Dubbel Delirium

[Nyrkki]

I'm going to brew a dubbel on the next Saturday with some friend. This will be our first attempt at the style so we are not really sure what ingredients and in what quantities we want to use. Here is our first try. Feel free to critique it.

OG: 1.062
FG: 1.015
ABV: 6.2
IBU: 27
Color: 47
Efficiency: 75

Yeast: wyeast 3787

Fermentables:

4.4 lbs belgian pilsner, 3 EBC, 37%
3.3 lbs beligan pale malt, 5 EBC, 27%
2.2 lbs munich, 12 EBC, 18 %
1 lbs dark belgian candy syrup, 7 %
0.44 lbs cara-pils, 3 EBC, 4 %
0.44 lbs special b, 315 EBC, 4 %
0.44 lbs caramunich, 110 EBC, 4 %

Hops:

0.35 oz magnum (14.5) 60 min
0.88 oz fuggles (4.5) 20 min
0.7 oz hersbrucker (5) 20 min

My primary concern is the ammount of special malts, the cara-pils, caramunich and special b. Are there enough or too much? What about the hops? Is there too much flavour?
We intend this to be drinkable by Christmas, so it can sit up to three weeks in the primary and 5 weeks in bottles. I know it is a short time, and it would probably improve with age, but life is short and we failed to plan ahead.

We are expecting that this beer will have some nice esters and a lot of dried fruit flavor with plums, figs and dates, and maybe with some rum like character.

Looking forward for any comments. Thanks in advance!

 

[WoodlandBrew]

What is your plan for mash temperature and fermentation temperature? It looks like you're estimating 76% attenuation. You could lower that to get a more malty FG.

I might bump up the special B and drop the caramunich, unless you already have both on hand.

 

[Nyrkki]

We will mash at the low end, probably between 147 - 149. Fermentation will be at 70 degrees. I certainly hope that we will get a better attenuation.

We have both caramunich and special b at hand, so that is not an issue.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

That sounds reasonable. Are you are expecting a dry beer with lots of ester flavors?

 

[Nyrkki]

The beer should be quaffable, but I hope that it will have some residual sweetness. The esters should definetly be there, but they should not overdetermine the beer IMO. I hope that the special malts and the syrup will produce complex flavors that will hide some of the esters.

 

[beergolf]

I would be a little cautious about trying to rush 3787. I have found that it can take off fast but then take a long time to finish. 3 weeks in the fermenter may not be long enough for it to finish, and you could end up with bottle bombs.

Can you control temp easily? If so pitch in the mid 60's and then slowly ramp the temp up a little every day until you get to the upper end of the recommended range for the yeast (78degrees) and then hold it there.This should help it finish a little faster without causing fusels. Belgian yeasts do not like to get cooler after they start warming up. This can cause them to slow down or even stall.

I think that trying to rush this brew for Christmas is pushing it, but it is your brew.

 

[Nyrkki]

I would prefer to take it slowly, but time is of the essence at this point. We should have started this project a few months ago, but somehow we didn't find time for it.

Unfortunately I can't get the temp much lower than 69 F, though we can adjust the pitch temperature. With blankets I can rise the temperature up to 78, but after the primary fermentation is over I think that the temperature will fall. This shouldn't be too bad if the fermentation is vigorous enough.

After 3 weeks in the primary we will take an SG reading. If it is low enough then we will bottle it, but if it is over 1.015 we will keep it there for another week. I think I might rouse the yeast a few times to help the yeasts do their job.

 

[beergolf]

I would prefer to take it slowly, but time is of the essence at this point. We should have started this project a few months ago, but somehow we didn't find time for it.

You cannot put yeast on your timeline. It lives on it's own timeline. I have made many brews with 3787 and I know how it works. All I am saying that it can take a long time to get the last few points down. Bottling too early with 3787 is risking bottle bombs. If you bottle and it goes down a couple of points and you have exploding bottles.

The first time I used it, I bottled when I thought it was done, but obviously it was not. I had terrible gushers and I think I was close to bombs. This was after 5 weeks in the fermenter.

Most ales can be done and ready to bottle pretty quickly. Belgian yeasts are a slightly different animal. They can take a long time to finish.

Here is a good quote from Brew Like a Monk that is very telling.

" Let the fermentation finish, perhaps at a higher temperature. It may take as long to get the last few points of attenuation as it did for the first 80%."

 

[Nyrkki]

I've used this strains a few times myself also. First time we ended up with gushers, though the beer was in primary for at least 4 weeks, but I'm quite sure that we overcarbed it. We aimed at CO2 volumes way higher than we usually aim for. The other beers I've made with this strain ended up fine, though I think that they were in the primary for max 4 for weeks.

In "Brew Like a Monk" Hieronomys says that westmalle dubbel sits in primary for 5-6 days at 20 C and for 3 weeks in secondary. That's a bit less than 4 weeks, and we can quite easily keep it in the tun for 4 weeks or even 5 weeks. 3 weeks should be enough for carbonation, especially as this is not such a big brew.

The westmalle trippel spends almost 5 weeks in primary & secondary, and that beer has 20 gravity points more than this one. Of course if our fermentation stalls, we will not have any other option than to prolong the fermentation.

 

[Nyrkki]

We brewed this beer yesterday with a minor twist; we switched the fuggels for saaz.

Everything went really smoothly. The only downside was that our efficiency was 5 points lower than expected, so we collected a bit less beer than we thought we would have.

I had stepped up a yeast starter two times (collected from the kraussen of a previous batch) and the fermentation took of within a few hours. Now the airlock is bubbling at least thrice a second, and the kraussen will soon come out of the carboy. Time to install the blowoff tube!

 

[Nyrkki]

I had probably the most vigorous fermentation with this one. Now the problem is that my FG is 1.008, which is lower than I would like. The fermentation has now stopped, so it is unlikely that the gravity will drop any further.

I guess that it fermented so well because we mashed at 147 F. Should have mashed lower or used half a pound - pound to carared or something unfermentable. Now the question is can I rise the FG somehow?

After tasting the hydro sample I feel like the beer is too dry and maybe too bitter, compared to what I was looking for. I would like to add sweetness to balance this out, but I'm unsure how to do it. Maybe if I steeped some carared in a bag for 30 min and cooled that and added it to the beer? Or should I just let the time to mend my wounds?