Belgian Dubbel Award Winning Dubbel XL (40th batch)

[Erroneous]

Hey guys, so it has been about 3 months now since I brewed this beer (11/09/12). Wanted to bottle it in about a month, so I can start bottle aging it. Should there be enough active yeast in there to help carbonate the beer? Or should I pitch some yeast to help out? If so, how much should I pitch?

I think you should be fine. If you're worried throw some dry yeast in there. Just be sure to hydrate so that you don't kill the yeast with alcohol while the cell walls are permeable.

 

[The Soft Underbelly]

I brewed this up today. Adapted as a partial mash, with a number of modifications

3# of Belgian Pils Mashed with the other grains as directed at 154 for an hour
3# of Briess Pilsen DME @ 15 min
1 # amber candi sugar for the dark syrup

Since the lhbs was out of SGs I went the domestic route
1oz Willamette for the SG
Mt Hood for the HH

2 liter starter of wyeast 3787 pitched when cooled to 65

Some significant modifications, but I'm stoked.

 

[jtp137]

how long do you let this beer age in the bottle. I made my first dubbel a while ago its sitting in the keg for about three weeks and the flavors still need to mellow out. My recipe is similar to yours but has less base malt and pound more of the sugar. I used d-90

 

[Irreo]

Hi,

First of all, thank you for posting the recipe.

I just finished brewing this (6 and half busy hours...), but I'm still a newbie, so I changed the recipe a bit to increase efficiency. This is my 8th all-grain batch, I think, after many extract "kits", so I'm still learning.

Here are the numbers:
I increased the grain by 10% each, aprox.

Mash with 5 gallons.
Batch sparge, and final pre-boil wort was 6.8 gallons.

Pre-boil OG wasn't what I would like so I changed the boiling time to 90 minutes. In any case I dropped the hops at the appropiate times (60, 20, 5)

After boiling I got 5.3 gallons at 1061 OG, which according to BeerSmith is 55% efficiency. I think my mistake was to batch sparge with too much water, but the final measure was around 1025, so there was still sugar in there... Which I honestly don't know how I should have gathered. Maybe my mash temperature was too low (around 145-150F). I though on adding 30 minutes more to mash to give the Pils more time to convert.. but finally didn't do it.

The yeast I used was Trappist High Gravity 3787, as was the only good alternative available.

Anyway, I know this beer will taste wonderfully, even if it ends up with low alcohol, so thanks again for the recipe. For now I named it "Dubbel", I hope you don't mind. I only put names to my own recipes so I don't think I will name this anything special.. maybe some nickname that reminds me it's not mine

If I don't forget about it, I promise to come back and post my opinion here when I open a bottle that aged enough. I of course plan on doing this again, even without knowing how it turned out, because it sounds like a great recipe, so I can re-walk my steps and try doing it better next time. I still haven't brewed the same recipe twice, to compare...

 

[jbags5]

Subscribed.

So is the Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity a good sub for the WLP here? I have no access to the WLP at the local homebrew store.

My first Dubbel. Cant wait!!

 

[Irreo]

So is the Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity a good sub for the WLP here?

As I've read around they are basically the same: westmalle yeast.

Just do a google search with both names and you will find plenty of threads on forums around with recipes listing "WLP or 3787" as yeast.

 

[SudsyPaul]

I've been eyeballing this recipe for a bit.

Just tossed it together using what I had laying around... subbed caramunich for 1lb caramunich II and 1lb crystal 40L, and did 1lb 2oz of Special B (dropping the carafa). I'll be tossing in liquefied dark candi in the primary in a few days, when the fermentation has calmed down.

Here's hoping it tastes as good as it looks/sounds.

 

[The Soft Underbelly]

I brewed this up today. Adapted as a partial mash, with a number of modifications

3# of Belgian Pils Mashed with the other grains as directed at 154 for an hour
3# of Briess Pilsen DME @ 15 min
1 # amber candi sugar for the dark syrup

Since the lhbs was out of SGs I went the domestic route
1oz Willamette for the SG
Mt Hood for the HH

2 liter starter of wyeast 3787 pitched when cooled to 65

Some significant modifications, but I'm stoked.

So this beer turned out great - except for the the bottle bomb and the gushers i had from not fermenting the 3787 properly.

Really though, the taste was great and i expect had I been able to age a few they would have turned out even better. Next time for sure!

 

[HeuristicsInc]

I made this yesterday, modified to a partial mash. This was my first use of the new mash tun so I was learning a lot.
Couldn't quite hit the mash temp (153) but my gravity was fine (1.072). Now fermenting happily downstairs.
-bill

 

[HeuristicsInc]

Racked tonight to the secondary after 15 days - 1.015. I totally get the chocolate tones out of the taste I had. Nice!
-bill

 

[hokieguy95]

Brand new to Belgian Beers. How do you think WLP500 would be in this beer? It's the only Belgian yeast I have access to at the moment.

The Dubbel I just made is similar to this recipe and WLP500 was recommended. We were just out so we used WLP530 instead.

I'd say your idea would turn out nice.

 

[HeuristicsInc]

Just had my first bottle of this. Very tasty, the chocolate notes are definitely strong. A good sipping beer. Thanks, DubbelDach!
-bill

 

[SteelRinger]

Just brewed this for the first time.

I buy my Base grains (2-Row and Maris Otter) in bulk so I substituted 2.5 lbs of each for 5 lbs of Pilsner malt.

I also got much better efficiency (81.2% by BeerSmith) and my OG came in at 1.076. I am hoping my starter was enough to get this to take off. I was using WLP-530 that was washed from an old dubbel (about 10 months ago) and has been happy in my fridge since. I didn't expect such a high OG, so I only did 1L. I guess time will tell.

 

[sok454]

What do you think about using 2-row or MO instead of the belgian pils? Will it be detrimental?

 

[SteelRinger]

What do you think about using 2-row or MO instead of the belgian pils? Will it be detrimental?

It will change the flavor a bit. MO will make it more "bready" and straight 2-row will probably result in a bit less "malty" characteristic.

As you can see from above, I didn't have any Pilsner so I split it 50/50 with 2-row and MO. Also my LHBS didn't have Carafa I so I had to use Carafa II, which is a bit darker. Lastly, I ended up with a stuck ferm so I pitched a smack-pack of Wyeast 1762 - Abbey II to get it to go.

Lastly, because I got such good chocolate notes while tasting my gravity reading samples I decided to age this one on some oak chips that I had soaking on a local Cabernet that has great dark cherry and currant flavors. (Yes, I have multiple jars of oak chips soaking in various alcohols ) It sat on the chips for a month. I then put it in a keg and let it age for ~3 months.

I just finished my first glass of the beer and I must say it is outstanding. A solid head that lingers and lacing that stays in the glass until the end. Solid mouthfeel. The chocolate notes combine perfectly with the flavors from the red wine. The vanilla flavor from the oak underlines the whole thing and then the tiny alcohol burn that is typical of a strong Belgian finishes the whole experience.

I am probably going to bottle a few of these out of the keg and enter them into some local HB comps to see what others think.

 

[sok454]

I just kegged it. Going to carb it w sugar vs co2. Hope it works well. Interested to see how it comes out.

 

[fenners]

Just brewed up a batch of this, and it's been an utterly straightforward brew day so far. Thanks for sharing the recipe! Only changes I made was to up the first hop to a whole ounce, and I used D90 Candi syrup. WLP530 is raring to go

I was thinking of following the Westlerven12 fermentation schedule.. Would that work for a dubbel?

 

[BrewCityBaller]

I brewed up a six gallon batch of this yesterday, but I made a few adjustments. The Styrian Golding crop this year was apparently awful, so the ounce that I bought had an AA of 1.4 % o_o

I swapped the Goldings for Vanguard, WLP530 for WLP500, and I used D90 candi sugar.

I pitched at 65*F and will be ramping up to 72*F by day four and will ferment there for 6 weeks.

The color and taste of the hydrometer sample was stellar. Thanks for the recipe, I can't wait to see how it turns out!

 

[rwgaro]

Been saving this one and finally brewed it tonight - dumped it on the yeast cake for a Leffe clone - sweet malty goodness pre fermentation, look forward to seeing how this turns out!

 

[bolus14]

Just wondering if anybody has anymore feedback on taste for this? Don't typically find chocolate flavors in a funnel so it might be interesting. Are the chocolate notes prevalent or are the smoky flavors that someone mentioned stronger?

 

[iduncant]

I just ordered the ingredients to give this one a try. Looking forward to it!

 

[iduncant]

I brewed this up this weekend. I had to sub Special B for Weyerman's Special W. The grain supplier didn't have special B.

I had been reading Brew Like a Monk, and about Belgian styles in general, there's a lot of recommendation to do step mashes to get a more highly fermentable wort out of the grain. So my mash went like this:

Mash in and hold at 55c (131f) - 10 Minutes
Beta Rest at 65c (149f) - 30 Minutes
Alpha Rest at 72c (161f) - 30 Minutes
Mash Out at 77c (170f) - 10 Minutes
Hopefully, this wasn't a mistake.

Secondly, reading CSI's recipes for Rochefort 8 and Westveleteren 8, they suggest a primary fermentation going from 18c (65f) to 25c (65f) over the course of 7 days. Then dropping to 50f once it reaches 1.010.

I'm following that process myself, but interestingly, I brewed this Sunday night, and now, Wednesday it's gone from an OG of 1.065 to 1.016 already.

It seems a little bit fast to me, but we'll see.

It smells amazing in the fermentor, really looking forward to tasting this one.

Do you recommend pitching fresh yeast to bottle if you have it in the fermentor for 4 weeks?

 

[BrewCityBaller]

I brewed this up this weekend. I had to sub Special B for Weyerman's Special W. The grain supplier didn't have special B.

I had been reading Brew Like a Monk, and about Belgian styles in general, there's a lot of recommendation to do step mashes to get a more highly fermentable wort out of the grain. So my mash went like this:

Mash in and hold at 55c (131f) - 10 Minutes
Beta Rest at 65c (149f) - 30 Minutes
Alpha Rest at 72c (161f) - 30 Minutes
Mash Out at 77c (170f) - 10 Minutes
Hopefully, this wasn't a mistake.

Secondly, reading CSI's recipes for Rochefort 8 and Westveleteren 8, they suggest a primary fermentation going from 18c (65f) to 25c (65f) over the course of 7 days. Then dropping to 50f once it reaches 1.010.

I'm following that process myself, but interestingly, I brewed this Sunday night, and now, Wednesday it's gone from an OG of 1.065 to 1.016 already.

View attachment 683364

It seems a little bit fast to me, but we'll see.

It smells amazing in the fermentor, really looking forward to tasting this one.

Do you recommend pitching fresh yeat to bottle if you have it in the fermentor for 4 weeks?

At only 4 weeks in the fermentor there will be more than enough yeast to bottle condition.

 

[Arbe0]

what was your final water profile that you used for this?