lb pilsner
4lb wheat
1lb flaked barley
4oz aromatic
12oz cane sugar

mashed at 148

@60min: 1 oz saaz
@20min: 1 oz saaz
@0min: 1 oz saaz

2-3 days into primary:
12oz honey

I wrapped my winter coat around it to let it free rise. It hit 80F by the 2nd day. I just left it in the primary for 4-5 weeks and bottled

Anyway, its pretty darn close. I wasnt going for a clone, but I wanted something that tasted like it came from Unibroue

m00ps said:

@60min: 1 oz saaz
@20min: 1 oz saaz
@0min: 1 oz saaz

2-3 days into primary:
12oz honey

Click to expand...

What OG did you hit before adding the honey? Also, what was the AA% of the sazz/IBU estimated from each addition? Do you feel the honey notes stayed in the beer? I have always been suspect of using good honey in beer, as I think it probably just gets lost among the malt.

Thanks for the update.

m00ps said:

7lb pilsner
4lb wheat
1lb flaked barley
4oz aromatic
12oz cane sugar

Click to expand...

Also, what is the batch size for this? For a 5 gallon recipe, this would be too low to produce a 9% Don De Dieu.

Thanks again.

I hit 1.084 before the honey, 1.089 estimated once it was added. The yeasts I used attenuate pretty well (80% or above) so I actually hit an FG of 1.016, ~9.3%abv, 5 gal batch. My mash efficiency hovers around 70%

I'd say the honey comes through. Adding it into fermentation seems to keep as much character as possible. I doubt Unibroue actually uses honey, but adding it seems to accentuate the sweet fruity esters from their yeast. No idea on the AA% of the saaz I used. I don't really pay attention to that stuff with noble hops. To me, its never high enough or I'm not adding enough hops to make a difference. The beer turned out great though, especially at only ~12days since bottling. No hint of the 9.3%abv, just fruity pear, raisins and spicy esters. I'm storing about half the batch to age for at least 6 months and hopefully itll keep getting better.

So its getting close to 2 months old now. It was surprisingly drinkable at first given its very high OG, but now its fantastic. I made a dubbel with Unibroue's yeast tthat turned out well, but I really like the combo of their yeast along with that saison yeast. Helped dry it out more and give it some bubblegum flavors. After 3 tries, I finally feel satisfied with my own Belgian Tripel

Bookmarked. Sounds delicious.

Here's the 2 recipes Ive done with the Unibroue yeast so far. I really like the combo with the saison yeast in the tripel for a super dry but soft body. I think the large amount of wheat helps too. Reminds me of Karmeliet. The dubbel has so much rasiny plum figgy goodness going on. Its has actually been more popular with people I just like tripels better. Finally I seem to be able to make authentic tasting, non-saison Belgians

Sounds Like Slinkys - Belgian Tripel
Yeast: WY3864 Canadian Belgian / WLP566 Saison II
7 lb pilsner
4 lb wheat
1 lb flaked barley
4 oz aromatic
12oz cane sugar
12oz honey (added into fermentor)

@60min: 1 oz saaz
@20min: 1 oz saaz
@0min: 1 oz saaz

Spongebath - Belgian Dubbel
Yeast : WY3864 Canadian Belgian
9.5 lb pilsner
3.5 lb wheat
6 oz special B
4 oz caramunich
1 lb D90 candi syrup (added into fermentor)
1 lb D180 candi syrup (added into fermentor)

@60: 1 oz saaz
@20: 1 oz saaz / 1 oz mouteka
@0: 1 oz mouteka

I hope this thread continues, Don de Dieu is my favorite beer they make:rockin:

I made a clone attempt last winter with the Unibroue yeast and had a beer that was good, but not close to it.

Beerswimmer said:

I hope this thread continues, Don de Dieu is my favorite beer they make:rockin:

I made a clone attempt last winter with the Unibroue yeast and had a beer that was good, but not close to it.

Click to expand...

how warm did you ferment it? I pushed mine into the mid 80s to get a bold ester profile which I find typifies their beers. The wheat tripel I made though was close enough to DdD that Im perfectly happy to just tweak it from there. It doesnt taste exactly the same (DdD has more hefe-like clove/banana flavors) but it tastes like a beer that was made by unibroue which is a win in my book

I think it was in the 80's, but can't remember exactly. I used a heater and towels, I do remember that. There was an off flavor, my wife compared it to fried chicken. I've never tasted it before, and don't know what caused it. I need to try and get some of the yeast again whenever they release it.

So I entered both the above recipes into a homebrew competition and the Tripel got best in show. The dubbel took 2nd. I have to work with a brewery around here on adapting it to a full scale batch but I'm currently trying to hash out the yeast choices with them.

When I get around to it, I'd like to post it in the recipes section for anyone interested....

waiting on the judges score sheets to be mailed back to me. Im sure they will have a much better description of the flavors than I would be able to come up with

So!?
How did this go? Did the brewery ever brew it? what yeast did you go with?

Sorry to nectopost but 3864 is back in stock!

I may have to try your DDD recipe. My wife really likes that beer but it has gotten really expensive. However, I don't really want to end up with 10 gallons of it. I wonder what I could do with the other 5 gallons? Add dark candi syrup and end up with a Trois Pistoles clone (or maybe just a DDDD - Dark Don de Dieu).

Yes, I love it. Would be grateful for a clone recipe!

tszetela said:

Sorry to nectopost but 3864 is back in stock!

Click to expand...

As of when? And where? I looked on Wyeast's website but it isn't listed in their current "Private Selection" and they don't seem to have a calendar for the whole year.

snowtiger1987 said:

As of when? And where? I looked on Wyeast's website but it isn't listed in their current "Private Selection" and they don't seem to have a calendar for the whole year.

Click to expand...

https://www.homebrewing.org/Wyeast-3864-CanadianBelgian-Ale-PC-Yeast-_p_1524.html
This my LHBS (and it happens to be one of the best IMHO). I would guess most larger LHBS will have it in stock still.

Edit: If you want it I would order now! it looks like they only have 10 left in stock and it is now listed as out of production

snowtiger1987 said:

As of when? And where? I looked on Wyeast's website but it isn't listed in their current "Private Selection" and they don't seem to have a calendar for the whole year.

Click to expand...

I got mine from great fermentations

I went to my LHBS and they happened to have 2 packs in their expired yeast bin that were very old (over 1 year expired) so they gave them to me for free. They said that Wyeast doesn't publish their "Private Selection" schedule and they don't even know what the new strains are until they arrive at the shop.

I plan to make a big 'ole starter and hopefully revive what yeast cells are still viable in those packs.

snowtiger1987 said:

I went to my LHBS and they happened to have 2 packs in their expired yeast bin that were very old (over 1 year expired) so they gave them to me for free. They said that Wyeast doesn't publish their "Private Selection" schedule and they don't even know what the new strains are until they arrive at the shop.

I plan to make a big 'ole starter and hopefully revive what yeast cells are still viable in those packs.

Click to expand...

Make a wee little starter first and step it up later.

Also, ferment half your batch as a lager if you don't want too much of the same thing!

snowtiger1987 said:

As of when? And where? I looked on Wyeast's website but it isn't listed in their current "Private Selection" and they don't seem to have a calendar for the whole year.

Click to expand...

It was a seasonal release for July-September 2018, so some retailers may still have packs kicking around.

I brewed the beer Saturday. I was in a bit of a hurry and did not get the extraction I planned on from the mash so I ended up putting more sugar in to reach the OG of 1.089. Bubbling away happily now.