Belgian Dubbel suggestions

[homebrewnewbie]

This is my seventh all grain batch and it's a little ambitious, but I think it'll be great if I can pull it off. The only thing I'm not sure of is how strong the smokey and oak flavors will be, so any suggestions will be great.

6 gal batch post boil @ 75% efficiency should yield 1069 OG, 7% ABV.


Smoked & Oaked Dubbel
Grain Bill:

Pilsner 2 Row, Bel - 9 #s
Brown Malt, US - 2.5 #s
Smoked Malt - 3 #s
Vienna Malt - 1 #
Candi Sugar, clear - 1 #

Hop Bill (21 IBUs)
Brewer's Gold - 1 oz
.5 @ 90 min (FWH)
.25 @ 60
.25 @ 30

Hersbrucker - 1 oz @ 5 min.

Yeast: White Labs 0575 (Belgian Ale Blend)
-This yeast is made to tone down fruity esters, but still allow some to come through the aroma and clean up the finish.

1# oak chips added to secondary (last 7 days)

Mash Schedule:
-154 F - 60 minutes
-Sparge at 165, hoping to get higher efficiency due to poor lauter tank design.

Primary 7 @ 67 F (7.9 gal ale pail)
Seconday 14 @ 70 (5.5 gallon better bottle)
mature in 5 gal keg for 14 @ 70

Any well-informed suggestions will be appreciated!

 

[MrOrange]

1 lb of oak chips is quite a lot you might consider cutting that back. Also, it is hard to say how much the smoke flavor will stand out. Are you looking for something really smokey like a Rauchbier or are you just wanting a slight hint of smoke? My Rauchbier recipe had around 60% smoked malt and it smelled like bacon but the aroma did start to fade as time went on. If it turns out that 3lbs of smoked malt is too strong for your taste then just let it sit a month and see if it has faded a bit.

 

[dcp27]

1# of oak is way too much, that will just taste like wood. cut it back to 1-2oz.

what type of smoked malt are you using? with 3# smoked & 2.5# brown malt, I don't think you'll even notice this is belgian

 

[homebrewnewbie]

Ok, I'll definitely not be putting in 1 LB. I want the oak to be mainly in the aroma and finish. I'm trying to get a smokiness that is balanced with the dark fruit esters, and spicy notes from the hersbrucker. The SRM is at 17.20 with just the brown ale. I'm trying to not go too dark to keep in line with the style, but I may add some amber malt to get a red color. From what i've read, this is a pretty standard Dubbel recipe, not including the smoked malt and oak chips.

I guess I'm saying that I definitely want the smoky flavor, but not an overpowering amount. I still want the nuttiness from the brown malt and the fruitiness from the belgian yeast.

 

[dcp27]

brown malt is not standard in a dubbel. i dont think i've ever seen it in one, nor would i want to use it in one. it gives like a dry biscuit/nutty character with a light roast (the roast part being what is undesirable). a standard dubbel is pils/pale + dark candi syrup, with maybe some munich/vienna, wheat, and/or crystal malt. most of your color should be coming from dark candi syrup, clear is basically just expensive table sugar. if you still want to use the brown for nuttiness, i'd drop it to like 1lb. you could also try something more common to a dubbel like aromatic or victory/biscuit instead, or even a small amount of pale chocolate to get your nutty character

 

[homebrewnewbie]

Good to know, I'll make the change to the dark candi sugar, and drop the brown malt.

 

[homebrewnewbie]

So the new grain bill:
9 #s Pils Belg
2 #s Amber Candi Sugar
3 #s briess smoked malt
1 # vienna malt (aroma and head retention)
.5 # crystal malt - 30L

17.3 SRM