Brewing a Belgian Dubbel with Wheat?

[syd138]

So just to start off.. I love brewing with wheat. I'm a big fan of weissbier and witbier. Even the stouts that I have done have been with wheat (although you really can't taste the difference due to the roasted flavors).

That being said, I am also crazy about Belgian ales.. especially Dubbels and BDS.

I made a simple Dubbel awhile back that was fantastic. Simple recipe.. just a little Caramunich, Special B, and homemade dark candi. Everything else was just Light DME.

I am going to try this recipe again, but was thinking of switching out the Light DME with Wheat DME.

How much do you think this would affect the taste? Would the wheat add a weird flavor that would clash with the nice carmel/rum/raisiny flavor?

 

[motorneuron]

There are some breweries that use a little wheat in their dubbels. IIRC, Chimay uses "wheat starch" (whatever that is--is it just the starch?) in most of their beers. So I think you'd be fine using some. You could use a little flaked wheat instead of carapils (though it'd take a mini-mash with a little pils to do it properly) for head retention.

I don't know if I would personally go 100% wheat extract, but I don't see why it would be a problem to use some. It's not like you'd be totally changing things by going with 100% wheat either--much of the flavor of the dubbel is from the dark sugar and grain. I don't think it would clash; it would just be different. So it's worth a shot.